Michael Kiwanuka: A black man in a white world fighting back the stereotype

As a middle-class Londoner, singer Michael Kiwanuka is accustomed to not fulfilling the racial stereotypes that people might have of him, writes Ed Power.

WHEN Michael Kiwanuka went to America for the first time, he was struck by the make-up of his audiences. They were universally white. Black people weren’t interested in the British-Ugandan singer’s music. They were possibly not even aware of it. This got him thinking.

“I’ve been marketed as a black soul singer, which is perhaps what I am,” says the shy yet friendly Londoner. “But I don’t feel like that. In my head, where I grew up, I was more used to middle class white England. That’s what I’ve been around all my life. The fact no black people were coming to my gigs made me realise we’re more segregated than we think. Even in the kinds of music we listen to.”