Bebe Rexha has said she was told to lose 20lb and used to starve herself before music videos when she first landed a record deal.
The US singer – who earlier this year revealed that designers refused to dress her for the Grammys because she was “too big” – said when she started out she was told she needed to slim down despite only weighing around nine stone.
She told Cosmopolitan magazine: “When I first got signed, the label said, ‘Are you ready to get in boot camp shape?’ They wanted me to lose 20lb. Back then I was so small, I was only 130lb.
“It f***** me up. I was so cold all the time.
“I would starve myself before filming a music video.
“She’d [a female creative director] sit opposite me at the dinner table and say, ‘You’re not losing enough.’ All I was eating was salad.”
In January, Rexha posted a message on social media saying designers had refused to dress her for the Grammys because of her size, even though she was a nominee at the awards.
“It broke my heart,” she told the magazine. “I was so sad, so depressed.
“I felt like I was garbage. I thought to myself, ‘This is bullshit’. I was mad.
“I wasn’t trying to get back at anyone, but I wasn’t standing for it anymore.
“I was in the studio and I just left, went into the kitchen, and made a video on my phone.
“If a [US] size 6/8 is too big then I don’t know what to tell you… That’s crazy.
“You’re saying that all the women in the world that are a size 8 and up are not beautiful and they cannot wear your dresses… f*** you, I don’t want to wear your f****** dresses.”
The singer also opened up about difficult experiences with people she has worked with in the music industry, which she said “can be a dark place”.
“There was a producer who would come into the studio and massage my feet,” said the 30-year-old.
“One time he tried to go above my knees and was getting a little rough, [so] I pulled my feet away. He said, ‘Nah, I’m going to do what I want’.
“But I was raised to never let someone touch my body if I don’t want them to.”
“He’s really famous. My former managers said, ‘Just work with him, you need a hit song’.”
She said of another incident: “I was alone in the studio and a [different] producer had a group of five or six guys with him. I had heard things about him from his past and I just couldn’t take it anymore.
“I felt like I was going to get raped. I quietly called myself a taxi from the recording booth, which was enclosed, and I got the f*** out of there.
“It was the worst night ever.”
The September issue of Cosmopolitan is on sale from September 5.