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Alexandra Burke
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ALEXANDRA Burke is never happier than when she’s working. The 22-year-old singer hasn’t stopped for breath since she won the X Factor two years ago, and that’s just the way she likes it.
“I don’t know what to do with myself when I have time off,” she laughs. As we talk, she’s getting her hair done for a TV appearance and trying to calm down her Yorkshire Terrier, Alfie, down as he barks excitedly.
“I’m always doing 10 things at once. It’s the only way to get it all done. But I’m not complaining one bit. I love it. I worked so hard for this, and now I have it I’m going to spend every minute making it work. I say to people, listen, I’ll sleep when I’m dead. I have to do this now and I have to give it everything I’ve got.”
For a girl from the humble beginnings of a council estate in North London, the last two years have been beyond her dreams. Next week she starts a nationwide solo tour, beginning with two dates in Rhyl that sold out instantly, before moving to much larger venues.
It’s not her first taste of touring, as she’s already performed in arenas with the X Factor finalists
After that, she headed off to New York and then LA to turn her dreams into reality.
“I was thrown right in at the deep end in America,” she explains.
“The first people I was working with there were the producers Stargate. Of course I was terrified.
“I didn’t know how I would handle it. I’d been a big fish in a little pond and then suddenly eI’m with a new label, I’ve got a new management company and suddenly there are scary new producers too. Everything around me is new. I had to build a relationship so quickly with people.
“I want my music to be fun, to be uplifting and to be bold. I want it to reflect my personality.
I want it to be in your face, I want it to be a beast. I said exactly the same thing to Simon Cowell and I could see the relief on his face. He said ‘whatever you do, it has got to come from the heart’.’’
At the audition stages of 2008’s X Factor, Alexandra had made a pact with herself.
“I said to myself that if I didn’t make it through to the live shows then I would seriously reconsider where I was going to go with music.
“This was about proving something to myself. That music was the thing I was born to do.”
Her sound is perfectly espoused on latest single Bad Boys, but there are plenty more where that came from. When she first met up with Lady Gaga producer Red One he had a set of tracks ready-prepared he imagined would suit her.
“After five minutes of meeting me he scrapped them and we started again,” she says. “He said to me ‘you’re not the girl I expected you to be.’ I was like ‘what did you expect me to be? Quiet?!’ I said I wanted my songs to be empowering to women and he got it straight away.”
Alexandra Burke, Rhyl Pavilion Jan 13-14, sold out. Liverpool Echo Arena, February 8. Tickets 0844 800 3680, www.echoarena.com
