It’s hard to believe that almost four years have passed since Alexandra Burke won The X Factor – time sure flies when you’re creating winners that no-one remembers a week after the competition ended. Ms Burke is a definite exception to that rule, carving out a successful career in the music biz, with six Top 10 songs (including three number 1’s) and a double platinum debut album already under her belt.
Her first single ‘Hallelujah’ is still one of the biggest selling singles of the 21st century, and it’s surely a huge pressure to live up to the huge volumes of sales and mainstream exposure the X Factor brings? “Yeah, definitely”, says Alexandra, “but anything I do I always feel pressure and get nervous, but I have to thank the fans for getting me through it. They’ve put up with me moving the album constantly. I don’t really go into the reasons why, but I had to move it and they still supported me.”
Her sophomore LP ‘Heartbreak on Hold’ comes with an ironic title, having been repeatedly pushed back for reasons still unknown, but Alexandra made sure she remained busy during the album’s period of uncertainty, attending an intensive three-week writing camp.
“Lawd it was challenging, to say the least”, she says. “I was in transition from moving from Syco to RCA and there was a little bit of a gap where I didn’t know what was going on, so I flew myself to America. I paid studio time, paid producers fees out of my own pocket and just recorded. Usually, that’s a label cost, but I wanted and needed this album to represent me. [The label] have been so good to me, but I knew I had to walk into that deal saying, ‘This is what I want and this is the message I want to put across’.”
Alexandra promises a much more personal set of songs for this album, something she’s not actually relishing going through? “I’m a lot more honest in this album and my biggest fear is being open”. She continues, “I find it hard to be open about anything in my personal life, so I have to talk about it in my music. It’s a three minute piece that I can control, whereas in interviews I can tend to just burst into tears”, she says with a sweet giggle.
“There’s one song on the new album, ‘What Money Can’t Buy’, that I wrote at 18. I thought, ‘Can I let this part of me out?’ Then I just thought, fuck it – it has to be done! This song resonates more now than ever and I’m not sure I can even perform it right now. I haven’t sung ‘The Silence’ for over a year,” she adds. “It was about a guy who I was with years ago. I was head over heels and, jeeze, he broke my heart, broke it to pieces.”
So why the newfound bravery? “I had to give a piece of me that I was trying to hide. It can be really therapeutic. I went through a lot in the year and a half it took to release this album, and I’m still going through a lot.”
The previous statement is surely a subtle hint to the fact Alexandra’s personal life became tabloid fodder this year when she began dating footballer Jermain Defoe. Though, if you’re looking for dirt on heterosexual celeb pairings, we suggest you head over to one of those lovely mags that give such insightful voices like Jordan and Kerry Katona regular columns.
One thing she’s certainly happy to talk about is one of her favourite gigs. “I love doing G-A-Y because I can be outrageous and myself. On stage, I get sexier, I wear my leotard, I get my arse out,” she says with a laugh. “I have a glass of wine before I go on, which my Mum [former Soul II Soul singer Melissa Bell] frowned upon, as she can be a bit old school, but as soon as she saw me perform there, she totally got it.”
The main thing we took away from meeting Alexandra was, despite the fact recent events have obviously been emotional, she’s truly a good spirit and her positivity is infectious.
“If you wake up and choose to be positive, that sets you up for the day. It can be easier said than done, especially in hard times, but good things will come to you if you put good things out to the universe. You can make your life easier.” She continues, “I don’t see that many good messages being given out in the world of celebrity. Why don’t we talk about all the positivity that life has to offer? If I’m the one who has to do it, then that’s what I’ll do.”
Amen, sista.
• Catch Alexandra Burke live at G-A-Y (Heaven, under the Arches, Villiers Street, WC2) on Saturday 2nd June.
• Alexandra’s new single ‘Let It Go’ is out now and brand new album ‘Heartbreak on Hold’ is released 4th June.
