Nelly Furtado says her skin used to be lightened by magazines

She has now told People about having her image manipulated in her early shoots: "I have olive skin, and they'd kind of lighten my skin a lot in photos and kind of take my hips down all the time - they would always cut off in editorials."

Nelly also said there was a "lot of airbrushing" in her photoshoots at the peak of her fame.

She used the lyrics of her 2003 song 'Powerless' to hit out at the practice, singing: "Paint my face in your magazines, Make it look whiter than it seems, Paint me over with your dreams, Shove away my ethnicity."

Nelly added about her experience of having her shots tweaked: "By my second album, I guess I was kind of angry about it."

But the singer - born Nelly Kim Furtado - stressed she felt "so lucky and blessed" when she was enjoying fame.

She added: "I always had such a good team around me, that was family.

"My team around me felt so solid and really looking out for my best interests. And I think I was just raised right."

Nelly also hailed the "sense of assertiveness" she says she was brought up with, adding it helped her navigate the ruthless music business.

The singer has just released her seventh studio album - '7' - after taking a seven-year break to raise her children.

She has 21-year-old daughter Nevis Gahunia with her music composer ex Jasper Gahunia, 45, as well as a six-year-old girl and son, five, with her 33-year-old rapper ex Jerry - real name Gerard Damien Long.