Cher Lloyd rose to fame at 16-years-old when she auditioned on The X Factor in the U.K. 10 years ago. The “With Ur Love” hitmaker proved to be a popular contestant as she came in fourth place. However, she had to face a lot of online trolling during the process. Ten years after the show, she sat down with The Guardian to tell readers how it has affected her and where she’s at now.
Since the show, Lloyd has released two studio albums and cracked the American market. It may have seemed like she was living the high life, but the “None of My Business” songstress revealed that she still does damage control.
“What baffles me is that they created a character but then, after the show, expected me to be a fully-fledged, respected artist. I had to do damage control. And still, at 26 years old, I have to do damage control. Years later, I do have some anger towards people for doing that to me,” she said.
One year ago, Lloyd was shopping in the Disney Store on Oxford Street in London and was approached by a new fan who had recently seen her appearance on Loose Women . While they didn’t mean to cause any harm, what they said made her heart sink.
“He went: ‘I just want to say, you’re nothing like I thought you were gonna be like — you’re not horrible at all.’”
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When she was a contestant on The X Factor , the media labeled Lloyd a stroppy diva and claimed she was a desperate copycat of her mentor on the show, Cheryl Cole .
“I’m not going to lie; at the time I was very hormonal, a naughty teenager,” she recalled.
On Facebook, there was a popular page named “the Primark Cheryl Cole ” and when a program about Gypsies getting married, My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding , originally aired, jokes about her marriage were linked to that show.
Her debut single, “Swagger Jagger,” which topped the charts in the U.K., is a song she refuses to perform today. Lloyd admitted that it reminds her of when she was an afraid and angry teenager. She looks back and feels it’s a sad song.
After taking a break from music, she gave birth to her daughter in 2018. That same year, she made a comeback and released “None of My Business” in October.
Last year, she released “M.I.A.” which remains her most recent single.
Lloyd plans on releasing her long-awaited third studio album soon. According to Billboard , it has been six years since her last full-length project.