Entertainment
Love Island 2021: Lady Leshurr weighs in on dating show’s diversity criticism: ‘There are a lot of people from Essex’
Lady Leshurr wants a spot in the Love Island villa to spice things up (Picture: Getty Images)
Lady Leshurr has a solution to solving Love Island’s ongoing diversity issue – get her in the villa as a ‘wildcard’.
The current series of the ITV2 dating show has seen Kaz Kamwi, Rachel Finni and Salma Naran as the Black women to enter the villa this year, while Toby Aromolaran, Aaron Francis and Tyler Cruickshank are among the men of colour.
Kaz remains the only permanent Black female cast member as the others failed to find connections – or even airtime – and were subsequently dumped from the villa.
It has only contributed to the persistent criticism of Love Island’s approach towards diversifying their cast but, particularly, ensuring Black islanders are given a fair shot at finding love.
Since leaving the villa, Rachel has expressed her belief that none of the men on this year’s series were genuinely attracted to Black women.
Sharing her thoughts on the issue, Lady Leshurr told Metro.co.uk: ‘I think everything just needs to be fair and if Love Island takes the feedback that is continuously on Twitter, they’ll see that there needs to be a bit more of a balance.
‘It doesn’t even have to be a Black girl or Black boy, there needs to be more cultural people and people of colour in there.’
Kaz Kamwi’s journey in the villa has been whirlwind to say the least (Picture: Rex Features)
She added: ‘Honestly, I don’t know what it is or where they’re auditioning but usually it’s girls from Essex. They need to throw a wildcard in there.’
Lady Leshurr, 32, noted bold characters like Charley Uchea and Makosi from Big Brother and stated: ‘We need girls like that in there. There needs to be a balance in there and not just people of colour, it needs to have a balance in there of people who are just wild and from a different area like Liverpool and Newcastle.
‘It’s just a lot of Essex people with Essex accents. I’m only tuned in because of the Brummie [Liberty Poole], to be honest.’
The former Dancing On Ice star, who has teamed up with Sky Mobile for her latest single, continued: ‘We tune in more when we can relate to someone and I think that’s why there’s so much uproar around the Black guys and the Black girls going in because the Black people that watch that show, or people of colour, they can’t relate or resonate with. That’s the main concern.
‘I don’t think Kaz is the problem because she’s sweet like butter and sugar. She’s lovely.’
The Love Island producers might want to find Kaz’s number as she then joked: ‘Get me in there because they need some banter. They just need a bit more energy in there.’
More: Love Island
It’s appropriate timing as Leshurr has just released her new single, Time To 65075, encouraging the nation to end their bad relationships.
Lady Leshurr has teamed up with Sky Mobile to drop Time to 65075. If you’re ready to ditch your mobile network, text PAC to 65075 to make the switch to something better. Watch the full video on Sky’s YouTube channel.
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