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In those concluding moments it took one panic attack and five phenomenal routines; now Alesha Dixon is experiencing something of resuscitation.

Through tumultuous times she’s persisted, making life-altering decisions that could have initially served as risky reminders of fading fame. Yet her astonishing turn on BBC1s Strictly Come Dancing transformed her troubled solo career; the force of television snatching her name from the tabloids, and placing it on the tongue of not only her original teen fanbase, but parents and pensioners as well. Suddenly stands now, a household heroine.

She asserts from the very beginning, “I’m in a very good place, probably the best I’ve been in my life,” as we ponder the affirmative action it has taken to bring her here. All can be encapsulated quite insipidly with the verb ‘Change’, but Alesha stands by it as the key to the door of this special place where she is now resides with a queue of interest in her lengthening outside.

Whereas many ailing careers are poorly hospitalized on reality television programmes, Ms. Dixon was clearly aware of the faux-pas territory she was about to venture into, “I was scared, it’s a reality TV show, I wasn’t sure how people would react to me doing it”.
True, it could of injured her artistic outlook completely had she failed, but the final victory served as a saviour. With radiance in her complexion that equals the luminosity in her eye she’s proud to admit, “It’s rejuvenated everything”.

In the two years she attempted a debut recording as a solo singer and songwriter, the promotional campaign for which was squandered by industry politics. Despite two single releases the album was shelved in the UK until recently, though she assures us it’s Japan release has done magnificently. Now she’s back in the studio attempting to conquer that top 5 territory she not long ago dominated as one-third of R&B girl-group Misteeq.

Despite the vague accounts that have cloaked the trio’s disbanding, Alesha firstly declares with any lament aside, a positive reflection: “What Misteeq achieved was three black girls having two platinum records, performing at the Brits, travelling the world, performing at Buckingham Palace, having a hit in America. I can’t have anything but a real sense of joy when I think of Misteeq and pride.”

However the public’s curiosity is less titillated by merits, but more so any misfortune. It’s entirely valid that because the group was together for 8 years; people tire and digress to follow individual dreams they can’t carve out for themselves by all sharing the same blade. However her most sincere moment on this matter comes when she respectfully confesses, “We loved each other, we respected each other but we could also irritate the hell out of each other”.

“Looking back maybe there was a third record in us”, a final teasing notion and we move on.

Debate has not only loomed in her professional career, but controversy struck her with a massive axe blow “I’m one of these people that moves on very quickly, and if things are being read or being talked about 15 months after things have happened, it feels staggering and I think “I’ve moved on, could you move on aswell.”

“To me Beyonce is like the queen,” she respectfully addresses the OTHER debate with her continental comparison. Maybe that’s part of her girl-next-door appeal; as the public view divas with both adoration and disdain, there is little resistance when embracing wholeheartedly those that are humble. Ironic it is then the revelation she’s currently working on co-written material for her forthcoming album with the younger sister of her American predecessor, Solange Knowles.

On pleasing the new audience: “for me it’s all about balance, just having a balance of everything.”

Next up, a documentary, showing a social conscience: I feel like alot of black women have to conform into a Westernised way of looking to be accepted and I think that’s really bad.

Confirming our worst fears: I think the UK we’ve still got a really long way to go in terms of women of colour being in the forefront of the media.

On preserving: “I’m an example of someone who never went to stage school, never grew up with money, have been dropped from a record company, have had ups and downs, I’m a lady of colour and I’m still positive and I still believe it’s possible and I’m still working & going for it.”

Written by Shan Phearon

• 

  WRITTEN BY
  JEE
  FRI 29/02/08 @ 12:29

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