Recording artiste Tenza is appalled that skin bleaching is increasing in popularity in Africa and Jamaica, especially since some agents of the music industry are promoting the practice.
According to the singer, artistes should use their musical gifts to inspire, rather than to lead fans of their music into a direction which may have dangerous repercussions.
Tenza, who sold more than 500,000 copies of the single Too Hot as a member the electric trio Fya, formerly signed to internationally renowned record label Def Jam, is now a solo act. The Jamaica-born singer is now gearing up to lend her voice for a positive cause by releasing a new single called African Empress.
According to the singer, the song is intended to resocialise persons who have been misguided into thinking that black is not beautiful; hence they resort to skin bleaching.
African Empress was produced by Suncycle Digital and TMD Records and is available for purchase on iTunes. All proceeds from the sales of the record will go towards Tenza's charity initiative called the 'BossLady Charity'. The initiative is geared towards assisting less fortunate parents with the financing of early-childhood education.
Tenza hopes African Empress will make a powerful impact and assist with breaking down the barriers of social stratification based on the colour of the skin.
"It's a taboo subject, but a cruel racial hierarchy still exists in today's society where the lighter-skinned persons are regarded as superior to the darker-skinned. Dark skin is sometimes seen as failure and light skin is seen by many as being beautiful and equates to success," said the gold-selling singer.
Tenza thought the skin bleaching practice in Jamaica as a fashion trend would have eventually disappeared. However, a recent visit to Africa revealed just how serious the issue of self-hate was among people of African decent.
"I noticed that a number of young, beautiful, black African girls were bleaching their skin and when I asked why did they do this, they explained that dark skin is not beautiful enough to present opportunities," she said.
According to the singer, artistes should use their musical gifts to inspire, rather than to lead fans of their music into a direction which may have dangerous repercussions.
Tenza, who sold more than 500,000 copies of the single Too Hot as a member the electric trio Fya, formerly signed to internationally renowned record label Def Jam, is now a solo act. The Jamaica-born singer is now gearing up to lend her voice for a positive cause by releasing a new single called African Empress.
According to the singer, the song is intended to resocialise persons who have been misguided into thinking that black is not beautiful; hence they resort to skin bleaching.
African Empress was produced by Suncycle Digital and TMD Records and is available for purchase on iTunes. All proceeds from the sales of the record will go towards Tenza's charity initiative called the 'BossLady Charity'. The initiative is geared towards assisting less fortunate parents with the financing of early-childhood education.
Tenza hopes African Empress will make a powerful impact and assist with breaking down the barriers of social stratification based on the colour of the skin.
"It's a taboo subject, but a cruel racial hierarchy still exists in today's society where the lighter-skinned persons are regarded as superior to the darker-skinned. Dark skin is sometimes seen as failure and light skin is seen by many as being beautiful and equates to success," said the gold-selling singer.
Tenza thought the skin bleaching practice in Jamaica as a fashion trend would have eventually disappeared. However, a recent visit to Africa revealed just how serious the issue of self-hate was among people of African decent.
"I noticed that a number of young, beautiful, black African girls were bleaching their skin and when I asked why did they do this, they explained that dark skin is not beautiful enough to present opportunities," she said.
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