Jesy Nelson has admitted that she never wanted to cause offence after she was accused of "blackfishing" in her debut solo music video.
The former Little Mix singer, 30, has been criticised by people online because of how she looked in the video for her debut solo tune called Boyz.
Many took to social media to accuse the singer of blackfishing, which is when a non-black person tries to appear black.
Jesy however denied she was even wearing fake tan and said during an Instagram Live stream with superstar rapper Nicki Minaj that she had been to Antigua weeks before the video shoot so she was tanned already.
Her comments come after former bandmate Leigh-Anne Pinnock had warned her about blackfishing.
Jesy said during the livestream: "I personally want to say that my intention was never, ever to offend people of colour with this video and my song because like I said, growing up as a young girl, this is the music that I listened to.
"These are the videos that I watched and thought were the best. For me personally, ’90s/2000 hip hop, R&B music was the best era of music.
"I just wanted to celebrate that. I just wanted to celebrate that era of music because it is what I love."
She continued: "My intention was never, ever, ever want to offend anyone and genuinely it actually does really hurt me that I may have offended people and actually, like, hurt people’s feelings just by genuinely celebrating something that I love."
The singer admitted that she felt fortunate to tan easily in the sun and claimed that Leigh-Anne had previously commented on how she tanned.
She also said that her natural hair is curly after some people complained that she had changed her style for the music video.
Jesy added: "I genuinely didn’t think I was doing anything wrong, because I’ve got naturally curly hair."
When she addressed the alleged comments made by Leigh-Anne about blackfishing, Jesy said: "It’s just hard for me because I was in a group with two women of colour for nine years and it was never brought up to me up until the last music video I did with them."
Jesy was staunchly defended by Nicki Minaj, who appeared with her on her new single. The rapper even fired barbs at the remaining members of Little Mix.
After their livestream, the Anaconda singer, 38, wrote on social media: "Don’t call things out when they benefit your personal vendetta to ppl. Call them out immediately once you see it chile. Don’t wait a decade after you’ve made millions with the person."
Jesy quit Little Mix in December last year following a successful nine years with the band. In that time, they sold over 50 million records worldwide with hits including Shout Out To My Ex and Secret Love Song.
She said her reason to leave the band was because it was affecting her mental health.
She recently admitted that she isn't currently speaking to remaining band members Leigh-Anne, Jade Thirlwall and Perrie Edwards.
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