Tulisa - The Biography

by Newkey-Burden, Chas

  After they sang ‘Don’t Let Go (Love)’, Barlow said, ‘This is definitely your direction – great performance tonight. Well done.’ Tulisa returned to her bombastic electioneering when she thanked viewers who had voted for Little Mix each week, and added: ‘But why did you pick up the phone? You picked up the phone because you wanted them to get through and to get to the final and you wanted them to win this competition. So, those votes meant nothing unless you pick up the phone today, tonight, right now – they need it, it’s the final. I’ll say it again: they’re not safe, so vote for Little Mix!’ This time, O’Leary said: ‘Oh man, I love it when Tulisa goes Jerry Maguire!’

  After Little Mix had sung‘Cannonball’, it was time for each of the judges to have their final say . Summing up the mood of the moment, Walsh told Tulisa’s band: ‘The reason we’re getting emotional is that four little pop princesses have been born.’ Rowland said: ‘I’m so happy. I’m so proud of you – congratulations.’ Barlow encouraged them to continue supporting one another, as he predicted they had big things ahead of them. Then it was time for the closing comment of their mentor and master electioneer Tulisa. She told each member of the band in turn what they meant to her: ‘Jade, you are the most adorable person I have ever known, Jesy, you are inspiring, Leigh-Anne, you remind me of myself years ago and Perrie, you were born a star. I love all of you. It’s out of our hands now. Let’s hope the public have voted.’

  Finally, Tulisa joined her band onstage to stand alongside Barlow and Collins, as O’Leary announced the winner of The X Factor. She and her band leapt for joy when he revealed Little Mix had won. Leigh-Anne said: ‘Oh my gosh, wow.’ As the stunned excitement of the band became more palpable, sweet Jade said: ‘I’m so grateful. Thank you for everybody who voted.’ Perrie added: ‘Oh my gosh, that’s insane.’ Only Jesy was able to speak more than a few words. She said: ‘Oh my God, this is never going to sink in. We can’t thank the public enough for picking up the phone.’ Runner-up Collins was disappointed with coming second but his friendly and sporting side was just as clear in defeat. ‘The girls really deserve it,’ he said. ‘They are amazing. I’m really proud of myself. Thanks to everyone who voted.’ As for Tulisa, she said: ‘I think I wanted them to win more than they did.’ It was meant in jest but there was some truth to it – she had been a gloriously competitive and dedicated mentor. Naturally, she was in triumphant mood into the night and was quickly talking about putative collaborations between herself and Little Mix. ‘There have been talks about us performing together again,’ she said. ‘When I release my album we might re-record the song we did together and put it on my album.’

  Looking to the future, she said: ‘I am here whenever they want me to be, they’re my new best mates. They won because they are the most beautiful, genuine, talented girls and I love them.’ Tulisa celebrated their final victory in a style that was more N-Dubz than X Factor: with a kebab. In the early hours of Monday morning she Tweeted: ‘what do ya do after ur act wins the xfactor?…go 2 ur local kebab shop of course, wooooiiiiii….LOVE U #LITTLEMIX keep it real’ Meanwhile it emerged that Simon Cowell had hired Richard ‘Biff’ Stannard, the songwriter who helped the Spice Girls find fame, to create a hit for Tulisa’s winners. Biff is pop song-writing royalty, and the man who wrote the Spice Girls’ debut smash hit ‘Wannabe’, the song that launched not just their musical career but their entire ‘girl power’ brand. More recently he has worked with the 2010 X Factor winner, Matt Cardle.

  Tulisa said later she was attracted to the idea of managing Little Mix, but added that she believed this was not permitted. ‘I would manage them if I was allowed to, but I guess that’s not how it works,’ she told Olly Murs and Caroline Flack on The Xtra Factor. ‘I’m a mentor and I’m still going to be their mentor. I’m always going to be there for them. I will get involved as much as I can, as much as the label want me to be involved with them. I’m just gonna go with the flow and give them as much advice and help as I physically can.’

  Interestingly, when the week-by-week voting statistics were released after the final vote had been announced, it showed that Little Mix had entered the lead only in the closing weeks of the race. The act that had finished top most often was Janet Devlin. She finished top in the first four weeks of live shows in which a public vote had taken place. Little Mix had first finished in the top two of the voting results in week four, when they came second to Devlin. They returned to the second place in week eight, and then for weeks 10 and 11 (the semi-final and final) they finished top of the voting.

  For many, the true winner of the series had been Tulisa. She became the toast of the X Factor nation. The Sun claimed she had not only been guaranteed a place at the table for the 2012 series, but that she had been offered a doubling of her reported £450,000 salary to return. Interestingly, the unnamed source quoted in the Sun’s story claimed that, far from harming her popularity with the show’s bosses, her clash with Misha B had actually been seen as a positive. It was said they admired her for sticking to her guns over the issue. While the veracity of the Sun’s claims has yet to be established, the Sunday Mirror quoted Tulisa as saying that she would be seeking a decent deal to return for the 2012 series. ‘I definitely want to come back next series,’ she was quoted as saying. ‘But would I do it for a pay-cut? Definitely not. That’s ridiculous.’ Confident words, particularly in times of financial austerity.

  She also wondered whether she would be able to create such a favourable rapport with her assigned category again. ‘I do wonder if I’d get on with my contestants as well. It might have been first time lucky,’ she reflected. In another development, she corroborated the perception that she was standing by her criticisms of Misha B. ‘I never go back on my actions,’ she said. ‘For me it’s about what happens behind the scenes as well as on stage,’ she added. ‘I wasn’t lying. It was affecting one of my acts and the week something was said it stopped. I think even from Misha’s point of view it is something she might not have realised she was doing. We had a talk and I think she’s a lovely girl.’

  Finally, it was time for her to return from planet X Factor to the real world as she moved to capitalise on her massive profile. It was a triumphant and confident return.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Suddenly, it seemed, lots of people wanted to collaborate with Tulisa. So successful and popular had she become, that people were keen to try and link up with her. Jessie J, who had assisted her at judges’ houses, expressed a hope that they would record a song together. ‘I’d love to do a track with Tulisa,’ she said. ‘We’ve talked about writing a song like “Do It Like A Dude” together. A big girl power anthem because we are both feminists.’ Her praise of Tulisa took a saucy turn when she added: ‘I popped in to see her in her X Factor dressing room for two minutes and ended up staying for two hours. We just get on really well and have such a laugh, plus she’s got a great bum, which is fine with me.’

  Tulisa was so happy in the wake of her X Factor commitments. The gamble had paid off and she couldn’t stop smiling. ‘When anyone asks me how I am, I go: “Apparently I’m having a breakdown.” That’s a joke,’ she said. She added: ‘I was in Tesco and saw this headline saying: TULISA CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE! But here I am, strolling around the supermarket. Another story said my boyfriend was going to break up with me before Christmas. It’s all made up.’

  Having been in the X Factor bubble for months Tulisa was thrust back to N-Dubz matters when her two band-mates made significant statements in the immediate aftermath of her talent show involvement coming to a close. Talking about the Greatest Hits album, which he described as the ‘golden jubilee’ of the band’s career, Fazer seemed to want to draw a line under the band’s history to date. ‘We’ve done three great albums but we’re bored of performing these old songs now,’ he told Now magazine. ‘We want new material, so we’re putting the old ones to sleep. Everything from 2012 on is a new chapter.’ Then it emerged that during a solo concert by Dappy in Manchester just hours after Tu
lisa’s X Factor victory, he had slated The X Factor to his audience. ‘This is what fame is, not standing for hours outside to audition for X Factor,’ he told the audience as he introduced the song ‘Rockstar’, which features Queen guitarist Brian May on its soundtrack. He then went one step further, shouting: ‘F*** Simon Cowell!’ His outburst drew some cheers from the audience but they were replaced with jeers when Dappy called a close to his set after scarcely 25 minutes.

  The following evening Tulisa went to the X Factor ‘wrap’ party with Fazer. The annual bash has become a key part of the X Factor experience. The team let their collective hair down and party into the night. In 2011 it was held at the DSTRKT club in London. She looked magnificent in her figure-hugging, one-shoulder gold dress. The sparkly outfit made the most of her superb curves. Fazer wore a black suit and arrived wearing sunglasses, despite the late hour. Tulisa got into a misunderstanding with paparazzi upon their arrival. She later Tweeted that it was not a drunken row: ‘believe me I wish I’d had more 2 drink after that!#toosober’. Someone who might have benefited from being a little more sober was the series bad boy Frankie Cocozza. Outside the bash Cocozza somehow became embroiled in an argument with a group of girls. As a photographer appeared on the scene there were unseemly scraps and squabbles. Fellow contestant Jonjo Kerr leapt into action and appeared to lash out in the direction of the photographer. Kerr, a former infantry solider, was joined in his protection of Cocozza by Nu Vibe’s Bradley Johnson. It seemed that all ended well, as Cocozza and Kerr were spotted leaving a hotel the following morning trailed by two young women.

  Tulisa, meanwhile, was back home and dreaming about her forthcoming holiday. According to the Sun, she planned to take some friends on the trip with her. ‘Tulisa has had hardly any time to see her friends since she’s been on the show,’ said a source. ‘This is her first time off in months and she can’t wait to catch up with everyone properly.’ The headline for the Sun’s story was a bit of a giggle: LA ISLA TULISA. Not that she was about to take her foot off the gas for long. As she told Now magazine’s Dan Wootton: ‘I always have to be doing something or I’d get bored. If I didn’t have a career outside of being a judge, I’d be finished. I love being at home, but only for a certain period of time. I’m looking forward to getting into the studio to start my solo album.’

  Tulisa’s act Little Mix had been mostly conspicuous by their absence at the X Factor wrap party. Only Leigh-Anne had looked in briefly. Their mentor had something a bit special lined up for them for later in the week. Together with Glamour magazine, she treated them to a celebratory dinner party. Tulisa looked sensational as she arrived dressed in dramatic black. Among the guests was one of the band members’ idols, former Spice Girl Emma Bunton, aka Baby Spice. Geri Halliwell, aka Ginger Spice, sent a bouquet of flowers to the girls. The event was held at the Roof Gardens venue in Kensington. After the dinner, Tulisa told her Twitter followers: ‘So lovely to see Little Mix, it’s all just starting for them! Such sweethearts!!!!’ The following morning the band sent their own message to Twitter, writing: ‘Went for dinner last nite with tulisa n glamour magazine was amazing! Also met Emma bunton wat an inspiration!’

  In the final analysis, the only disappointment about Tulisa’s first year as an X Factor judge is that she had not been a more feisty character onscreen. Asked what happened to ‘the feisty Tulisa’, she replied: ‘She’s still there.’ Perhaps if she returns to the judging panel she will feel more confident to let the feisty Tulisa out to play a bit more. Here’s hoping. The experience had certainly matured her as a person. The increase in scrutiny and criticism that all judges face had thickened her skin and broadened her perspective. ‘I can’t send a Tweet every time someone’s abusive to me,’ she said. ‘I can’t fight the world. I’m not bothered any more – I let it go over my head.’ She looked ahead to 2012, a year in which the world had long been rumoured by some doom-merchants to end. For Tulisa, it is as if her life is only just beginning. With plans for a number of projects including a possible novel, autobiography and a solo career, she has much to be excited about. The ‘Earthquake’ rapper Labrinth is among those who are queuing to work with her. ‘It’s to be confirmed. It might happen,’ he said. ‘We did have talks about working on her record, and I would love to work with her so it might just happen anyway.’

  As her fame and popularity rockets, Tulisa is keen to keep perceptions of her in proportion. She is not the first celebrity to profess distaste at the level of influence and respect they have accrued. In many cases, these protestations seem more than a little insincere – the disingenuous ramblings of people who complain about how famous and respected they are merely a way of reminding us how famous and respected they are. Such utterances are made during interviews whose sole attraction for the celebrity concerned is as a vehicle for boosting ever further the fame with which, they claim with a straight face, to be uneasy. As we have seen, Tulisa is not without contradictions, as evinced by her revised feelings about The X Factor following her invitation to join, yet she has certainly asked for people not to overestimate her worth. ‘Just because I’m talented and I can write good music, it doesn’t mean that I should be looked at as “wow” any more than you should, because it doesn’t make a difference,’ she said in 2010. ‘Who cares? There’s so much more going on in the world. There’s kids starving in Africa and we’re sitting there glitzing up on the red carpet.’

  Perhaps having worked so hard to become as famous as she is, Tulisa can take a more considered look at the nature of the beast. Those who are catapulted to fame cannot, in all honesty, enjoy or understand the ride in the same way as someone like Tulisa. The legacy of her tough childhood continues to cast a shadow over her thoughts on her success. She admits that she has regular moments of doubts over whether she deserves her success. ‘I’ll think, “I don’t belong here,”’ she said. ‘I get those moments now and again. I can be very feisty, but that’s a defence mechanism for me. I’m defensive because too many years of my life I was treated like s***.’

  When she was named Now magazine’s ‘Woman Of The Year’ for 2011, she spoke about how her confidence has risen since becoming involved with The X Factor. ‘I’ve become my own woman, not “‘the N-Dubz bird”,’ she said. ‘Getting away from the band and finding out what I want to do has given me confidence. You know how I used to spend so much time stressing? Now I can enjoy life.’ However, while appreciating the confidence her new role had given her, she also explained that her experiences with N-Dubz had been useful. ‘One thing I can say about N-Dubz is that it prepared me for being an X Factor judge,’ she explained. ‘N-Dubz was just as stressful – there were dramas every day. So I can sleep at night and I can handle it.’

  Indeed, she felt that coming from a rough-and-ready, incident-fuelled band meant she found it easier to survive in the turmoil of The X Factor than the 2011 head judge did. ‘I think it’s harder for Gary because he’s been a golden boy in the public and now he’s got people criticising him for who he is,’ she said. ‘I’ve had criticism all my life, so it was nothing new to me.’ Certainly Barlow had seemed to be displaying very mixed feelings about the experience. He seemed to buckle under the weight of public criticism and several times seemed upset and outraged when he was booed and heckled by the studio audience during the live shows. For Tulisa such treatment was easier to face. Compared to some of the controversy she had been flung into as a member of N-Dubz, the largely pantomime, storm-in-a-tea-cup hullabaloos of planet X Factor were definitely bearable.

  In the final analysis, of the four judges Tulisa had thrived best. As we have seen, Barlow seemed uncomfortable at times. Also, his pronouncements that The X Factor was a ‘singing contest’ and that he wanted to find someone with ‘real talent’ were contradicted by his championing of the much-discussed Frankie Cocozza. Acts with undoubted superior vocal talent were dismissed by Barlow at both the judges’ houses stage and in the first week of the live shows. Also, his criticism of Walsh for championing slightly nov
elty acts seemed hypocritical given his own support for Cocozza.

  Rowland, meanwhile, started strongly but fell away the longer the series went on. Originally, her all-American patter was a breath of fresh air. She had a strong, definite personality, oodles of charisma and her glamorous looks went down a treat with male viewers. However, as the live shows progressed her persona seemed limited. She began to come across as a one-trick pony. Also, her rocky relationship with the generally admired and oft-loved Louis Walsh made her seem disrespectful to one of the show’s key figures.

  The aforementioned Walsh was his usual loveable Irish self for the most part but at times there were hints that he was uncomfortable in the new panel. His long-time friend Simon Cowell had gone, Rowland and Barlow were far from respectful to him, prompting him to remind them with genuine fury that he had ‘been on the show for eight years’. Also, he was given the least promising category and did indeed lose all his acts quickly. This left him as a ‘spare judge’ while the other three continued to be contenders with acts in the competition. He looked a lost soul on the weekend of the final, often literally alone on the panel when the other three judges were tending to their acts.

  As for Tulisa, she had none of the weaknesses of her fellow judges. Her approach and pronouncements were always perceived as honest and consistent. Her personality had stamina and her relationship with Walsh remained cordial throughout the series. She seemed absolutely dedicated to her acts. Indeed, her enthusiasm for all things X Factor came across throughout the run. Tulisa conducted herself as if she was born for X Factor and planned to hang around its environs for some years to come.