Ghanaian musician Mzbel has admitted she took to skin bleaching in her teen years because it was the norm in Jamestown, a suburb of Accra, where she grew up.

The Awoso Me hit maker disclosed this on the Class Drive on Class91.3FM on Thursday 23 March when a listener sought her opinion on skin bleaching.

The singer, in response, said: “Skin bleaching is bad,” sharing her experiences with show hosts Prince Benjamin and Natalia Andoh.

“Skin bleaching, I think, is bad. If you don’t do it right, you will end up having cancer. I grew up in Jamestown where, at a certain age, if you don’t bleach your skin you don’t know what’s up. If you don’t have a child so they can have an outdooring on the street, you don’t know what’s up. So by the age of 14, you start buying cream. And they only bleach their face. …It was like a trend and once your face is bright, it’s OK. So I have tried it before, I have tried skin bleaching because then, that was the thing there and all my life I grew up in Jamestown until I was done with high school,” she stated.

According to the controversial musician, she became aware of the dangers associated with the practice when she became famous.

“So, when I finally became a celebrity and I saw the disadvantages of these things, I started preaching against it, but unfortunately when you start bleaching and you stop and you do not use the right product you end up having some damages to your skin. So to be able to keep them away you have to continue always and you don’t want to end up having only a white face, so you have to do the whole body and it becomes like a part of your life,” she added.

With her knowledge of the side effects of skin bleaching, Mzbel noted that she has resorted to preaching against the phenomenon whenever she gets the opportunity to visit Jamestown, where the practice is widespread among the youth.

“So, whenever I have the opportunity to go to Jamestown to do charity work, we talk about teenage pregnancy, safe sex, skin bleaching, and I always use myself as an example. I tell them: ‘The amount of money you will have to use to fix yourself after you get the damages is not a joke,’” Mzbel disclosed.