Tulisa - The Biography (12 page)

As she looked ahead in 2010, Tulisa had no clue how much her career and life was about to change the following year. After dismissing
The
X Factor
and the easy route to fame it gave to acts that she often did not rate, she said that her ambition was something far more mundane. Indeed, her biggest wish for the months ahead was actually something that many people would run a mile from – a vision of domestic DIY hell and the retail torture that comes with it. ‘All I want, my ambition for this year is to just get my house and spend a month decorating it,’ she said. ‘I’m really excited. I can’t wait. I want to go to IKEA and do a whole day there from like 8 o’clock in the morning… it’s all I’ve been thinking about.’ She had set out a far grander ambition in the closing pages of
Against All Odds
. She wrote: ‘In 10 years’ time I want to be right at the top. Simple as. That’s why we’re going to America. It’s scary as it means starting from scratch all over again. It’s a whole new market and I’m scared but excited. This is the new thing for me now. I’ve set myself a new goal and I’m going to work at it – because I like a challenge to keep me mentally stimulated.’

As it happened, 2011 would see a whole new challenge for her that would keep her not so much mentally stimulated as obsessed to the point of exhaustion. She had come to the attention of one of the entertainment world’s biggest players – nothing would ever be the same again for Tulisa.

A
t the end of May 2011, following much speculation, Tulisa was confirmed as one of the new judges for
The X Factor
. Finally allowed to share this exciting news publicly, she sent out a lively message on Twitter. ‘Very excited about joining the X Factor. Ive always loved the show and I want to thank you all for supporting me….’ [sic] She added: ‘On my journey this far, rest assured the Tulisa you know isn’t going anywhere. I don’t no how to be anything other than myself… & thats what I’ll be. I hope I can bring that raw in your face, real element 2 the show (& the warmth/love cus you know I’m a softy at heart).’ [sic]

Meanwhile, she and N-Dubz had played what was described as their final concert ‘for the foreseeable future’. They had taken by this stage to arriving on stage on motorbikes, dressed sharply all in black. ‘Considering the group are new to arenas, it was a smooth affair, though after a while it dragged a bit,’ wrote Tim Burrows in the
Daily Telegraph
, acknowledging nonetheless that the audience loved it. Afterwards, the band got stuck into the backstage refreshments. As a hung over Dappy said the following day: ‘We got off stage and the beers were flat, so I started drinking it like water.’ The first morning of the rest of his life was spent vomiting into the toilet before setting off for an interview with the
Guardian
newspaper. All far from ideal from his point of view.

As well as playing this bookending gig, the band also parted company from Def Jam. There had been creative differences between band and label. Though Tulisa put the case to her band mates for them to continue the relationship, it came to an end in the summer. Trying to put a positive spin on the story, Dappy told the
Mirror
: ‘They might say they’ve dropped us but we were never going to co-operate with them when they decided to change what we are. If we had co-operated we would still be signed. Tulisa thought we should do it because we could make some money out of it, but I said no. For them to say they dropped us makes me angry because we just didn’t want to change who we are or what we do.’

A more measured, official statement from the band’s management stated: ‘N-Dubz have left the Def Jam imprint in the USA due to creative differences over musical direction. This was 100 per cent the band’s decision and they remain signed to Universal worldwide.’ There was talk that Tulisa had – as part of the parting of the ways – signed a solo deal with Island Records, which contained a clause that gave Def Jam first refusal on American rights. However, her solo effort would have to wait until she had fulfilled her
X Factor
duties for the entire series. Indeed, the question of whether she would even merit a solo career rather depended on the success – or otherwise – of her first
X Factor
series.

Their American travels had been documented on the second series of
Being…N-Dubz,
which was broadcast on Channel 4 in the spring of 2011, as Tulisa was waiting for her
X Factor
duties to commence. Initially, Tulisa and Fazer jet out to America, leaving Dappy to fight off a bout of illness in the UK. They watch Tinie Tempah perform and then link up with Dappy in Los Angeles. Tulisa attends a Def Jam party, which had been snubbed by her two
band-mates
– another instance of their differing approach to their careers. Elsewhere, Tulisa is mistaken for a cast member of the US television show
Jersey Shore
, and she is shown attending yet another beauty salon, in keeping with the ‘diva of the band’ image the series had tried to paint of her. In another segment they are shown at a shooting range – though Tulisa says she doesn’t like guns. It was not world-changingly insightful stuff, but was entertaining enough. The
Mirror
said that this series showed a different N-Dubz, an N-Dubz that ‘say cute things like ‘clumsy clogs, clumsy clogs’ when they accidentally spill their hot chocolate and like goofing around in swimming pools.’ The Holy Moly website was bitchiness defined when, at the end of its preview of episode one, it broke with the usual convention of listing transmission details in italics at the foot of the article. Instead, it declared: ‘
Being N-Dubz
is on telly, but we’re not telling you where or when, because nobody should watch it, because it is shit and will make you grind your teeth to dust.’

As we have seen, the fears and disagreements that hit the band after it was dropped by Def Jam were not the only concerns that arose in the wake of Tulisa’s
X Factor
announcement. There was concern in the N-Dubz camp that by joining such a mainstream branch of the entertainment industry as
The X Factor
, Tulisa was turning her back on not just the band but the entire ethos that made N-Dubz so attractive to its millions of fans. She realised that she needed to respond to these fears immediately, and added a follow-up message on Twitter, in which she directly addressed the N-Dubz fans. ‘I can’t wait to find the next star of the UK,’ she continued. ‘I am still a member of NDubz & they will b my team till the day I die. People that dont know r story can never understand the way u guys do how important r loyalty is as a band to us … The Female Boss is ready to rumble. BRING IT ON!!!! Xxx’

All the same, Tulisa’s carefully cultivated ‘street’ image was something she would need to fight hard to hold on to as she underwent an inevitable transformation for
The X Factor
. She had offered a personal style guide to readers of the official N-Dubz book, in which she spoke of ‘slobbing about’ in lounge wear, including Adidas trainers, velour tracksuits with her hair scraped back and minimal
make-up
. Her favourite shopping locations were Brent Cross shopping centre, Kilburn High Street and Camden High Street. She said: ‘I don’t really buy anything that costs over 50 quid, except maybe trainers.’ As an
X Factor
judge, she would be expected to wear outfits that cost a lot more than ‘50 quid’. Indeed, she would be under pressure to accept the dictates of the show’s in-house style team. The media has for many years become obsessed with playing female
X Factor
judges off against one another, with weekly ‘style wars’ assessments of the outfits of past rival judges such as Cheryl Cole and Dannii Minogue a staple part of the middle-market newspaper and celebrity weeklies’ coverage of the ITV show. Perhaps the line in her own previous style guide that would most chime with the
X Factor
ethos was ‘I believe in looking classy 100 per cent’. That gave hope for some common ground as she prepared to join the judging panel of Britain’s leading show.

The opportunities that opened for her as an
X Factor
judge far outweighed the challenges. Indeed, for her, it felt liberating to be able to style herself as a standalone individual, rather than a member of a three-piece band. ‘Being in N-Dubz I was constantly having to accommodate the two band-mates either side of me,’ she told
Star
magazine. ‘I couldn’t wear the things I wanted to because it wasn’t ghetto enough for the group’s look.’ She was immediately being spoken of as the ‘new Cheryl Cole’ – and it certainly seemed that she had been chosen to fill Cole’s shoes. Like the Geordie Girls Aloud star, Tulisa was the youngest of the new panel and was also expected to be the feistiest. Cole, through the success she made of herself on The
X Factor
, became the nation’s sweetheart. Was it even feasible that Tulisa of N-Dubz could do the same? Did she want to? There was so much to see.

It was all change for the 2011 series. Simon Cowell – busy launching
The X Factor USA
– was absent, and both Cole and Minogue had flown the nest too. Only Louis Walsh from the previous season remained. The head judge would be Take That star Gary Barlow, who trousered a reported £1.5million when he signed up. He was no stranger to Tulisa: she had actually spoken about Barlow in the N-Dubz book,
Against All Odds
. She described him as ‘chilled out’, adding ‘probably too chilled in fact’. She recalled songwriting sessions she had with Barlow in which his laidback nature meant they fell asleep. ‘But he is soooo talented,’ she added. She also spoke of how they would ‘crack open a few beers and have a curry’. As well as admiring his talent, she was also enthralled by how down-to-earth he came across to her. ‘He doesn’t behave like a big superstar at all,’ she said. Even Dappy called Barlow ‘a good lad.’

Whether their existing friendship played a part in one of them recommending the other for a place on the panel is not clear. Indeed, it had been rumoured at one stage that Tulisa had failed an audition to join the
X Factor
panel due to her repeated use of foul language. ‘Tulisa did do a
one-hour
audition but was turned down because she couldn’t stop swearing,’ a source had reportedly told a newspaper. ‘It was all the time and bosses became worried about putting her on live TV in front of millions of viewers, including children. If she ended up cursing or making a rude comment live on the show, the programme would get into serious trouble.’ Tulisa later dismissed the entire suggestion, but controversy would never be far away.

As her fame rocketed, she naturally gave more interviews to the press. In a brief example she named the exclusive clothing lines of Vivienne Westwood and Alexander McQueen, and then the high street brands River Island and Lipsy. Other brands she named included the Nando’s chicken restaurant chain, the energy drink Red Bull, make-up company Rimmel and the fashionable Ugg boot range. These interviews and Tulisa’s cheeky persona during them were certainly getting her noticed.

One interview from the past that Tulisa might prefer people to forget was the one she gave in 2010, when she launched a scathing attack on
The X Factor
and the acts it had launched. She was asked if she found it frustrating, after all the work she had put into her own career, to see reality television acts rocket to fame so quickly and comparatively easily. ‘Yeah, it’s annoying,’ she told RTE Ten. ‘It’s annoying watching them just come up there and become worldwide acts selling millions of records after just standing in a queue for an hour. It happens overnight to them.’ She then said that she had concluded that it was not worth getting upset about the issue, before adding a closing dig at the reality television genre, saying: ‘And half of those acts, if they came out off their own bat and not on
X Factor
, wouldn’t sell ten records so then you’ve just got to remind yourself of that.’

Indeed, it was an interview dominated by damnation of fame and the industry that supports it. The God-fearing Tulisa even went as far as saying she would pray for forgiveness, such was her claimed revulsion for the celebrity circus. ‘Sometimes I feel like I’m sinning,’ she said. ‘I ask God for forgiveness. I’m like “God forgive for being in such a silly, shallow industry,” because it’s based on giving other people power and putting other people up and letting other people look up to them. It makes them feel like they’re below them.’

It is worth pausing to consider where Tulisa was in her life and career at this stage. A young woman in her twenties, with her band’s best days perhaps behind them, she inevitably attracted comparisons between her position and that of Cheryl Cole when she had first joined the
X Factor
judging panel. These comparisons are interesting given that Tulisa ostensibly – if not officially – replaced Cole on the panel. Cole was 25 when she was hired by
The X Factor
. She was famous through her membership of girl band Girls Aloud and due to her tumultuous love life and infamous due to her conviction for assault occasioning actual bodily harm, following a scrap in a nightclub toilet in 2003. She had yet to formally separate from her husband Ashley Cole, had not embarked on her solo career, and also, more crucially, had yet to be crowned the ‘nation’s sweetheart’. In other words she was famous, but it is important to recall just how much her fame and popularity rocketed as a result of her
X Factor
exposure.

Tulisa, at 23 two years younger than Cole had been as her
X Factor
experience began, could eye Cole’s experiences with a mixture of hope and caution. The rewards for being part of the
X Factor
judging panel clearly go beyond the specific exposure and renumeration. The scale of those rewards is variable, though. There is no automatic golden path for any
X Factor
judge. In this sense, the situation is similar for the judges and acts. For every Leona Lewis, Olly Murs and One Direction there are plenty of Leon Jacksons and Steve Brooksteins – winners who flopped despite topping the vote on such a popular show. Likewise, though Cole had made the most of her exposure as an
X Factor
judge, it is undeniable that other reality television judges such as Dannii Minogue, Ellen DeGeneres and others had benefited far less.