Kelly Rowland?started a firestorm of controversy about skin bleaching when she posted pics from a recent shoot on Instagram.

Chatter about Rowland’s lightened complexion began and many even accused the “Gimme Love” singer of bleaching her dark skin.

Rowland wasn’t having it! ?The Destiny’s Child star hit the net to dispel the rumors and claims she’s still a PROUD chocolate chick!

Video below…

“I am not the one to bleach my skin, nor do I want to bleach my skin, nor do I have to bleach my skin. I don’t even think that?it’s not for me. So, don’t go saying stupid stuff like that. You ever thought that it could be the lighting? DUDE! I am still chocolate. Forever chocolate. Proud to be chocolate.”

If you recall, it wasn’t always like that. In 2013, Rowland revealed that she used to struggle with embracing her darker skin tone:

“You know what I had great women in my life to help me overcome that. I remember I went through a period where I didn’t embrace my ‘chocolatiness.’ I don’t know if that’s a word, but I didn’t embrace my chocolate lifestyle. Just being a chocolate, lovely brown skin girl and being proud of that,” Rowland told CNikky.com.

“I remember Tina Knowles, Bey’s mom, and I being out in the sun and I was trying to shield myself from the sun and she said, ‘Are you crazy?’ She said, ‘You are absolutely gorgeous’ and she just told me how beautiful I was and how rare chocolate is and how gorgeous the skin is, all of this stuff. And I was just like, ‘Yeah!’ Like a light went off. So between her and my mother and then me sitting out in the sun a little more, just to be a little more chocolate. You just embrace it. You embrace everything that you are as a woman, even your flaws too.”

What are your thoughts about Kelly’s skin bleaching controversy?

Photos: Instagram