Jesy Nelson’s team denies debut album has been delayed due to blackfishing controversy and slams ‘vindictive swipes’ against her

Jesy Nelson and Nicki Minaj in the Boyz music video (Picture: BACKGRID)

Jesy Nelson’s team has slammed claims that the former Little Mix star’s debut album has been delayed until next year due to an ongoing blackfishing controversy and a feud with her former bandmates.

Jesy, 30, left Little Mix last year after nine years with the band, and the release of her debut single Boyz resulted in a rocky start to her solo career.

The singer was accused of ‘blackfishing’ in the music video, changing her looks to appear Black or racially ambiguous, and the drama has escalated since.

Shortly after the video’s release, Jesy told Vulture that she takes ‘all those comments [on blackfishing] seriously’, adding: ‘I would never intentionally do anything to make myself look racially ambiguous.’

Following claims that Jesy’s debut album has been delayed to 2022 due to the controversy, a representative for the Boyz singer told Metro.co.uk it was never the plan for an album to be released this year.

Refuting the claims of a delay, an insider also said: ‘To claim that an album would be released after one single release is literally laughable and obviously was never part of the plan.

‘Jesy is still in the studio recording new music and a second single is in the works. Anybody working in the music industry knows that an album would never follow one single release.’

Jesy with former Little Mix bandmates Leigh-Anne, Perrie and Jade in 2019 (Photo by Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images)

They added: ‘Jesy has been subject to severe trolling over the past couple of weeks and has kept a dignified silence despite the vindictive swipes against her.’

A source close to Jesy said ‘the last thing she wanted’ was to be ’embroiled in a Little Mix vs Jesy feud.

‘The Girls have been through a lot together and she truly believes everyone can co-exist in the industry without the war of words. The fans deserve better. It’s all getting a bit much.’

A spokesperson for Polydor Records also told Metro.co.uk that ‘an album was never planned for Jesy Nelson in 2021 and therefore these claims are untrue,’ in response to the claims of an album delay, reported in The Sun.

Jesy’s solo career has made headlines since the release of her debut single, but not for the reasons she or her team would have hoped for.

Since its release on 8 October, the Londoner has been hit with controversy from accusations of appropriating Black culture, to laughing as featured artist Nicki Minaj appeared to criticise former bandmate Leigh-Anne during an Instagram Q&A where she was defending Jesy from the backlash she had endured.

Nicki Minaj and Jesy in the now-infamous Instagram Live (Picture: JesyNelson / Instagram)

Leigh-Anne had allegedly sent private messages to influencer NoHun, calling Jesy ‘horrible’ and a ‘blackfish’.

Despite all the controversy however, Jesy’s solo debut performed well on the Official Singles Charts, landing at number four and representing that week’s highest new entry.

Jesy has spoken before about suffering with her mental health, and her sister this week leapt to her defence and condemned the ‘bullies’ who had ‘deliberately … set out to hurt someone’.

Jesy and sister Jade (Picture: Jesy Nelson – Instagram)

Jade Nelson, 34, took to Instagram where she said: ‘My sister was targeted and bullied throughout her career,’ and ‘the people who knew her best knew the exact extent to how bullying affected her.’

The blackfishing controversy is a ‘new wave of bullying’, she said, and warned that people should ‘know the potential impact’ it could have on her sister’s mental wellbeing.

She ended her statement by speaking directly to readers asking, ‘Is this really what you want to do?’

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