*Singer Jesy Nelson has responded to accusations of blackfishing in her debut solo music video, “Boyz” featuring Nicki Minaj.
“I personally want to say that my intention was never, ever to offend people of color with this video and my song because like I said, growing up as a young girl, this is the music that I listened to,” Nelson told Minaj during an Instagram Live on Monday.
“These are the videos that I watched and thought were the best,” she continued. “For me personally, ’90s R&B were the best years in music. I just wanted to celebrate that.”
Nelson, former member of the group Little Mix, noted that she did not darken her skin or curl her hair to look Black.
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“My intention was never, ever, ever want to offend anyone, and genuinely it actually does really hurt me that may have offended people and actually, like, hurt people’s feelings just by genuinely celebrating something that I love,” she added.
She went on to describe herself as all-natural and denied getting a “fake tan” prior to the music video shoot.
“I’m just really lucky as a white girl that when I’m in the sun, I tan so dark like, so many people have said to me before like Leigh-Anne [Pinnock] in the group has said, ‘You sure you’re like not mixed-race because you’ve got darker than me in the sun. That’s crazy,'” Nelson claimed, referring to her former bandmate. “I wanted to come on this live today as well and show everyone my hair is naturally curly. I’ve always had curly hair. I got it from my dad.”
“I genuinely didn’t think I was doing anything wrong, because I’ve got naturally curly hair,” Nelson added.
Minaj slammed the Jesy critics on Tuesday, saying, “Let her enjoy this time. If you was in this group and haven’t talked about this s—t for 10 years … if you want a solo career, baby girl, just say that. … If that’s how you felt, why were you kiki’ing with her and being in videos with her for 10 years?”
Watch Jesy’s conversation with Nicki Minaj below.
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