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I’m sick of people hating on Cher Lloyd. There, I said it.
Yes, it’s fine to say she’s been a bit of a wonker in the past. But she’s young and compared to the first time I met her she’s come on leaps and bounds.
These days she’s one of the few British artists with a genuine buzz about her. Why? Because this lady has genuine talent. You can say all you want about her style, the snarl or the music.
But thank God she’s not a member of the Saturdays, peddling out any old toot given to her by a team of snazzy producers. Truth is she’s incredibly in control of the business she only started out in just over a year ago.
And most importantly she has a bucket full of integrity and can cut it live. After all, are we not tired of seeing pop tarts that can’t bloody sing and perform live?
I’ve just got back from seeing Cher wrap up her sold out UK tour. Tonight she performed at the O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire and the crowd lapped up every second of the show.
Admittedly I went to the gig thinking I would probably spend the majority of it watching her sing over some naff backing track and would want to kill myself after half hour. Thankfully this wasn’t the case…..
I was pleasantly surprised to see she sang live throughout, did a handful of acoustic songs and owned every single second of being on that stage.
Shirlaine Forrest
But what’s got me even more excited about Cher is the fact that things are starting to take off for this young girl in a big way in America. And I can’t think of a better artist to go out there and prove a point. Good music and soul will always prevail – and she has that.
For what Cher is, and for the people who are buying her music, she is at the top of her game. She’s got swagger, edginess and a cool attitude to life. The songs on her debut album Sticks + Stones are perfect pop songs for a young audience in 2012. She would have been a Smash Hits dream in the eighties and nineties!
Swagger Jagger, With Ur Love and Want U Back are great songs. And before you all start, Swagger Jagger did what it was meant to do on the tin – it opened people up and got them talking about her. Clever Cher.
Want U Back will be the lead single in the States when she goes out there in the coming weeks for her first proper round of promotion. BTW – Astro won’t feature on the record in the States. There will be a new male voice!
So who is helping her along the way? US X Factor judge L.A. Reid has signed her at Epic. Yep, you read that right. L.A. Reid - music l-e-g-e-n-d - believes Cher has what it takes.
“In America I hope the music will be what people take on board,” she told me tonight. “In the UK people seem to have something against me really.
It’s a chance for a fresh start. I’m nervous, but I’m going to give it my best shot.”
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Cher also has Craig Logan of Bros fame co-managing her and I don’t think I’ve seen him be genuinely excited about an artist like this since his days with Pink. He was in charge of helping the almighty Pink flourish into a global superstar….
So with L.A. Reid and Logan on board you know she’s talking business to start with.
When I first met her she was a gobby teen who thought everyone was out to get her. She was beaten down by the abuse she received off the back of being Simon Cowell’s controversial b*tch on X Factor.
She actually had major anger about it all back then and the people behind the scenes had to fight hard to get her to realise the bigger picture. And thankfully she listened and the penny has since dropped. She couldn’t be more different from those dark days now.
She’s confident, glowing, settled down with her boyfriend Craig Monk and genuinely blossoming into something quite special. She just needs to be given that chance to shine through.
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I mean, what the hell did we all know at 18? I certainly didn’t know much and used to regularly hate everything I possibly could. Fortunately I didn’t have to act like a twerp on national television.
The other thing I got from tonight’s performance was a glimmer of a different sort of Cher. During the acoustic sets Cher covered Robyn’s stunning Dancing on my Own and Usher’s OMG. They, for me, were out of this world. She made the songs her own and her vocals were tight, strong and accomplished. She was up there singing on a par with a Jessie J style vocal.
If she were to be given Kelly Clarkson’s Beautiful Disaster to sing then we would see fireworks.
I guess what I’m trying to say is tonight was a real eye opener. Miss Lloyd is on the verge of something quite special, in my opinion.
Album number two is going to be very important for her to get right but I’ve got faith in this singer.
So for the haters – gutted, she isn’t going anywhere! But for the fans – I get it. Cher’s actually something quite special.
P.S. Why wasn’t Playa Boi the next single? Naughty record company. Big mistake. Huge.
