It’s tough being the ex-Factor. But that’s not abuse, it’s showbiz
Singer and former X Factor contestant rebecca Ferguson wants a parliamentary inquiry into the music industry to help protect young artists. Against what? exploitation and mistreatment primarily, with a backbeat of bullying, grooming and even sexual abuse.
She wants music managers and agents to have a ‘licence’ and ‘face a tribunal’ if they ‘ mistreat an artist or an employee’. Where will this end?
With Simon Cowell appearing in the dock at Top Of The Pops Court, accused of mocking Olly Murs’s dubious taste in hats? With Louis Walsh found guilty of looking at Fleur east ‘in a funny way’ and sent to the jailhouse rock?
rebecca’s faith in the government is touching, particularly at this time of national crisis.
Yet surely it seems so much more pressing for Boris & Co to be investigating themselves and perhaps finding themselves wanting, instead of investigating whether or not Mickey Mogul shouted at Betty Boop for turning up late to rehearsal in the wrong tights.
in this country, there are already plenty of laws in place to protect the innocent. And i don’t approve of this vague, Meghan- esque smear — a powerful but cowardly allegation that mentions no one but damns everyone by association.
And is it even feasible to insist upon extra legislation and state intervention into the music industry?
Or is this just the bottled-up pique of a pop star who didn’t make it big?
You may remember rebecca, who was the runner-up in the 2010 series of The X Factor.
i always liked her, and hoped she would go on to bigger things. She certainly deserved to, being one of the better singers to appear on the show, and one who wrote her own songs into the bargain.
She had four albums which briefly appeared in the Top 10, but her career flat-lined six years ago and now it appears that there isn’t a showbiz defibrillator powerful enough to bring it back from the dead.
i really don’t know why. rebecca’s got a terrific voice, she’s a class act in every way. But that’s showbiz for you.
NOW here is rebecca, casting herself in the mottled role of pop’s morality crusader. One wonders why she has chosen this moment to launch her campaign — and also why it seems to be only fellow ex-X Factor no-hit wonders rallying to her flag.
These include Cher Lloyd, who was 17 when she appeared on The X Factor and is now claiming that people ‘sold me a dream just to exploit me’. But who dreamed the dream in the first place? That’s what i want to know.
Today, Cher is like a bluebell complaining about pesky, pollensnaffling bees, without realising the symbiotic nature of their relationship.
Meanwhile, irish singing twins Jedward — my all-time X Factor favourites — complain of how they were always left ‘exhausted’ after touring.
Hate to tell you this, boys, but so is Bruce Springsteen. And Taylor Swift. And Justin Bieber, who cancelled the last 14 dates on his Purpose World Tour in 2017 because of exhaustion — but only because he had played 153 dates since the tour began in early 2016.
That’s the thing about being a successful pop or rock star. it looks so cool and easy singing under the spotlights, being adored. But to get there — and more importantly, stay there — takes talent, dedication, grit and stamina.
Big stars train like athletes, mentally and physically, for the rigours that lie ahead. Yet twiglets Jedward seem to be plain furious about the whole X Factor experience, even though it has given them so much in return for so little.
They even — prepare yourselves — claim that the show’s ‘judges’ don’t really mentor the acts because ‘all they cared about was their pay cheque’.
You don’t say! And there were millions of us really believing that Cheryl Cole went round to reggie ’n’ Bollie’s house to teach them all about riffs.
Which, she carefully explained, were things that people put on the tops of their houses, back home in newcastle.
i’m sorry that rebecca Ferguson and her contemporaries found their brush with stardom such a dispiriting affair. And that so many of them feel they didn’t receive the monies they deserved for their efforts, perhaps with good reason.
And i really hope that if any sexual crimes were committed, they will be reported, investigated and dealt with by the appropriate authorities.
As for the rest? With the best will in the world, you have to wonder what these kids expect.
Some of their grievances may be well founded, but no government can legislate against disappointment or hurt or safeguard against financially rapacious managers.
At some point they have to take responsibility for themselves and their own decisions.
And understand that no commercial showbiz enterprise is free of risk; the rewards may be huge, but the potential for pain and humiliation is also vast. it can’t have been easy for them. To be within touching distance of great celebrity, only to have it cruelly dashed away at the last minute?
That must be a bitter experience. Yet to take indulgent refuge in victimhood once stardom has proved elusive? That is no answer either.
The music industry — and its X-Factor offshoot in particular — is unforgiving territory, with little inclination or time for pastoral care.
Once your songs fail to chart, then baby, you are out — as rebecca Ferguson discovered to her cost.
But this is not unique. Footballers are dropped from first teams, bankers lose their bonuses, designers fail to sell their best party frocks.
That’s life, as Frank Sinatra once sang. And you can’t legislate against that, either.