With the recent race challenges facing South Africa, the musician’s campaign aims to celebrate girls and women of all skin types. The underlying message is that regardless of how light or dark your skin colour is, you need to be comfortable in the skin you were born in, and that everyone should be celebrated.
Melanin Girls was launched with a single from Økuntakinte with the same title. He has done a remix of this single featuring South Africa’s Moonchild Sanelly. The #MelaninGirlsRemix single is available on all major digital platforms globally, with a music video to follow.
“The song, Melanin Girls, celebrates dark-skinned girls and is a call to action to embrace their beauty,” says Økuntakinte. “It’s sort of an anti-bleaching campaign. However, the essence of the 'Melanin Girls' campaign is for everyone to embrace their beauty in its natural form, regardless of colour. I hope the campaign will be well received by the South African audience, as well as my new single and music video.”
People can join the 'Melanin Girls' campaign by posting a selfie with the #MelaninGirlSA hashtag and tag @Okuntakinte on social media. Participants stand a chance to win a cash prize of R7 000.
The campaign will run for seven days, after which Økuntakinte will select the winning selfie at random and announce the winner on Friday, 14 October on his social media pages