The X Factor's Amelia Lily on being booted off the show - and then finding success

Return of the comeback kid: The X Factor's AMELIA LILY on being booted off the show - and then finding success

By JUDITH WOODS

PUBLISHED: 00:01, 21 April 2013 | UPDATED: 00:01, 21 April 2013

Amelia Lily’s career certainly had a bumpy start: knocked back at The X Factor auditions, then winning a place, getting booted off – and reinstated. Which must make racking up the hits and playing to packed arenas all the sweeter now… 

Amelia Lily: ‘I think the lads from One Direction are very sweet and good fun but that’s as far as it goes...'

Let’s begin by setting the record straight: Amelia Lily doesn’t fancy any of the boys from One Direction, who, like her, made The X Factor ‘journey’ (which took Amelia from unknown teen singer to support act on the final Girls Aloud tour).

‘I think the lads are very sweet and good fun but that’s as far as it goes. There were weird rumours that I had some sort of fling with Niall, but I honestly only said, “Hello, how’re you doing?” to him in passing. They are so not my type.’ She shrugs and grins. This is a bit odd, given the band has been micro-manufactured specifically to guarantee each of them is someone’s type. 

‘You can see they are having a ball and are a real laugh, and they deserve all their success, but they’re too young for me.’ This is even odder because, technically, Harry, Zayn et al are all older, but it doesn’t take long in the company of this preternaturally mature 18-year-old to grasp exactly what she means. This lass from the Northeast may have candy-floss pink hair and the prettiest name in show business but it would be a grave mistake to pigeonhole her as just another ditsy girl with a guitar. The head on those shoulders is wiser than a great many popstrels twice her age.

Here are just a few Amelia gems that would gladden any parental heart. On relationships: ‘I’m only 18, there’s plenty of time for boys.’ On being axed from The X Factor and then brought back five agonising weeks later, after Frankie Cocozza was ejected for misbehaviour: ‘It was good for me to get sent home; I needed a reality check.’ On being bullied at school: ‘It might have made me miserable but it also made me stronger.’ On her work ethic: ‘My dad taught me that you only get out what you put in.’ On alcohol: ‘I always know when I’ve had enough but, actually, I’ve never reached that point.’ On her diabetes: ‘I inject myself a few times a day; it’s really no big deal.’ I’m honestly afraid to enquire if she’s got a pension plan sorted, but as she has asked her parents to bank her income and drip-feed her a modest allowance, let’s assume she has.

SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO OF AMELIA LILY'S SINGLE PARTY OVER

'I was watching my record climbing up iTunes - me, alongside Ne-Yo and The Script - and I was so overcome'

On paper that all might sound relentlessly Pollyanna-ish – too good to be true, even. But in person Amelia is a quirky amalgam of positivity, edginess, strength of character and common sense that distils into a down-to-earth likability. It’s a quality that shone through on television and dazzles face to face. No wonder she’s the latest addition to the Make Mine Milk series of adverts, which shows celebrities as diverse as The Wanted, Pixie Lott, Vinnie Jones and heptathlete Denise Lewis sporting chic dairy moustaches. 

The BeatBullying charity has also teamed up with the Milk Marketing Forum to launch Find Your Voice, a competition spearheaded by Amelia that encourages budding young poets and songwriters to send in work on the subject of bullying. The winning entry will then be produced as a song performed by her. It’s a substantial commitment just when her career is really taking off, but she is adamant that she will make the time. ‘I want every kid to know that he or she doesn’t have to suffer in silence,’ she says. ‘I hope it will empower young people to get creative and speak out.’

On television and in publicity shots, with the regulation smoky eyes, parted lips and bed-head hair, Amelia looks every inch a self-assured pop star. In person, she’s equally confident, but with her peaches-and-cream complexion scrubbed clean of make-up and hair scraped back in a
hasty ponytail, she looks like a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed sixth former. ‘It was The X Factor people who suggested that I dye my hair pink,’ she says. ‘I wasn’t sure because I’d always been blonde, but I could see that there are an awful lot of blonde singers out there, so I did it, and I absolutely loved the result. It really does reflect who I am; I like to be different and my pink hair has become my trademark.’ 

Parents Aranka and Barry in The X Factor audience

Backstage at G-A-Y nightclub with brother Lewis

When she came third on the eighth series of The X Factor (2011), which was won by Little Mix, her disappointment was assuaged by the fact that she was genuinely pleased for them. ‘I shared a room with the Little Mix girls in The X Factor house and it was brilliant. We got on so well that I consider myself the fifth member of the group,’ says Amelia (who dropped her surname Oliver on the grounds that it was too much of a mouthful). 

Thereafter her own debut single, ‘You Bring Me Joy’, reached number two in the UK singles chart and went top ten in Europe, too, a moment that had a profound effect on her. ‘I was watching my record climbing up iTunes – me, alongside Ne-Yo and The Script – and I was so overcome by it all, I threw up! I was with a friend, who cleaned up the mess, bless her. That’s how emotional it was for me.’

'It was good for me to get sent home [from The X Factor]; I needed a reality check'

She’s just spent 13 months recording and writing her new album Be A Fighter, which is about to be released. She is signed not to Simon Cowell’s record label Syco, which almost indiscriminately hoovers up much of The X Factor talent (including 1D, who came third in the seventh series) but to Xenomania. This label, run by a leading team of songwriter-producers who have penned hits for names such as Kylie Minogue, Cher, Pet Shop Boys, Girls Aloud and The Saturdays, suited Amelia because she was adamant that she should have creative input at every step of the process. 

She cites Pink, Taylor Swift, Katy Perry and old-school divas such as Celine Dion and Whitney Houston as major influences. ‘This isn’t a TV show any more, this is my life,’ she says. ‘Working on the album has been the most amazing experience; such hard work, but so creative. I’ve written on six of the tracks and I think people will be really surprised at how diverse it is; there’s a country feel on some of them and others are edgy or a bit rocky.’ 

Amelia has teamed up with the BeatBullying charity and the Milk Marketing Forum to launch the Find Your Voice competition

Born and brought up in a three-bedroom semi in Nunthorpe, a suburb of Middlesbrough, Amelia has two elder brothers: Lewis, aged 23, a hairdresser, and 26-year-old Niall, a graphic artist who is now the bass player in her band and with whom she shares a flat in London’s trendy Docklands area. ‘I had a lovely childhood; my mum didn’t work so she was always there and we had a garden with a climbing frame, where I kept my 28 guinea pigs.’ 

Presumably not 28 all at once? ‘Oh yes!’ she cries, proving at last she is actually 18 and not 38. ‘They kept breeding and I couldn’t bear to get rid of them, although by the end I was running out of names so I called them things like David and Victoria Beckham. I love all animals, especially dogs.

'I have two back at home; a west highland terrier called Ruby Slippers and a chihuahua, Elphie Lily. I really miss them.’ While mum Aranka is in charge of the livestock, her father Barry runs a plumbing and heating company and conveyed to his children the meaning of hard graft from an early age. ‘My dad is amazing: he was determined that we would have the best in life and put in every hour to achieve it. I learned so much from him – he’s my role model.’

'I went on The X Factor not to be famous but to establish a name, a career for myself'

Although she casts her early years as idyllic, there was a cloud on the horizon: at the age of three and a half, Amelia was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, requiring blood-sugar tests and injections several times daily for the rest of her life. ‘I’ve never known anything else, so I can’t imagine how it would be not to have diabetes,’ she says. ‘When I was little I used to have terrible fits and wake up in hospital every so often; I wasn’t able to read the signs very well so my blood-sugar level would plunge and I’d become hypoglycaemic and have to be rushed to A&E. 

But now I’m much more aware and I haven’t had a fit for eight years or so. As far as living with the disease is concerned, I just have to eat properly, check my blood sugar three times a day before meals and inject myself with insulin.

It’s something I do without thinking and part of what makes me me. My mother was always determined that I shouldn’t let it stand in my way, and it doesn’t.’ 

By the age of nine, it was clear – at least to others – that Amelia had a voice. ‘I was belting out Anastacia’s ‘Left Outside Alone’ when my brother suddenly noticed I could sing, and something clicked. Before too long I sang in front of an audience of 50 at the local dance school, and by the age of 12 I was writing songs. I just knew that this was what I was good at and what I wanted to do; I’m a very determined person.’

Gilded for Amelia Lily

Reading I’m not a big reader but I do love the Twilight books.
Music I’m currently revisiting rock favourites such as Green Day and Jimmy Eat World.
Style Icon Me! I have adistressed-tee,net-tutu, biker-boot style that’s all my own.
Make-Up Smoky eyes and nude lips by Mac. Illamasqua does sensational eyeshadows, too.
Accessories I love jewellery — the more bling the better. From cheap high-street stuff to a big Vivienne Westwood statement piece.
Saving up for Getting on the first rung ofthe property ladder.

Meanwhile, further dark clouds had gathered as she had made the transition from a local state primary to a fee-paying girls’ school. From the outset she was treated like an outsider, and although she is chary of using the word ‘bullied’, it’s the only term that adequately describes what it felt like to be covertly excluded from the clique in which she found herself.

‘I’ve always believed that life is really short and you should experience as much as you can and mix with different kinds of people, and it was a shock to meet girls who were so judgmental and unfriendly. I looked different because I wore bright jeans; I liked rock bands, they liked chart hits.

'I didn’t think that was a problem, but they obviously did, so I spent a lot of my time alone in the music room crying. But I refused to change myself just to fit in and everything I went through has made me tougher.’ 

She played down the situation so as not to worry her parents, and instead relied on her family and a strong network of local friends. Then, at the age of 16, she was holding a party at her house when someone switched on The X Factor. Her father announced, ‘Next year Amelia will be up there.’ And she was. 

The path to stardom wasn’t a smooth one, however. First, she was knocked back at the initial auditions in Cardiff in April 2011. Then she was re-accepted on a ‘last chance’ opportunity, where wannabes were asked to send in a video (she sang Jessie J’s ‘Price Tag’). When she finally made it on to the show and was mentored by Kelly Rowland, she was abruptly axed by the former Destiny’s Child singer when the judges were forced, unexpectedly, to vote off an act each. But ‘the comeback kid’, as she was dubbed, returned and made it to the final, thanks to the overwhelming support of the public. Now, as she starts promoting Be A Fighter, she hopes she will continue to gain fans. 

Opening for Girls Aloud at the O2 in London earlier this year

Amelia visiting family and friends in Middlesbrough with mentor Kelly Rowland

Supporting Girls Aloud on what turned out to be their last tour was a learning experience that honed her performance skills.

‘Being a support act is a challenge because the audience haven’t come to see you,’ she admits. ‘But I just did my best to raise a smile and I succeeded. In fact, I was really pleased and surprised by the applause and the cheers and the generous reception of the crowd. I went on The X Factor not to be famous but to establish a name, a career for myself. I want to write and sing songs.’

It’s a passion that is very apparent when she performs; there are no nerves, no wobbles, no indications that in another life she’d still be a schoolgirl. ‘I just want to be on stage. It’s as simple as that. When I’m on stage I feel alive, I feel powerful, I feel I’ve found the place where I belong.’  

Be A Fighter will be released on 20 May on Xenomania

VIDEO: Amelia Lily's single Party Over

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/you/article-2310540/Return-comeback-kid-X-Factors-Amelia-Lily-booted-new-success.html#ixzz2R93K3x7w
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