Since appearing in last year’s X Factor final Cher Lloyd has rarely been out of the headlines for both the right and wrong reasons, most recently for her forthcoming debut single Swagger Jagger having polarised public and critics’ opinion alike.
But whatever you think about Cher Lloyd, she was arguably the most refreshing thing to happen to X Factor in years.
From the moment she strolled on stage in her audition to perform Keri Hilson’s version of Turn My Swag On, the then 16-year-old not only commanded the audience but altered the direction of a TV show hitherto famed for unearthing pop balladeers forever.
The series was in its infancy and it was already clear Lloyd exuded that rare ‘X factor.’
Like no other contestant in the competition, social media networks and newspaper column inches were devoted to discussing the teenager’s every move. From rapping Coldplay’s Viva La Vida at ‘boot camp’ stage to struggling with tonsillitis through Mike Posner’s Cooler Than Me at her mentor Cheryl Cole’s ‘judges’ house’, she demanded attention.
And while the public debated whether that attention was deliberate or deserved, by the time she performed her defining cover of Shakespears Sister’s Stay in week four of the competition – showcasing for the first time that she really could sing in an appearance Simon Cowell described as "the performance of the series" – it was clear, whatever the outcome, this game changer was going to make a debut album with or without the X Factor. And, moreover, one everyone would want to hear.
What was not clear, however, is who would help her make it.
Syco Music which swiftly signed Lloyd after she lost in the final to Matt Cardle and Rebecca Ferguson would be the first to admit it quickly also needed to employ dedicated, specialist A&R talent. Of signing to Syco, Lloyd says: “Having a say in the music direction was really important to me. I told them what I liked and what I didn’t like and they let me be the artist I wanted to be.” When a phonecall came from Black Eyed Peas’ producer Will.I.Am. the Monday after the final immediately wanting to book studio time with Lloyd, accompanying her to the session went series vocal producer Savan Kotecha.
The Texan songwriter who had more than 60m record sales under his belt – “probably a bit more” – scoring recent hits with Usher, Britney Spears and JLS, Kotecha had initially been hesitant but persuaded to join the series as vocal coach to freshen up its modern pop approach. Having known Cowell since the age of 19, working on songs for artists like Westlife, Leona Lewis and Alexandra Burke, he was trusted. And having first noticed Lloyd when he had half an hour with every entrant after boot camp stage, they had subsequently built up a strong working relationship.
“She was the last person I met that day and I was like ‘okay, there is talent in this competition!’ She immediately stood out as someone extremely talented and unique with a great tone who could do a lot with her voice and excited everyone. And, this is important, the one with international appeal.”
It was that writing session with Will.I.Am. which, despite no track from it having made the finished record, after discussions prompted Kotecha into accepting an offer from Cowell to join Syco as A&R consultant in January. “I went with Cher in the car and she was talking about ideas she had and then went down and listened during the session and she was a great writer, you could tell straight away. A lot of artists ‘write songs’ in quotation marks and like that because they don’t really write, but all these ideas and melody hooks, they came from her. She genuinely wrote them. Then it was ‘wow, you are a writer as well!”
“Talking to Simon, he was ‘go for it’,,, she was telling me about the record she’d like to make and I was like ‘I’ll open my address book’ and let’s go for it. But I told her: I will help you step up to the plate, but you have got to swing!”
Lloyd adds, “Writing is something I have always loved and wanted to do. I know its cliché, but it’s a way of expressing yourself and showing who you are and what you’re about.”
MD Sonny Takhar says Kotecha is a “songwriter I took a shot with because he’s more than a creative, he’s a student of the business.” The subsequent sessions he arranged proved they had got their man, most notably with production team The Runners (Rihanna, Usher) at The Hit Factory in Miami and with Max Martin (Katy Perry, Ke$ha), Toby Gad (Beyonce, Alicia Keys) and RedOne (Lady Gaga, Nicole Scherzinger) in LA.
Lloyd explains: “It was so strange that I was in a studio with these big producers and they were working with me. I was so nervous at first. With RedOne I was just sitting there thinking, ‘is this actually happening?’ There were all these big dudes hanging around the studio which didn’t help the nerves either. But after 20 minutes they literally made me feel like part of the family. I knew I couldn’t be intimidated by them and wanted to show them what I’m made of too.”
Kotecha, who insists he had no previous A&R ambitions and wouldn’t have walked away from his songwriting income had it not been for the ability to work with fresh, new talent, adds, “I called these people but they wouldn’t work with Cher if they didn’t want to. It was all driven by her. She met with a lot of producers and she’d tell me ‘I don’t get the vibe’ or ‘I get that’ but what’s most important is that the RedOne songs don’t sound like RedOne songs, they sound like Cher Lloyd songs, the same with the Max Martin songs. She is willing to take risks.”
Lloyd’s ability to know her own mind has likewise has inspired executives at Syco, Takhar adds, “She is a feisty 17-year-old, and she is great! She has walked into sessions with formidable writing talent and developed songs tailor made to her - she is the real deal. She is going to be around for the next 10 years. Even during the show it was clear to us she was very different to any singer that age. She was uncompromising in staging, styling, song selection, arrangement - she knew who she wanted to be.
“She has a point of view which at a label you would think there is an abundance of but actually there isn’t. She’s an absolute dream, we all want artists who have got a point of view, it inspires the entire team to do better.”
And the record? It’s unquestionably one of the pop albums of the year.
Yet to be titled and set for November release, stand out tracks include the Lily Allen-like Grow Up featuring Busta Rhymes, the heavy club track Dub On The Tracks featuring upcoming grime artists Dot Rotten and Ghetts, the jaunty Superhero and the MIA/Avril Lavigne-reminscent With Your Love with US artist Mike Posner who she had covered back in the series. In short, anyone expecting another Swagger Jagger (first single, July 31) – which may surprise many by reaching number one next week (see box) - will be disappointed. As Lloyd says: “My album is like a jukebox and I like to think I have a variety of music that will suit everyone. There is a bit of pop, bit of rap, reggae and of course, the ballads. I didn’t want to make an album to suit a certain audience. I just want to share it with everyone.”
Takhar adds, “The album is one of the best pop albums of our generation. It represents the point of view of a 17-year-old girl. It’s not the album for a 40-year-old man. It has global ambition.”
Indeed, with J/RCA Records President Peter Edge now personally getting involved in setting up the record in the US, Lloyd might just be the first UK X Factor artist to see widespread international success since Leona Lewis.
As Lloyd puts it, “I think I did good for a 17-year-old girl from Malvern.”
But whatever you think about Cher Lloyd, she was arguably the most refreshing thing to happen to X Factor in years.
From the moment she strolled on stage in her audition to perform Keri Hilson’s version of Turn My Swag On, the then 16-year-old not only commanded the audience but altered the direction of a TV show hitherto famed for unearthing pop balladeers forever.
The series was in its infancy and it was already clear Lloyd exuded that rare ‘X factor.’
Like no other contestant in the competition, social media networks and newspaper column inches were devoted to discussing the teenager’s every move. From rapping Coldplay’s Viva La Vida at ‘boot camp’ stage to struggling with tonsillitis through Mike Posner’s Cooler Than Me at her mentor Cheryl Cole’s ‘judges’ house’, she demanded attention.
And while the public debated whether that attention was deliberate or deserved, by the time she performed her defining cover of Shakespears Sister’s Stay in week four of the competition – showcasing for the first time that she really could sing in an appearance Simon Cowell described as "the performance of the series" – it was clear, whatever the outcome, this game changer was going to make a debut album with or without the X Factor. And, moreover, one everyone would want to hear.
What was not clear, however, is who would help her make it.
Syco Music which swiftly signed Lloyd after she lost in the final to Matt Cardle and Rebecca Ferguson would be the first to admit it quickly also needed to employ dedicated, specialist A&R talent. Of signing to Syco, Lloyd says: “Having a say in the music direction was really important to me. I told them what I liked and what I didn’t like and they let me be the artist I wanted to be.” When a phonecall came from Black Eyed Peas’ producer Will.I.Am. the Monday after the final immediately wanting to book studio time with Lloyd, accompanying her to the session went series vocal producer Savan Kotecha.
The Texan songwriter who had more than 60m record sales under his belt – “probably a bit more” – scoring recent hits with Usher, Britney Spears and JLS, Kotecha had initially been hesitant but persuaded to join the series as vocal coach to freshen up its modern pop approach. Having known Cowell since the age of 19, working on songs for artists like Westlife, Leona Lewis and Alexandra Burke, he was trusted. And having first noticed Lloyd when he had half an hour with every entrant after boot camp stage, they had subsequently built up a strong working relationship.
“She was the last person I met that day and I was like ‘okay, there is talent in this competition!’ She immediately stood out as someone extremely talented and unique with a great tone who could do a lot with her voice and excited everyone. And, this is important, the one with international appeal.”
It was that writing session with Will.I.Am. which, despite no track from it having made the finished record, after discussions prompted Kotecha into accepting an offer from Cowell to join Syco as A&R consultant in January. “I went with Cher in the car and she was talking about ideas she had and then went down and listened during the session and she was a great writer, you could tell straight away. A lot of artists ‘write songs’ in quotation marks and like that because they don’t really write, but all these ideas and melody hooks, they came from her. She genuinely wrote them. Then it was ‘wow, you are a writer as well!”
“Talking to Simon, he was ‘go for it’,,, she was telling me about the record she’d like to make and I was like ‘I’ll open my address book’ and let’s go for it. But I told her: I will help you step up to the plate, but you have got to swing!”
Lloyd adds, “Writing is something I have always loved and wanted to do. I know its cliché, but it’s a way of expressing yourself and showing who you are and what you’re about.”
MD Sonny Takhar says Kotecha is a “songwriter I took a shot with because he’s more than a creative, he’s a student of the business.” The subsequent sessions he arranged proved they had got their man, most notably with production team The Runners (Rihanna, Usher) at The Hit Factory in Miami and with Max Martin (Katy Perry, Ke$ha), Toby Gad (Beyonce, Alicia Keys) and RedOne (Lady Gaga, Nicole Scherzinger) in LA.
Lloyd explains: “It was so strange that I was in a studio with these big producers and they were working with me. I was so nervous at first. With RedOne I was just sitting there thinking, ‘is this actually happening?’ There were all these big dudes hanging around the studio which didn’t help the nerves either. But after 20 minutes they literally made me feel like part of the family. I knew I couldn’t be intimidated by them and wanted to show them what I’m made of too.”
Kotecha, who insists he had no previous A&R ambitions and wouldn’t have walked away from his songwriting income had it not been for the ability to work with fresh, new talent, adds, “I called these people but they wouldn’t work with Cher if they didn’t want to. It was all driven by her. She met with a lot of producers and she’d tell me ‘I don’t get the vibe’ or ‘I get that’ but what’s most important is that the RedOne songs don’t sound like RedOne songs, they sound like Cher Lloyd songs, the same with the Max Martin songs. She is willing to take risks.”
Lloyd’s ability to know her own mind has likewise has inspired executives at Syco, Takhar adds, “She is a feisty 17-year-old, and she is great! She has walked into sessions with formidable writing talent and developed songs tailor made to her - she is the real deal. She is going to be around for the next 10 years. Even during the show it was clear to us she was very different to any singer that age. She was uncompromising in staging, styling, song selection, arrangement - she knew who she wanted to be.
“She has a point of view which at a label you would think there is an abundance of but actually there isn’t. She’s an absolute dream, we all want artists who have got a point of view, it inspires the entire team to do better.”
And the record? It’s unquestionably one of the pop albums of the year.
Yet to be titled and set for November release, stand out tracks include the Lily Allen-like Grow Up featuring Busta Rhymes, the heavy club track Dub On The Tracks featuring upcoming grime artists Dot Rotten and Ghetts, the jaunty Superhero and the MIA/Avril Lavigne-reminscent With Your Love with US artist Mike Posner who she had covered back in the series. In short, anyone expecting another Swagger Jagger (first single, July 31) – which may surprise many by reaching number one next week (see box) - will be disappointed. As Lloyd says: “My album is like a jukebox and I like to think I have a variety of music that will suit everyone. There is a bit of pop, bit of rap, reggae and of course, the ballads. I didn’t want to make an album to suit a certain audience. I just want to share it with everyone.”
Takhar adds, “The album is one of the best pop albums of our generation. It represents the point of view of a 17-year-old girl. It’s not the album for a 40-year-old man. It has global ambition.”
Indeed, with J/RCA Records President Peter Edge now personally getting involved in setting up the record in the US, Lloyd might just be the first UK X Factor artist to see widespread international success since Leona Lewis.
As Lloyd puts it, “I think I did good for a 17-year-old girl from Malvern.”