Be through Ranking of the five "coolest cultures on the planet" Simply Red singer Mick Hucknall attracted the anger of several Twitter users at the end of May. "Hello and welcome to Mick Hucknall's breed review," wrote one user to the post. Another commented sarcastically: "A list of races and cultures. Absolutely not idiotic, embarrassing and a bit dangerous."
The British musician with Irish and Scottish roots, who is celebrating his 60th birthday on June 8, was only concerned with music. As well as the black artists, who would have shaped not only pop culture in general, but also specifically him as a white soul interpreter.
Blue-Eyed Soul sung by "Red"
Afterwards Hucknall then obviously named the recently released Simply Red album. "Blue Eyed Soul" was released in November last year and was mainly inspired by his wife Gabriella Wesberry (49) and daughter Romy (born 2007). Musically, the title goes back to what Hucknall made famous with Simply Red in the eighties and nineties: blue-eyed soul, the soul sung by white men, which uses the tradition of American singing by black artists.
The adaptation of this style could already be observed in the 1950s with Frank Sinatra (1915-1998), who was not called Ol 'Blue Eyes for nothing, or Dusty Springfield (1939-1999), the "White Queen of Soul". The idea of cross-fertilization between white and black music is deeply rooted in history. And yet there is still accusation of cultural appropriation. Hucknall, who was called "Red" in school because of his reddish hair, and his band Simply Red were often faced with this accusation themselves.
Despite all the critics
At first, there was no trace of soul at Hucknall. Attempts to get into this style of music with his first band, The Frantic Elevators, failed. Only when he founded Simply Red in 1984 did the tide turn. With hits like "Holding Back The Years", "If You Don't Know Me By Now" or "Stars" the band wrote a success story at the end of the eighties and Hucknall became one of the most popular soul singers in Europe.
Although Simply Red officially disbanded around ten years ago, there was still an anniversary tour and two new albums. The tour to "Blue Eyed Soul" is planned for next autumn. Hucknall meanwhile devoted himself to some solo projects and expressed himself increasingly politically, especially about the Brexit farce of his home country. "The whole thing is really getting on my nerves," the singer told the "Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung". The Brexit is "a typically English affair". "The Scots and Irish reject him. That makes me very concerned and I am ashamed of it."