Then came her masterstroke to strengthen the category. After sending home two bands, The Risk and Chasing Keys, she created a ‘supergroup’ by combining Chasing Keys’ Charlie Healy with Andrew Merry, Derry Mensah and Ashley J Baptiste – three fifths of The Risk. She kept the latter band name for the supergroup, which would hitherto be called The Risk. She told them: ‘I liked both of the groups. But I didn’t believe either of them were potential winners. You four stood out for me within your groups, so I’ve decided to offer you the chance to be my supergroup. I am going to keep you guys as The Risk – you’re my risk, and I believe in you.’
It was a bold move – and one that received inevitable criticism from some. The raciest of the angles of objection was the perception that she had sent home the majority of the band Chasing Keys because she felt they were too posh. With three members of the band having attended a public school in Hertfordshire, the accusation made was that Tulisa had found them unconvincing as rappers. She never commented specifically on that, but she later admitted that the move was ‘controversial’ and said she expected more of a backlash for it than she received. ‘I came up with the idea. I knew when it came to those two boy bands it had to be one or the other. And then the night before, it was about one in the morning, I turned around and asked the producer if I could do it. And he said, “Are you ready for it? Do you really want to do it?” and I said, “Yes, I’m ready.”’
She was also ready for the live shows.
CHAPTER EIGHT
With the live shows around the corner, Tulisa realised that not only was she now utterly absorbed in the series and its multiple machinations, but that she would be for some months ahead. As many who have been involved in The X Factor have found, it is an all-encompassing experience that one either embraces in full or has to leave alone. Although she knew that when she signed up, the magnitude of it only dawned on her once she was firmly involved. ‘I’m just living it and breathing it at the moment and I’m spending a lot of time with the contestants. I was with them last night and I get very emotionally attached to them as well. I was at the house all day long, cooking them dinner, asking, “Have you eaten?”, “Are you alright?” … and yeah, it becomes your life.’ From the mother hen of N-Dubz to the mother hen of The X Factor, Tulisa was proving quite the clucky character.
During the live shows, the media obsession with the series becomes nothing short of monstrous. It was perhaps for this reason that as the series progressed, Tulisa and Fazer had finally begun to go public about their relationship. Having been together since 2010, they had kept it quiet for some time. It was Fazer who confirmed the rumours when he said: ‘‘I’ve got a glow about me, I’m in love. She’s the one. I’m in love with a great girl.’ Of her X Factor challenge to come, he could not have been more supportive in his words. ‘She’s got a special aura about her. I just think she stands out and she has a real opinion. I don’t think words can describe how proud I am of her. We’re going to support her for the live shows definitely.’ Tulisa added: ‘He’s my rock – he’s been there for me throughout the past few months. I couldn’t be doing what I’m doing without him,’ the star revealed.
She would need strength aplenty during the live finals. The opening show saw each judge, in an X Factor first, forced to drop one of their four acts. There was no public vote. It was an excruciating moment for each judge, Tulisa said she suffered so much that she ‘cried tears’ over it. The band she sent home was 2 Shoes. After she delivered the decision, a tearful Tulisa told them: ‘I can’t even find a reason to say why… I had to pick one act, and I’m so sorry, girls.’ She added: ‘I class you as my friends now and I swear, I swear I want to stay in touch with you.’ She then embraced them. Of all the judges, she had seemed to take this part of the process hardest. If she thought that had been a difficult week, she had a far tougher one just around the corner.
In week two, she lost her act Nu Vibe. The bottom two had been her band and Frankie Cocozza. Barlow, unsurprisingly, voted to protect his own act Cocozza by sending home Nu Vibe. Rowland then also voted against the band. O’Leary then asked Tulisa for her decision. ‘I think it’s pretty obvious, Dermot,’ she said. ‘It’s a shame you guys are here tonight. Honestly, the act I’m sending home is Frankie.’ So it came down to Louis Walsh. He said that both acts had had a bad night the previous evening. ‘The act I’m going to have to send home is – Nu Vibe,’ he said. Tulisa had lost her first act during the public vote shows. Asked by O’Leary what had gone wrong, she said: ‘I’m not sure – all I can say is I believed in them, I took a chance, they worked hard, they gave everything.’ She said she still believed in them, but ‘it happens.’ The following week there would be real trouble for her, as a row erupted that would cast a shadow over her for the rest of the series.
In week three, the live show was given a stunning climax when Misha B took to the stage last. She sang the Prince song ‘Purple Rain’ and had the audience in raptures with her powerful and soulful rendition. Such a performance would normally have merited a clean sweep of praise from the judging panel. However, there was a hint that trouble was brewing right from the off, when Louis Walsh delivered his verdict. At first he praised Misha’s performance, but concluded his verdict saying: ‘You’re very confident, you’re a very confident performer. I hope you’re not too overconfident.’ It was then Tulisa’s turn to speak. Like Walsh, she began with some positive comments about Misha’s performance on the night and talent in general. She, too, followed this praise with some remarks that called into question Misha’s character. ‘There is no doubt about it, when it comes to talent you are way up there,’ she told Misha. ‘Most people, they come into the competition and they need to be built up and progress but you came as a whole package and you are definitely the star of the show. But I do have one negative this week. I think you are very competitive and I’ve seen a different side of you backstage and you don’t realise that you do it, but in some ways you being so feisty can come across as quite mean to certain contestants and I’ve been told by a few this week there’s been a few mean comments towards them.’
As eyebrows were raised and a few boos rang out, Tulisa added: ‘I’m not putting you down but take that feistiness and energy when you get on the stage and leave them all behind. Put aside the attitude.’ Barlow then insisted that what happened backstage should not be mentioned on air. ‘I don’t care what goes on backstage and we shouldn’t be getting involved in that,’ he said. ‘I mentioned earlier we were looking for an artist that can sell albums and there she is right there. Amazing vocals, great vision, well done Misha.’ Rowland added her own comments, launching a defence of Misha. She then turned to Walsh, and suggested that some of his acts could do with more confidence. Walsh then turned up the heat by adding: ‘One of my contestants has complained about Misha bullying her backstage.’
The use of the word ‘bullying’ gave the issue an incendiary dimension and the show a fiery conclusion. The producers had hoped for more excitement and controversy to help boost ratings. To what extent the airing of this controversy had been pre-planned was unclear, but whether pre-meditated or not, this row had given the series some edge. In the spin-off Xtra Factor show, which followed the main broadcast, this issue was the source of discussion. Again, Tulisa came under fire for what she had said. She defended herself, saying that if someone had made a ‘bitchy comment’ to one of her acts backstage then she had a right to raise it. ‘I feel like if you are going to portray a certain person on stage, it should be the same person that’s backstage,’ she added.
Later, Misha was asked for her response to Tulisa and Walsh’s allegations. She admitted that things had got ‘heated’ backstage, but added: ‘Tulisa hurt my feelings because there are two sides to every story.’ The controversy became the source of feverish discussion among viewers on Twitter. Ironically, even though Walsh had made the most specific and grave allegation against Misha, it was Tulisa who was being cast as the being the main critic of Misha. Celebrity ‘
Tweeters’ got involved, with even tennis player Boris Becker weighing in with: ‘Misha B is by far the best !!! Don’t understand judge Tulisa at all !!!’
Over the following 24 hours, as the public voted ahead of the Sunday evening results show, the story raged on. X Factor ‘sources’ claimed that Rowland had ‘screamed’ at producers backstage, venting her fury that they had allowed Tulisa to ‘get away with something like that’. ‘Friends’ of Rowland claimed she had said of her relationship with Tulisa, ‘It’s war!’ During the Sunday show, Walsh apologised for part of his criticism of Misha. ‘I shouldn’t have called Misha a bully and I apologise for that,’ he said. Fears that Misha might have suffered in the voting as a result of Tulisa and Walsh’s remarks were put aside when she was announced as through to the next week. It was Sami Brookes – Walsh’who left the show after finishing in the bottom two.
The following day, Sami denied that there had been any bullying, saying such an idea was ‘laughable and ridiculous’. Misha admitted to the Mirror that she had been a playground bully at school but had since changed. Meanwhile, Tulisa was mostly focused on a positive – that both her acts had finished outside the dreaded bottom two after the public vote. She took her remaining groups, The Risk and Rhythmix, for a celebratory night out at Whisky Mist in Mayfair, London. Tulisa had changed out of the metallic green dress she had worn on stage, and opted for a black strapless tiered dress. She looked sensational: both relaxed and stylish. Once more this focused attention on just how much time she was spending with her acts. As questions were raised over how much time Rowland and Walsh were spending mentoring their acts, Tulisa was again seen to be both working and playing hard with hers.
With the media keen to paint tensions between Tulisa and Rowland, particular attention was paid to the amount of time that Tulisa spent with Rowland’s act Sophie Habibis. They spent a long time chatting and were also photographed holding hands. With Rowland having flown to America, Tulisa and Habibis were bonding over their shared north London experiences and Mediterranean roots. However, Tulisa had reportedly been furious when Rowland had offered advice to one of her acts, Rhythmix. There would be a twist in the tale of Tulisa’s friendship with Habibis at the next live results show.
At least Tulisa could smile at the praise she was receiving from Andrew Merry, a member of her band The Risk. Merry spoke warmly of the attention she paid to her acts. This went as far, he said, as her cooking them dinner. ‘She’s got some serious skills,’ he said. ‘She’s amazing.’ Of her more direct mentoring skills, he said: ‘Obviously we speak to her on a regular basis. She looks after us if we’ve got any problems, she’ll come and help us out. Obviously she’s the boss, so you’ve got to make sure you’re working hard and she’ll look after you.’ So there was no shortage of respect and gratitude to Tulisa from Merry. Indeed, his feelings even went as far as the romantic. Admitting to something of a crush on his mentor, he said: ‘I’m just buzzing whenever I say her name.’
For Tulisa, this was music to her ears. Indeed, she was relieved by the public’s attitude towards The Risk. As well as voting them through two weeks running, the public had not responded as fiercely to her forming a ‘supergroup’ out of two other acts as she had feared. With her know-how of the machinations of the music industry, this manipulation by her was nothing out of the ordinary. As she said, things like this took place behind the scenes all the time at record labels and pop management firms. Indeed, bands such as The Spice Girls and Westlife went under personnel changes before the final, winning formula had been struck upon. She had expected this to cause more of a stir among the public. ‘It was controversial,’ she said. ‘And I’m not going to lie, I expected a bigger backlash than what I got. I know people take this very seriously and I panicked a little bit – but I said I can’t put through one of these groups if I don’t believe that they can win.’
As the week wore on, Tulisa found her every move being interpreted through the prism of the supposed row with Rowland. She added fuel to the fiery speculation by sending out some cryptic messages on Twitter. One of them read: ‘So many Conspiracies in this world, we all need 2 open r minds, including myself…..we learn something everyday’. As her followers wondered whether that was in reference to the goings-on between herself and Rowland, she sent another cryptic message that read simply: ‘Omg tots awks…’ Another message mentioned ‘Emotional drama’. Between them, these Tweets certainly increased the intrigue around the show.
This controversy certainly suited the needs of the X Factor producers, who had been put under pressure to increase ratings. The increased attention on Tulisa came as she prepared to launch her own perfume. Called The Female Boss, its slightly cheesy official description claimed: it had ‘top notes of subtle spices, gentle rose and sweet jasmine to create a feminine floral heart. It’s not overpowering, but quietly confident, like Tulisa herself.’ The packaging was, interestingly, much more redolent of Tulisa’s N-Dubz years than her new X Factor image. The box featured a photograph of Tulisa taken before her X Factor makeover, and the lettering on the box and bottle were both in a graffiti, N-Dubz font.
At the press launch for the perfume, at The Perfume Shop in London’s Oxford Street, Tulisa wore a distinctive black dress with red stripes criss-crossing and white squares. In colour scheme and design it was similar to the famous X Factor logo. However, if coordination had been intended it could just have easily been to tie in with The Perfume Shop logo, which featured the same colours and a similar design. The dress was said to have been designed by Karen Millen. One bitchy press report on the launch suggested that her outfit’s similarity to the shop’s logo made her appear like she was a girl employed by the store. However, with black heels and her hair in a semi-bouffant, she looked stylish and stunning as the press snapped away at her.
It is difficult to launch a celebrity perfume with statements that are anything other than a bit fatuous, as many other celebrity scent-launchers have found. Tulisa told the assembled press that she ‘wanted a fragrance that I could relate to’. She added that her design was to create: ‘something powerful without losing its girlieness. I wanted to be able to wear it day and night. This fragrance will really give the girls the confidence to show those boys who is boss.’ Cheesy stuff, but no more so than the statements uttered by other celebrities who have launched their own scents. At the Oxford Street launch, hundreds of Tulisa’s fans queued for several hours to be able to meet her at the event. She announced during it that she had plans to launch a clothing line. Mindful of the age and background of many of her admirers, she said: ‘Lots of my fans are young girls so I want to make sure they don’t have to spend a lot of money.’ Speaking of her own wider plans, she added: ‘Then I want to expand into other areas. I’d love to be known as a successful female businesswoman worldwide.’ Fazer had, in 2010, also said he wished to launch his own clothing line. For it he envisaged a name: Na Na Wear. Imaginative, or perhaps not.
****
Back in X Factor land, she was at the heart of the story again. Almost lost amid the ongoing controversy over Tulisa and Walsh’s remarks about Misha were Tulisa’s comments about the performance of Frankie Cocozza, which had been criticial. ‘I really enjoyed myself on stage,’ he said. ‘I wasn’t too impressed with my comments, but I can’t do anything about that. Tulisa said that I’d lost my innocence, but I don’t think I’ve ever been innocent if I’m honest.’ He snapped that any criticisms he received from Tulisa and the rest of the panel only fuelled his determination. ‘Hearing the bad comments from the judges makes you determined and makes you want to do better.’
Next, Tulisa had more work to do when a member of her band The Risk dropped a bombshell on her. Ashley J Baptiste threw an almighty spanner in the works when he told Tulisa: ‘This isn’t for me. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done.’ She was shocked, but soon adapted to the news philosophically. ‘He had to do what was right for him,’ she reasoned. She had to decide what to do in the wake of this news – and fast. Un
like the everyday pop world, where a band’s commitments could be put on hold while a new member was carefully chosen, the weekly demands of The X Factor dictated a swift resolution. Using the same creativity and daring that she had employed to put together The Risk in the first place, Tulisa decided to refer back to Nu Vibe. She thought that band’s member Ashford Campbell would be a neat replacement for Baptiste. She asked both parties if they were happy with her plan and checked with producers that it would be permitted. Having got the green light, she made her decision official: Campbell would join The Risk immediately. The three remaining original members of The Risk issued a statement giving the thumbs-up to Tulisa’s move. ‘He’s mega talented and will bring so many qualities to group,’ they said. ‘We’re so glad he said yes and we can’t wait to get rehearsing.’
Meanwhile, an eventful week for Tulisa was capped when her band Rhythmix was forced to change its name. A youth charity based in Brighton was dismayed when it learned that its name was also being used by the band. It said its work with tens of thousands of young people over the past 12 years was being put ‘at risk’ by the band’s name. A Facebook campaign was launched by the charity, demanding that the band change its name. This came to a head, in the week after the Misha controversy, when Tulisa’s band announced it would change its name to Little Mix. Even then the charity was not entirely satisfied. Its chief executive complained that it had taken too long for the matter to be resolved. He even called for X Factor bosses to pay the legal costs the charity had incurred after hiring lawyers.
At the live show on Saturday, the personnel change in The Risk was eclipsed by another swap: on the judges’ panel. Kelly Rowland was reportedly too ill to fly home from America for the weekend’s shows. It was announced that 2008 X Factor winner Alexandra Burke would sit in for Rowland on the weekend’s shows. Burke’s presence brought a fresh energy to the show, quite literally in the form of the excited delivery of her verdicts. At one stage she reacted angrily to some comments from Walsh, and concluded her outburst ‘OK dot com,’ much to the side-split amusement of many viewers on Twitter. The Burke verdict that most impacted on Tulisa was not for one of the bands, but for Habibis, of whom Tulisa had grown so fond. Although Burke was ostensibly replacing Rowland, that did not mean she gave automatic positive feedback to the American singer’s acts. When it came to Habibis, Burke followed damning verdicts from Walsh and Barlow with a not entirely complimentary judgement herself. Her positives about Habibis were lukewarm, and she added that there had been a ‘slight tuning problem’ with her rendition of ‘Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)’.
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