by Rachel Ogbu//
Shingai Shoniwa lead singer of the London-based Indie rock band Noisettes headlined this year’s Totnes music festival Party back in April at the Civic Hall. She has been applauded for her unique sense of style and her bad ass delivery of rock. Her unique delivery over the years is something she holds very close to her heart.
“I’ve been in many marketing meetings where a certain boss might say: ‘Your hair… don’t you wear it like the other girls do?’ I’d be like, ‘What do you mean? Do you want me to put a wig on or straighten it?” she once said in an interview with The Voice Newspaper. “It can be hard, particularly as a young black woman; being told you have to look and sound like somebody else because that works – and people can handle a brown woman who is like that.
“But I’ve always been very fortunate to have great management who interpret what I’m doing, because I don’t think the artist should be put in the position where a label is breaking them down and putting them down. If you have a good team around you, they can interpret your originality for you and it often works out for the best. Some of the first front covers I did, I was blown away by the positive feedback they received. I did a lot of amazing front covers, not just for music publications, but doing Pride and Black Hair & Beauty – they were amazing experiences. I had a lot of people telling me it was nice to see a cover featuring a woman with natural hair. Some people felt that wearing my hair naturally for a front cover was quite a brave thing to do, but I was just being myself.
“A lot of brown women, whether African, Caribbean or Indian, having grown up in an environment where the standard of beauty doesn’t look like you, they found ways to embrace the things that made them different and make those things the envy of their friends. I’m grateful to have been part of that conversation where we challenge the usual perceptions of beauty.”
Last year, Shingai Shoniwa who is known for her philanthropic nature was a victim of an ex-boyfriend stalking who she said terrorised her life to the point she described it as “murder in slow motion”.
The 35-year-old vocal powerhouse who has performed alongside the likes of Madonna, Gladys Knight, and Celine Dion said she felt vulnerable as her ex Pardeep Sall besieged her with phone calls and texts, and even broke into her flat after they broke up. The incident even forced her family to move as she called it “personal terrorism” that left her fearing for her safety. He has since been convicted and given a 12-week suspended prison sentence and an indefinite restraining order.
Many people fear the ordeal affected Shoniwa work and she is yet to fully recover but Shoniwa who is of English and Zimbabwean descent has been keeping on. Speaking about her style, she credits her mother as a fashion icon. “I dress very similar to how my mum did in the 80s. Afro-centric with an edge of couture. She’d get skirt suits made by African dressmakers.”
Shingai Shoniwa of British band Noisettes performs during the second day of the music festival in Hyde Park, Central London on July 5, 2009. AFP PHOTO/Ben Stansall (Photo credit should read BEN STANSALL/AFP/Getty Images)
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