Like so many of you out there reading this post, I spent last week watching BeyoncĂ©’s Netflix movie “Homecoming”. It depicted her Coachella performance last year along with background footage of preparation for the event. If you didn’t know it, I really like BeyoncĂ©’s music dating back to early Destiny’s Child. Yes, I watched the movie a few times and will most likely watch many times more. There are a lot of words I could use to describe the performance. Try the words sensational, powerful, electrifying and you would be in line with many other fans and music critics alike. I like the word fabulous. It fits well for BeyoncĂ© as well as this week’s featured artist, Fleur East.
Of course everyone has heard of Beyoncé. In every corner of the world the superstar entertainer is known and recognized. Fleur East? Not too many recognize her outside of Great Britain. However, that might change. Once more music fans see and hear her perform, audiences may grow larger. Right now, one question might still be fresh in the minds of readers of this post. Who is Fleur East? Allow me to answer that for you.
Fleur East is an English singer, songwriter, rapper, dancer, and fitness model. East was born October 29, 1987 to an English father and a Ghanaian mother. She was raised in Walthamstow, London. She also has family living in Yorkshire. Also, she has a younger sister named Keshia, a make-up professional. She attended Holy Family Technology College in Walthamstow and Queen Mary University of London, where she studied journalism and contemporary history.
If you do recognize Fleur East, it might be because she competed on the second series of televised singing competition The X Factor in 2005 as a member of the girl group Addictiv Ladies. East returned to The X Factor as a solo artist in 2014 for its eleventh series, where she placed runner-up. She became the show’s first contestant to reach number one on the UK iTunes Store chart during the competition with her performance of “Uptown Funk” (originally by Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars).
It was during that second period as a contestant on The X Factor that Fleur East delivered some memorable performances, and established herself as an artist on the rise. Even the somewhat stoic and businesslike Simon Cowell was moved to mention her performances were some of the best he had ever seen from any contestant. If you have not seen them, YouTube contains a few of her best moments from The X Factor.
If you know me through Weekly Music Commentary or outside of it, you know that I am not really a fan of the reality talent show genre. I feel that once the runner-ups of the show start to become bigger stars that the winners, the show becomes obsolete – or at least tarnished. Before television reality shows, artists were discovered by record executives and companies who decided to give an artist a chance at success by way of promotion. Today, artists are making their way to success on their own by way of social media. Record companies now engage in bidding wars for the most popular of those artists. The reality show helps the artist gain exposure, but winning the show is no guarantee of success. Even though Fleur East was a runner-up, she did receive a recording contract. However, she found out that did not guarantee any future success. We’ll get to that a little later.
I can only imagine that sometimes the 17 or 18-year-old singers are devastated after being eliminated from a show like The X Factor. Fleur East experienced this in 2005 as a member of girl group Addictiv Ladies. Nevertheless she continued to look for success in the music industry. She was introduced to drum-and-bass producer DJ Fresh through her manager in 2011, and Fresh subsequently hired her as a vocalist for a BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge session of his. In 2012, she featured on Fresh’s song “Turn It Up” from his album Nextlevelism and toured extensively with him in 2012, including performances at T4 on the Beach, V Festival and the iTunes Festival.
East signed to the record label Strictly Rhythm in January 2012 and released two singles as the lead artist (credited as Fleur): “Broken Mirror” with Cutline and “Turn the Lights On”. She also featured on “The One” by Horx and P3000. In 2013, she featured on Drumsound & Bassline Smith’s “One in a Million”, which entered the UK Singles Chart at number 53, and headlined the Miss Face of Africa EU ceremony in London. In December 2013, she self-released her dĂ©but EP She free download.
Even though Fleur East experienced some success, there was little monetary gain. She worked as a waitress at the London nightclub Aura Mayfair to help support her music career, and was also a fitness model with the agency W Athletic, but struggled with her finances. She later said that by early 2014, she was “definitely depressed” and considering ending her music career, until her friends and relatives encouraged her to re-audition for The X Factor.
Following The X Factor it seemed that Fleur East was ready to deliver more electrifying moments on her way toward big things.
In January 2015, East announced that she had signed to Cowell’s record label Syco Music. She announced in July 2015 that she had been working on her first fashion collection with women’s fashion brand Lipsy London. “Sax”, the lead single from her dĂ©but album, was released in November 2015 and reached number three in the UK. Her dĂ©but album, titled Love, Sax and Flashbacks, was released on December 4, 2015. On January 22, 2016 East released the single “More and More”. She soon signed with Columbia Records to launch her international music career.
In October 2017, it was revealed that East and Syco had parted ways after three years via mutual agreement.
This setback is very different because Fleur East delivered a great dĂ©but album, and is established as a good solo artist. Even though Simon Cowell asked East to return to The X Factor for a Celebrity Edition, she understands this is a different place in her career. The X Factor helped her get to this point. “I’ve done X Factor twice now, it gave me a huge platform but I don’t know if I want to go back and change those memories.” Of her Syco days, she added: “There’s no bad blood. We’re cool. We got to a point where creatively we were not going in the same direction.”
Earlier this year Fleur East released her first single in three years, Favourite Thing. I have heard that she has recorded more music in preparation for a follow-up album. Stay alert! Look out for more music from the dynamic, electrifying and fabulous Fleur East.