Cheryl slams today's crop of scantily-clad female singers

Since rising to fame in 2002 as a part of the successful girl band Girls Aloud, Cheryl Fernandez-Versini has cultivated quite the sexy image for herself, thanks in part to her choice of racy attire.

But the recently reinstalled X Factor judge, 31, who is married to French restaurateur Jean-Bernard Fernandez- is now expressing her distaste for the current crop of scantily-clad singers, blaming the spate of flesh-flashing on the 'men behind the scenes'.

'The music industry is dominated by men behind the scenes. And older men, too,' she told Bryony Gordon of The Sunday Telegraph's Stella magazine. 'I mean, sexy and all that is great to an extent, but you shouldn’t have to sexualise yourself to be selling music.'

While the I Don't Care singer insisted that she's not judging women who claim they're empowering themselves by shedding their clothes for all to see, she added that there's 'a way to do it'.

Cheryl also admitted to being asked to do things that made her feel uncomfortable during her career, explaining: 'Girls Aloud wore some short skirts and some outfits that were quite sexy, but we were singing "I’m just a love machine" and "Something kinda ooh, jumping on my tutu".

'It was fun, it was quirky, it wasn’t trying to be sexual. I would never do something I didn’t want to do, or get told that’s the "lane" to be in at the moment. The lane. Everyone is competing in the same lane. F**k off, I’d rather be in my own lane.'