Bulgarian reality TV show “Kato 2 Kapki Voda” has come under fire from Black Twitter after singer Mihaela Marinova did blackface as Nomcebo while performing “Jerusalema”.
Initially, a clip started floating around on TikTok of Marinova’s make-up and prosthetics being taken off after show, which caused major backlash.
The video was quickly deleted by the user after many TikTokers called it out for being racist since Marinova is in blackface.
@malikamaquisha ##greenscreenvideo why can’t I ever just scroll in peace 🙃![CDATA[]]>🙃 ##fyp ##AirPodsJUMP ##nottoday
♬ Jerusalema (feat. Nomcebo Zikode) - Master KG
@pbnjonny ##greenscreenvideo and the video is still up smh ##fyp
♬ original sound - Pbnjonny
Soon afterwards a clip of Marinova performing “Jerusalema” in blackface as Nomcebo started circulating on Twitter.
are my eyes deceiving me..... pic.twitter.com/rOVMr6QTnn
— Lia🤎✨ (@leefin_a) March 18, 2021
This saw Black Twitter outraged that the audience, judges and the overall concept of the show of putting people in blackface to perform the songs of POC/Black artists was deemed acceptable.
People defending this saying it's the point of the show to imitate an artist. It's still fucken blackface, it's still racism, what's not clicking??? https://t.co/Zf7mAGTLsu
— Nay All Day♍ (@AnnDee_Truth) March 19, 2021
Y’all that’s a white woman in blackface this is some sick shit pic.twitter.com/SO2PVgxuIL
— BlackCultureEntertainment🗣 (@4TheCulture____) March 18, 2021
These ppl are SICKK https://t.co/gn52kHYFYL
— JUSTICE FOR BREONNA TAYLOR (@iitsmelanin) March 18, 2021
wtf is wrong with the no color people https://t.co/Pp4m8Ah51Y pic.twitter.com/McONVV9uEo
— bad bleep briana (@briannotbriana) March 18, 2021
They don’t give a damm https://t.co/LJEimd4BwB
— Jobs (@Vk_igi) March 18, 2021
At this point I’m tired of being offended 🤣. https://t.co/5pVgP6bbjN
— #FreePalestine 🇵🇸 (@_renaey_xx) March 18, 2021
While Twitter users were commenting about the video, they also brought to light that Polish show “Twoja Twarz Brzmi Znajomo” is also putting their contestants in blackface.
A performance with a recent constant showed him also in blackface as Jason Derulo.
So Blackface seems to be a thing in Poland. Here they are “dressed” up as Ella Fitzgerald, Bill Withers #jasonderulo and someone else I couldn’t figure out. pic.twitter.com/IJbXv34ZW9
— Vivian Kaye (@itsviviankaye) March 18, 2021
Last year, the issue of blackface surged in the local and international entertainment sphere with many comedians, TV and actors either removing episodes that could be perceived as them doing blackface or apologising for doing blackface.
Local actor, comedian and producer Leon Schuster also came under fire for his back catalogue of films since he appeared in blackface in many of them.
Following this streaming service, Showmax removed all his films.
In a statement to IOL Entertainment, they confirmed that they removed Leon Schuster's films from their catalogue while they undergo a process to review them for any “racially insensitive material”.
“We removed Leon Schuster content as a precautionary measure, pending a review to ensure there is no racially insensitive material.”