Emeli Sandé tried to straighten her hair as a young girl because she "hadn't really seen anyone who looked like her on television"

She said: "I wish I could go back to that girl at 13 or 14 and tell her your natural beauty is great. I was always straightening my hair, taking the curls out with relaxer. Looking back, that's so sad. Relaxer has strong chemicals, but I was trying to be different because I hadn't really seen anyone who looked like me on television. The message of Black Lives Matter is wonderful.

"Everyone wants to learn. There needs to be a [re-evaluation] of what children are taught at school. Whenever I heard about black people in history, it was that 400 years ago we were slaves. But so many stories are not told: positive messaging of black people's contributions throughout history - especially within the UK. These things shouldn't be left to the parents to teach."

And the 33-year-old singer struggled to "understand" racist comments at a young age, but now realises the pain it caused her mom.

Speaking to The Sunday Times magazine, she added: "I hadn't realised the pain my mum felt seeing us exposed to racism at such a young age. When I was about four years old there was a school fair.

"We had our faces painted and an older lady said, 'Oh, I didn't know butterflies could be brown.' I remember mum had heard it and I hadn't properly understood because we were too young. I think it was really disturbing for her - she saw the reality of racism more than we did at that age."