Dr Mykaell Riley, Director for the Black Music Research Unit (BMRU) and Principal Investigator for Bass Culture Research at the University of Westminster, is hosting a weekly series on Virgin Radio for Black History Month. Each episode explores a different million-selling Black British artist who has shaped music and popular culture across the UK.
Airing every Sunday at 7pm, Riley’s show honours a variety of Black British artists through discussing on a different artist each week. For the series’ first episode on 6 October, Riley focused on two-time Grammy award-winning British music collective Soul II Soul and spoke to its founder Jazzie B, who described Riley as “one of the cornerstones of British music”.
The second episode aired on 13 October and focused on multi-million selling artist Corinne Bailey Rae, who recently featured in an exhibition curated by Riley at the British Library titled Beyond the Bassline: 500 Years of Black British Music. Their conversation explored Bailey Rae’s career and latest album titled Black Rainbows which was inspired by the Stony Island Arts Bank Black archives in Chicago and its collection of Black artefacts from throughout history.
About the archive, Bailey Rae said: “So much of the Black archive is not available to the public in the UK, whereas, the Stony Island Arts Bank, at that particular time, you could just walk in and…read through the library. You could go every day if you wanted to and acquaint yourself with the information.” Riley and Bailey Rae are mounting a petition to ask for a permanent location for Black British history archives.
Broadcast on 20 October, the latest episode focuses on The X Factor winner Leona Lewis. As the first woman and first person of colour to win The X Factor, Lewis “realised the impact it had on…kids and for them to see themselves in me” through her work with youth groups, highlighting the importance of the celebration of Black musicians in the mainstream media.
The final episode of the series will air on Sunday 27 October with a focus on Ivor Novello award-winning singer-songwriter Joan Armatrading.
Speaking to Virgin Radio’s Angela Scanlon, Riley commented on the series and its emphasis on Black female artists: “This comes from having just completed the first national exhibition looking at 500 years of Black British music…and looking at the various artists that have contributed to the musical narrative of the UK. I thought one of the most difficult narratives in the exhibition was that of females and their stories, which have been kind of written out of history by blokes, essentially. It's taking every opportunity to focus on profiling the contribution of black British women, their success stories, what they've contributed, and why are they so important.”
This is the second Black History Month series Dr Riley has hosted for Virgin Radio, following a series in 2023 which discussed his work on the Windrush75 network’s Windrush Top 20 Spotify playlist to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the arrival of HMT Windrush to the UK.
Dr Mykaell Riley’s work with the BMRU contributes to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 10: Reduced Inequalities. Since 2019, the University of Westminster has used the SDGs holistically to frame strategic decisions to help students and colleagues fulfil their potential and contribute to a more sustainable, equitable and healthier society.
Find out more about the University of Westminster’s BMRU, including the Bass Culture project.
Listen to Dr Mykaell Riley’s Black History Month series on Virgin Radio.
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