When you’re a celebrity television show contestant and the subject of a tabloid love spat it’s tricky to emerge with sanity and respectable chosen career intact. Alesha Dixon, though, is cut from a different cloth. And the Welwyn Garden City-born pop beauty’s star has sure been in the ascendancy this year in the wake of her triumph on Strictly Come Dancing.

Escaping her marriage with exposed love-rat Harvey (of So Solid Crew infamy) has also coincided with her rapid rise, after the motor-mouthed rapper/sometime TV presenter was caught with his pants down with Eurovision singer Javine. And the traumatic episode stoked the hip-shaking fire of her latest album The Alesha Show, including top ten singles The Boy Does Nothing and Breathe Slow.

“ I don’t think I could have written this album five years ago,” the former Mis-Teeq vocalist muses. “There is definitely something about having experiences – good and bad – in life that makes your emotions stronger and you really find out who you are. In Mis-Teeq I used to say in interviews that writing lyrics was like writing a diary, but now I realise that only as a solo artist can you write something truly personal, that’s sometimes even healing. I’ve just tried to be honest about things that have happened in my life.

“ I tried to have a mixture, with reflective and upbeat songs. There are songs which reflect where I am now, with life being good, and I also have songs that talk about things that are more deep and personal to me.”

And although Strictly Come Dancing delayed The Alesha Show’s recording sessions, the overall buoyant effect has far outweighed any momentum loss that interruptions to the album could have caused.

“ I nearly said no to Strictly because I was worried about what people would think and how it would affect my record. I ended up saying yes because I genuinely wanted to learn how to dance. When I was younger I always wanted to go to stage school but my parents couldn’t afford it.

“ What I didn’t expect was that it gave me an injection of energy and picked my spirits up. It was hugely self-affirming. For the first time in my life I didn’t care what was going to happen next. Before Strictly there had been moments when I felt a bit lost and was socializing too much. Strictly structured my life again and gave me focus.”

With Harvey now firmly in her ex file, his loss is certainly the general red-blooded population’s gain: Alesha hit the big three-oh last year, but one glance at her show-stopping figure suggests 30 is very much the new 20, all without obsessive fitness regimes. Not that her curvy silhouette doesn’t require a degree of sweat and toil…
“ I lost loads of weight when I did Strictly and I didn’t like it at all. All the exercise meant the weight just fell off. But I feel sexiest when I’m walking out of the gym after a workout. I feel like I glow even though I’m probably a bit sweaty.

“ You don’t need to spend a fortune to look nice,” Alesha continues, despite enjoying self-confessed shopaholic status, with, for all it may mean to most men, a pricey Versace dress in her wardrobe. “My most embarrassing item is probably a cardigan my Nan knitted me, but I still love it because she made it especially for me, bless her.”

Alesha doesn’t talk openly about Harvey and his extra-marital shenanigans nowadays. And, with so much of her life poured into The Alesha Show (Breathe Slow, for example, details advice on staying cool when faced with infuriating adversaries), a juicy mooted autobiography is on hold for the time being. She’s keen to maintain an air of mystery.

“ I've chickened out. Although I am in this industry I am not quite comfortable about giving everything away. To write a book honestly, other people are going to be involved, whether it’s past relationships, family, friends. And I’m not quite sure I could do that to other people. With all that said, I haven’t ruled it out completely.”

Much praise has been heaped on Alesha’s sleek shoulders since her life turnaround, with everyone from Girls Aloud super-producers Xenomania to N*E*R*D’s rap mogul Pharrell Williams lining up to work with her. Strictly host Bruce Forsyth even dubbed Alesha 'the British Beyoncé', she could probably lay more concrete claims to a notional female Bono tag thanks to loads of selfless charity work too, most notably joining a band of A-list celebs who scaled Mount Kilimanjaro to raise seven figures for Comic Relief earlier this year, subsequently honoured by the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown.

Such exploits, alongside newfound musical successes, have replaced any hunger for star-studded elimination shows. So don’t expect to see Alesha stripping off in the jungle and chewing kangaroo testicles on I’m A Celebrity...

“ I couldn’t eat those bugs! Plus, I need a reason to be on camera. With Strictly it was about the dancing. But sitting around gossiping and revealing everything isn’t for me.”

Alesha touches down in Cardiff in October on her first solo tour with a full live band. And although she has been burnt by the cruel side of love, gents would be wise to look their best: Alesha is definitely back on the market.

“ Being single is great but I’m open to meeting someone. It’s easy to say, ‘I’m never getting married again’ or ‘I don’t want kids’ but I don’t know how I’m going to feel. Never say never. You have plans and ideals but they don’t always work out. Until you meet someone who sweeps you off your feet you don’t know how you’ll feel. But I think one day I would like kids. I’d like a girl so she could wear all my outfits. Then again, I wouldn’t mind if I had a son and he wore them. I’m very open like that!”

Alesha Dixon plays St David’s Hall on October 23, tickets £18.50, 029 2087 8444. See www.aleshadixon.co.uk for latest news and music

It seems like there is an edge to your music again, because of his lyrics…
Yeah, there is because I could never write as well as him. But, with all respect, I don’t think Richey could have written the lyrics to A Design for Life, because of their simplicity and social history. I don’t know, when we were sat around James’ table, writing music for this album, it just flowed. It’s like we were guided by the lyrics! So, you do have that edginess to it, but there are also acoustic moments in there as well – they’re just not as full-on!
In hindsight, were there any warning signs about Richey?
Oh, I don’t know. Towards the end - sort of post-Holy Bible - you could see that something wasn’t right but you just can’t understand, because he’s going through so much process. It was getting harder to communicate with him and he’d lost the ability to sleep, or shut-down. You know, we all have our ways of [switching off], whether it’s drinking, watching sport, for me it's watching films... but I think he just didn’t have the ability to be calm. He was creating all the time: he was either painting, writing, reading, typing…and you just can’t keep up with someone like that. But it was hard, because you could see that that was causing him stress, really.
You were once a cult band but are now the granddaddies of Welsh rock. Is that why you decided to up the ante with your last album, Send Away The Tigers and also this one?
I think so. I think we got to a point, with Lifeblood, where although there are some songs on there which I think are genuinely the best, pure song-writing we’ve ever done, there’s such a lack of energy and a lack of connection with ourselves. We literally didn’t go into the studio together - we all recorded separately. But it wasn’t that we weren’t getting on, we just saw it as an experiment. And I think from Know Your Enemy to Lifeblood it’s just a pretty confused, midseason lull. But I think the trick is getting out of it and I think we have managed to get out.

Do you think you’re still relevant then?
Yeah, I do. I mean, all bands make bad records – we’ve done it – and anyone who denies that are just idiots. All bands make average records and some make blistering ones. But, there aren’t that many contemporaries, from when we started, that are still – even the ones that are going – as relevant or as vital as we can be at times.

There’s always been a political edge to your music, so how do you feel about the fiasco over MPs’ expenses?
I think what they’re doing with expenses is terrible. It’s just rubbish. But also I think if every one of us was put under the same scrutiny, as politicians, we’d all be screwed! I’m not defending them, because they do a lot of terrible, petty stuff, but I think the fear of them being found out, for the tiniest thing, actually hampers them from doing their job properly.

Has what’s happened ended your love affair with New Labour?
Well, it was something I was never sucked into in the first place, actually. We were never invited to Downing Street that year [when everyone else was] even though we were probably the biggest band in Britain, bar Oasis. I was always amazed that people were disappointed [by New Labour] because that means they fell for it in the first place!

It sounds like you’ve gone off politics…
No, I’m one of the few – despite Labour and all that’s been going on recently with expenses – who enjoy politics on many different levels. I enjoy it at its grittiest - as a spectator sport! I know people are so disillusioned by politics – they just can’t see that it can do any good – but if you go back to, say, the Northern Ireland peace process it was politics that solved it. It was the same with devolution for Wales: it was still done through voting, democracy and politics. So, whether it’s for good or bad, I kind of still believe in politics more than I do, say, charity, because I still think politics is the one thing that can do good things, like that.

You’ve had a pop at rock stars in the past – any regrets about it?
Yeah, of course, because some of the times I’ve [done that I’ve] just been an idiot. I regret a lot – I’m not one of these people who says, ‘I don’t regret anything about my life, it’s a journey’. There’s plenty of stuff where I’ve just been stupid! But I think the sense of fun – the sarcasm I use – when I’m saying something doesn’t always come across. Besides, it’s just bedroom talk, or pub talk. It’s what most people say, or musicians say to each other – but not usually in public. I mean, we all know musicians are the biggest bitches - apart from producers, who are the worst!
Journal for Plague Lovers is in shops now

It seems like there is an edge to your music again, because of his lyrics…
Yeah, there is because I could never write as well as him. But, with all respect, I don’t think Richey could have written the lyrics to A Design for Life, because of their simplicity and social history. I don’t know, when we were sat around James’ table, writing music for this album, it just flowed. It’s like we were guided by the lyrics! So, you do have that edginess to it, but there are also acoustic moments in there as well – they’re just not as full-on!
In hindsight, were there any warning signs about Richey?
Oh, I don’t know. Towards the end - sort of post-Holy Bible - you could see that something wasn’t right but you just can’t understand, because he’s going through so much process. It was getting harder to communicate with him and he’d lost the ability to sleep, or shut-down. You know, we all have our ways of [switching off], whether it’s drinking, watching sport, for me it's watching films... but I think he just didn’t have the ability to be calm. He was creating all the time: he was either painting, writing, reading, typing…and you just can’t keep up with someone like that. But it was hard, because you could see that that was causing him stress, really.

You were once a cult band but are now the granddaddies of Welsh rock. Is that why you decided to up the ante with your last album, Send Away The Tigers and also this one?
I think so. I think we got to a point, with Lifeblood, where although there are some songs on there which I think are genuinely the best, pure song-writing we’ve ever done, there’s such a lack of energy and a lack of connection with ourselves. We literally didn’t go into the studio together - we all recorded separately. But it wasn’t that we weren’t getting on, we just saw it as an experiment. And I think from Know Your Enemy to Lifeblood it’s just a pretty confused, midseason lull. But I think the trick is getting out of it and I think we have managed to get out.

Do you think you’re still relevant then?
Yeah, I do. I mean, all bands make bad records – we’ve done it – and anyone who denies that are just idiots. All bands make average records and some make blistering ones. But, there aren’t that many contemporaries, from when we started, that are still – even the ones that are going – as relevant or as vital as we can be at times.

There’s always been a political edge to your music, so how do you feel about the fiasco over MPs’ expenses?
I think what they’re doing with expenses is terrible. It’s just rubbish. But also I think if every one of us was put under the same scrutiny, as politicians, we’d all be screwed! I’m not defending them, because they do a lot of terrible, petty stuff, but I think the fear of them being found out, for the tiniest thing, actually hampers them from doing their job properly.

Has what’s happened ended your love affair with New Labour?
Well, it was something I was never sucked into in the first place, actually. We were never invited to Downing Street that year [when everyone else was] even though we were probably the biggest band in Britain, bar Oasis. I was always amazed that people were disappointed [by New Labour] because that means they fell for it in the first place!

It sounds like you’ve gone off politics…
No, I’m one of the few – despite Labour and all that’s been going on recently with expenses – who enjoy politics on many different levels. I enjoy it at its grittiest - as a spectator sport! I know people are so disillusioned by politics – they just can’t see that it can do any good – but if you go back to, say, the Northern Ireland peace process it was politics that solved it. It was the same with devolution for Wales: it was still done through voting, democracy and politics. So, whether it’s for good or bad, I kind of still believe in politics more than I do, say, charity, because I still think politics is the one thing that can do good things, like that.

You’ve had a pop at rock stars in the past – any regrets about it?
Yeah, of course, because some of the times I’ve [done that I’ve] just been an idiot. I regret a lot – I’m not one of these people who says, ‘I don’t regret anything about my life, it’s a journey’. There’s plenty of stuff where I’ve just been stupid! But I think the sense of fun – the sarcasm I use – when I’m saying something doesn’t always come across. Besides, it’s just bedroom talk, or pub talk. It’s what most people say, or musicians say to each other – but not usually in public. I mean, we all know musicians are the biggest bitches - apart from producers, who are the worst!
Journal for Plague Lovers is in shops now

It seems like there is an edge to your music again, because of his lyrics…
Yeah, there is because I could never write as well as him. But, with all respect, I don’t think Richey could have written the lyrics to A Design for Life, because of their simplicity and social history. I don’t know, when we were sat around James’ table, writing music for this album, it just flowed. It’s like we were guided by the lyrics! So, you do have that edginess to it, but there are also acoustic moments in there as well – they’re just not as full-on!
In hindsight, were there any warning signs about Richey?
Oh, I don’t know. Towards the end - sort of post-Holy Bible - you could see that something wasn’t right but you just can’t understand, because he’s going through so much process. It was getting harder to communicate with him and he’d lost the ability to sleep, or shut-down. You know, we all have our ways of [switching off], whether it’s drinking, watching sport, for me it's watching films... but I think he just didn’t have the ability to be calm. He was creating all the time: he was either painting, writing, reading, typing…and you just can’t keep up with someone like that. But it was hard, because you could see that that was causing him stress, really.

You were once a cult band but are now the granddaddies of Welsh rock. Is that why you decided to up the ante with your last album, Send Away The Tigers and also this one?
I think so. I think we got to a point, with Lifeblood, where although there are some songs on there which I think are genuinely the best, pure song-writing we’ve ever done, there’s such a lack of energy and a lack of connection with ourselves. We literally didn’t go into the studio together - we all recorded separately. But it wasn’t that we weren’t getting on, we just saw it as an experiment. And I think from Know Your Enemy to Lifeblood it’s just a pretty confused, midseason lull. But I think the trick is getting out of it and I think we have managed to get out.

Do you think you’re still relevant then?
Yeah, I do. I mean, all bands make bad records – we’ve done it – and anyone who denies that are just idiots. All bands make average records and some make blistering ones. But, there aren’t that many contemporaries, from when we started, that are still – even the ones that are going – as relevant or as vital as we can be at times.

There’s always been a political edge to your music, so how do you feel about the fiasco over MPs’ expenses?
I think what they’re doing with expenses is terrible. It’s just rubbish. But also I think if every one of us was put under the same scrutiny, as politicians, we’d all be screwed! I’m not defending them, because they do a lot of terrible, petty stuff, but I think the fear of them being found out, for the tiniest thing, actually hampers them from doing their job properly.

Has what’s happened ended your love affair with New Labour?
Well, it was something I was never sucked into in the first place, actually. We were never invited to Downing Street that year [when everyone else was] even though we were probably the biggest band in Britain, bar Oasis. I was always amazed that people were disappointed [by New Labour] because that means they fell for it in the first place!

It sounds like you’ve gone off politics…
No, I’m one of the few – despite Labour and all that’s been going on recently with expenses – who enjoy politics on many different levels. I enjoy it at its grittiest - as a spectator sport! I know people are so disillusioned by politics – they just can’t see that it can do any good – but if you go back to, say, the Northern Ireland peace process it was politics that solved it. It was the same with devolution for Wales: it was still done through voting, democracy and politics. So, whether it’s for good or bad, I kind of still believe in politics more than I do, say, charity, because I still think politics is the one thing that can do good things, like that.

You’ve had a pop at rock stars in the past – any regrets about it?
Yeah, of course, because some of the times I’ve [done that I’ve] just been an idiot. I regret a lot – I’m not one of these people who says, ‘I don’t regret anything about my life, it’s a journey’. There’s plenty of stuff where I’ve just been stupid! But I think the sense of fun – the sarcasm I use – when I’m saying something doesn’t always come across. Besides, it’s just bedroom talk, or pub talk. It’s what most people say, or musicians say to each other – but not usually in public. I mean, we all know musicians are the biggest bitches - apart from producers, who are the worst!
Journal for Plague Lovers is in shops now

Adam Kennedy takes a spin with the lovely Ms Dixon

Strictly Alesha

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