What to know
Fefe Dobson revealed her second rock album was shelved by her former label, The Island Def Jam Music Group.
Songs from that project, including “Start All Over” and “As a Blonde,” were given to Miley Cyrus and Selena Gomez.
She says seeing her songs performed by others motivated her to keep writing and return to the studio.
Fans and commentators have highlighted the role of race in how Dobson’s music was received and promoted.
Canadian popstar Fefe Dobson has people talking after she revealed that her former record label shelved her rock album before giving her songs to Miley Cyrus.
In a recent conversation with artist K-OS and media personalities Christian Thompson, Stephan James and Shamier Anderson on CBC’s The Legacy Lounge, Dobson shared that after the release of her first album, she wanted to embrace the rock genre more heavily in her next project.
She turned to artists like Nina Gordon, Rob Zombie, and Marilyn Manson, but this posed an issue for the label.
“I was too pop for rock, and too rock for pop,” she said in the interview, “And that created a problem.”
She had been dropped by her former record label, The Island Def Jam Music Group, when she found that her songs had been redistributed to another popular singer.
Dobson explained that she was home in Toronto, with the TV on, when she heard a song playing that sounded familiar.
“At that point, I thought my career was done,” she shared.
She then realized that the song sounded familiar because she was the one who wrote it.
“It was Miley Cyrus singing ‘Start All Over,’ and that was supposed to be on the album,” she explained. “I stood there watching the video, I remember just sitting there depressed watching the video and being like ‘Oh my God, I’m not a piece of s**t,’ it changed my life.”
She says that this motivated her to start writing again and get back into the studio. But then, it happened again.
“It was Selena Gomez doing ‘As a Blonde,’ which is, I think, the first song on the album, Sunday Love.”
She explained that while she grappled with the situation, wondering if it just wasn’t her time, she was happy that her songs were being sung by women who were doing it well.
But Thompson directly called out what he viewed as racism.
“What’s interesting is it was confusing when Fefe was doing it, before anyone else was doing it, but then you put Selena, and you put Miley, and we love them completely, but why wasn’t it confusing then?” he questioned.
“But in all honesty, what was confusing? What, is it that you’re Black?” he continued.
But he also gave her her flowers regarding the impact she’s had in the music industry.
“We see Willow Smith, we see SZA. Anybody that is alt, girl, Black? There it is.”
Online fans are sharing their support, but not surprise.
“Fefe deserves her flowers and will always be iconic to us black kids that refused to be put into a box,” one person commented on YouTube.
“It’s cause she’s BLACK! Duh! How frustrating and sad because Fefe’s music is amazing,” one viewer shared.
“I was a very girly Fefe Dobson fan as a Black girl. I was so happy to see another black girl during rock. I wore her albums out, and I’m so happy,” another person commented. “My daughter now has discovered her and enjoys her. The labels mishandled her. She was too ahead of her time.”
“I remember I owned her debut album as a child. Her songs hit to this day.”
“We know why. As someone who was playing guitar and fronting punk bands in the early 2000s, I can confidently say I know why. The shit people would say to me at shows was completely outta pocket sometimes.”
The Brandon Gonez Show shared a clip of the interview online, where more people continued to comment on Dobson’s experiences.
“Hmmm….is it even a question?” former MPP Dr. Jill Andrew questioned. “Can we talk about whether she got PAID for writers credits? Thats the only question.”
“A Black Canadian woman doing rock music is what was “confusing” for them but so needed. I grew up in a small farm town and love ALL types of music,” another follower commented.
“I love when I pull up to a red light and I’m blasting Journey or Nirvana or AC/DC and people are just staring. My daughter LOVES Fefe, she always related to her because she was a black girl from Toronto who marched to the beat of her own drum, she really related to that and still does.”
“Growing up I was a big fan of Fefe. I always wondered what happened to her. This is infuriating but also not the least surprising. We need her music back!”
“She was THE BLUEPRINT.”