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 We all know
and love Alesha Dixon from when she was the unofficial front woman of girl band
Mis-teeq. Telstar had problems so when the band came back from America they
decided not to stay as a group and went their separate ways. With her passion
for music, after the split with Mis-teeq, she made the brave move to go solo
and signed to Polydor. Her debut single was Lipstick which she wrote because: “I
wanted to say ‘cut the crap’ and be happy to see other women do well. Girls can
be very standoffish and bitchy towards each other.” Alesha’s follow up from the
album Fired Up is Knockdown. She explains: “The moral of the song is having
inner strength to get yourself out of a negative situation or emotional rut.”
Reminiscing
about her happy times being in a group she confided “If I hadn’t been in the
band there’s no way I could have done this on my own. Even to this day I’m
sitting alone and I think ‘oh my God I wish the girls were here.’ They were
like a support unit, we all shared the pressure.” When asked about what the
other two ex-members of Mis-teeq are up to she says “Sabrina has been out in Miami with Salaam Remi, she hopes to get a deal in America.
Su-Elise has gone back to college and wants to open a dance school; I think
she’d be great at that.” Whilst the girls may have had their disagreements
as a group but the media has blown it out of proportion and their friendship
still very much exists and insists there are no hard feelings or animosity between them. “When things get tough, it’s only you. Before, there
were three of us here. It’s always in the face of adversity that I miss the
girls.”
There is a
track on Fired Up entitled Superficial which portrays Alesha’s
feelings on the music industry “It’s about how superficial this industry is but
when you get to the core of what you’re doing it for it’s an amazing job to do.
I’ve learned you’ve got to take it with a pinch of salt because it’s a cut
throat business.” There are some conscious songs on the album as well as the
more light ones but she felt it was important to record Everybody Wants to
Change the World “That’s me saying there are so many things going on in the
world and nobody takes responsibility for anything. It’s my view point on some
of the issues that are going on.”
Alesha is
adamant for people to know that she is pulling the strings of her career and
what you see is what you get. “I want them to know that I
wrote these songs for me and I was sitting there writing them by myself," she reveals. "As an
artist it’s important that people know you’re coming from a place of truth.
When I’m singing about something, I mean it.”
Having had many messages on her Myspace from victims of bulling, Alesha has become involved in an anti-bullying
campaign organised by children’s TV channel, Nickelodeon “I couldn’t do
anything about it apart from give advice but there was nothing I could
physically do. Nickelodeon asked me to front it and I said yes straight away.
It’s to encourage people to talk about it and put a stop to it. The more you
stay quiet, the more it continues.” She is also fronting the Want Respect safe
sex campaign. “Safe sex is important, we don’t want people going out there and
catching things. It’s to encourage women to be more thoughtful about their
actions. It’s all good to be caught up in a moment of fun but it’s what happens
after that you have to think about.”
When asked
about artists that condone violence she puts across her opinions “As an artist
you have a responsibility to a younger audience. Although they’re writing that
music because it’s an expression of their lifestyle, at the same time they have
to realise that young kids aspire to them.” David Cameron was recently pictured with US rapper Rhymefest but Alesha does not believe that is enough “Politicians
are now starting to get involved with the rappers and I was like why are
rappers just being targeted, what about the video games, what about the films?
No one targets Hollywood.
If the politicians get involved they need to go back to basics and the council
estates and ask why people are getting into it in the first place.”
On a
lighter note we discuss Harvey [So Solid MC] “The wedding was lovely and
because we never sold the pictures a lot of people never knew we got married.”
When questioned about having children she laughs: “Harvey and I got a dog
recently; she’s like our first baby. I would love to be a mum and I know time’s
ticking but I don’t know if I want one right now, maybe in a year or two.”
Would she consider freezing her eggs to beat the biological clock?
“Freeze my eggs?" comes the reply. "That would
freak me out!”
Alesha’s
plans for the future, music aside, include a lifestyle TV show that she has
written with two friends she has set up a production company with. “I thought
that I talk a lot so would use it to my advantage! I want a show that a 15 year
old can enjoy alongside a 45 year old. It’s going to take someone brave and
fearless to go with the idea but we’re ready.”
‘Knockdown’ is released 30th October 2006
Official website: www.aleshamusic.com
By Rashmi
Shastri
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