AMY CHILDS

“I don’t regret nothing. I’ve come across as the fun character, the nice person. The only thing is my make-up. Sometimes I think, ‘My god Amy, why do you wear that much make-up?’ And sometimes I think, “Amy, you’ve got to think before you speak”, but at the end of the day that’s me and I let it all out.”

CHER LLOYD

“I want to go for something completely different. You know what, I’m sick of being compared. I’m completely different, I’ve got a different voice, a different image. I’d just like people to see me as me. What’s the point in comparing? Ooh look here’s a picture of Cher, she’s standing the same way as so-and-so, I’ll say she wants to be like so-and-so.”

NICOLE RITCHIE

“I like to control everything. I am there when it comes to picking fabrics, selecting prints, shipping, everything… I’m very flattered and feel extremely blessed that I even have this opportunity to do what I want and have people enjoy my work.”

BRAD GORESKI

“I’ve been working between New York and LA constantly. There’re so many question marks in my life right now. The only thing that’s absolutely constant in my life is the rack of clothes. In my hotel room, in my house, wherever it is, there’s always lots of clothes, be it mine or be it women’s. My closet is expanding.”

AUDRINA PATRIDGE

“I do have an opinion, and I do have my head on straight, and that I am very driven and optimistic and I have more to me than just gossip and drama. I really want everyone to see the other side of me, and what I’m passionate about and what I absolutely love and will do anything for. And they will see.”

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Stacey was an easy-to-love character, both on The X Factor, where she was self-deprecating, upbeat and sang power ballads in floor-length gowns; and on I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here, where she got regularly covered in cockroaches and made an unlikely new BFF in Madchester survivor Shaun Ryder.

There was the heart-warming back-story, too: Stacey is a single mum (although she’s been going out with her decorator boyfriend Aaronfor over a year now); she had a job in a fish and chip shop called “Oh My Cod”; her life’s dream was to buy a house for her and son Zach. Although she lost out in The X Factor to Joe McElderry, Stacey’s good-natured and surprisingly wise attitude in the outback won her plenty more fans. She was crowned Queen of the Jungle, and is making the most of the attention with an autobiography coming out in May, a freshly inked album deal with Warner Brothers, and a TV presenting gig for a charity singing contest lined up alongside Vernon Kaye. Oh yes, she’s also the new Iceland mum.

Has fame changed you?
Me? Nah. My job’s different, but nothing else is.

Who’s the best celeb you’ve met?
I met Bob Hoskins which was massive, because he’s Smee from Hook and that was one of the best films ever made! And I met the man who drew the characters for Aladdin – I was in awe. I love Disney so much, it’s the best. Not because I’m a cheesy over-excited weirdo, but because I just think that it’s so clever, and it’s happy. It’s the nicest thing to grow up seeing happy endings all the time.

Is that your secret to being so cheerful?
I don’t get why some people are constantly miserable. I’m so happy that I’m alive, I don’t really care about anything else.

And you must have nothing left to be afraid of, after I’m A Celebrity.
My only fear is dying. There’s so much I want to do.

Who’s your TV idol?
Who I’d like to be like? I don’t know, I try and be whatever I am. I think that genuine people are easy to see. I’m always honest, and I’m not interested in bitching.

What’s the closest you’ve come to throwing a diva strop?
Nothing means that much to me that I’ll get nasty.

Max Clifford does your PR work, is he not pushing you to get some fake celebrity boyfriend?
No! No one can tell me what to do, ever.

What are you singing in the shower these days?
I love Kate Nash, Jamie T, Two Door Cinema Club. I’m not really a chart music person, I like bands like Mumford and Sons. I’d love to do a duet with Coldplay.

That’s funny, people associate you with ballads and pop songs.
Yeah, because that’s the show that you’re on, you have to sing that kind of thing. There’s no getting away from it.

Will your album be quirkier?
Well, not too quirky or it won’t be played on the radio, so you have to find a happy medium. You know that iPod advert? [Sings a line from Feist’s “1234”] I love things like that.

Will there be any covers on there?
Not on the first album. I don’t feel like I can cover people’s songs because I’m no one. I haven’t even had my own songs, so who am I to sing someone else’s?

Do you ever meet up with Shaun Ryder for a pint?
I haven’t seen him in ages actually. He does ring and texts and keeps in touch. He leaves really funny messages, swears a lot.

Have you always been confident?
I’ve just never cared. I’ve got a Jewish nose and big hips, I’m not perfect but I’m happy.

Are you sick of any of those ballads that you had to sing over and over again?
Yeah, I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve sung “Who Wants to Live Forever”, God!

When you sing it’s like this hidden side of you comes out, that’s more passionate and serious.
I think I’m very serious, but I don’t take life too seriously. People misconceive it as being not so serious or not so clever.

You must be ambitious too.
Yeah but one minute you’re here, the next you’re not. You have everything, then you have nothing. If I took everything too seriously I’d go mental.

Photography: Amarpaul Kalirai
Words: Jess Holland

A full version of this article first appeared in Wonderland #26, April/May 2011

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Though she’s currently in the UK to take part in The X Factor tour, (“I love doing it. I’d do it all day if I could”), she’s spent much of her time in LA recently, getting to know some of the industry’s big boys. Her producer, RedOne (Lady Gaga’s best studio buddy), is so convinced of her talent that he’s asked to join her on tour in order to continue working with her. Savan Kotecha, the songwriter responsible for a string of hits by Britney, JLS and Usher, who’s also co-writing with Cher, says she’s “impressed the biggest writers and producers in the world”. In the run up to her interview with Wonderland, we of course had a look through Cher’s Twitter feed and noted that not only was she being courted by pop tastemaker Perez Hilton, but she’s also been hanging out with in the studio with Lil’ Wayne. This kind of thing never happened to Leon Jackson. It was obvious that Cher was special from her first audition, where she decided to perform a remix of Soulja Boy’s “Turn My Swag On”. (The following week the obscure track leapt up the UK charts – more than 14 million people have now watched the audition on YouTube.) She calls her music “Swag Pop,” but that doesn’t even come close to describing the furious energy of what she’s been working on. Yes, she’s still rapping, faster and more aggressively, and she’s fed in a lot of urban influences but it’s all got a kind of ingenious, princessy pop edge. “I like to show every single side of me,” she says, huddled in her manager’s jacket as she smokes outside the studios. “It’s complicated, but The X Factor was the best time of my life,” she says.

Are you happy with life at the moment?
Well, when I was about 15, I begged my mum to pay for a photoshoot. She never had the funding to take me to go and get a portfolio done, so I never got it done. And today I’ve done a photoshoot, just like that, because I’ve been asked to do it.

The red hair suits you – why did you decide to get it?
I wanted something that would sort of represent me, that’s fiery and outgoing. So I thought a bit of a red would do me good. I want to get my nose pierced too. I might try a fake one and see how it goes.

You seem to be having fun playing with your image.
I want to go for something completely different. I’d just like people to see me as me. What’s the point in comparing?

There’s lots of different moods on the album, but is it an R’n’B sound generally? How would you define “Swag Pop” to us?
It will work in the clubs. It’s feel-good music, I think. It just signifies everything I’m about.

Who has been your favourite collaborator so far?
I love RedOne. He made me feel like I was part of a family. And I have so much respect for him. He just wanted to make good music, and that’s it.

Where do you want to be in a year’s time?
I want to be able to say that I made No 1. No matter how hard it’s gonna be for me, as long as I get my number one I’ll be the happiest person alive.

What’s one rumour about you that’s really pissed you off?
Just crappy stuff about relationships, boys. But I’ve never been deeply in love with someone.

You’re 18 in a couple of months – what are you doing?
I’m cooking up a really nice party. Here. I may have a birthday week. So I’ll have a party and take a few friends to some deserted place where nobody can find us. What’s one thing that you think people don’t know about you? Well, I’m just a normal 17-year-old girl and I do have major feelings. Sometimes things that people say do really affect me, whether it’s about the way I look, or the way that I’m acting. It can get me really stressed out. And it’s like, give me a little break. A week of somebody being nice to me would be lovely. That’s the thing that I want to get across. And it’s about my music, and I can’t wait for people to hear it.

Photography: Aitken Jolly
Fashion: Julia Sarr-Jamois
Words: Adam Welch

This article first appeared in Wonderland Issue 26, April/May 2011

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