That’s a no from me! Alesha snubs Cowell’s plea to reform Mis-Teeq
ALESHA DIXON has snubbed a request by pop supremo Simon Cowell to reunite her girl band in a bid to help his ailing X Factor brand, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Producers of The X Factor: The Band, the latest incarnation of Cowell’s talent show, wanted to bring back Mis-Teeq, a group comprising Ms Dixon, Sabrina Washington and SuElise Nash. They enjoyed success in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
But a well-informed source claimed negotiations broke down last week when it emerged that the band would not be paid. Ms Dixon, who is signed up to Cowell’s Syco stable, as well as appearing alongside him on the judging panel of Britain’s Got Talent, would have been unlikely to have been paid extra, but is understood to have been prepared to take part if Ms Washington and Ms Nash agreed.
‘Simon had the idea on Monday and calls went in via his producers,’ said the source.
‘One of the band asked what the fee would be and was told that budgets would be too tight so if they wanted paying then it wouldn’t be able to happen.
‘Why should anyone be required to work for free, especially when it would be a real ratings winner for Simon and his team? It seems unfair.’
Mis-Teeq built a huge teenage following in the 1990s, enjoying seven top-ten hits including Scandalous and All I Want. They recorded four albums in six years but split in 2005. Miss Dixon, 41, who in addition to being a Britain’s Got Talent judge has presented The Greatest Dancer, another of Cowell’s reality shows, revealed two years ago that the group were discussing making a comeback.
‘I don’t know what we’re waiting for really, to be honest,’ she said. ‘We’d love it to happen one day. It would be disastrous to not do something because of the history we have together and the fact that, if it wasn’t for the girls, I wouldn’t be doing anything that I’m doing now.’
After Mis-Teeq, Miss Washington, 41, appeared on I’m A Celebrity in 2009 while Miss Nash, 38, opened a performing arts school in Kent before moving to Australia.
While it was announced last week that Cowell has signed a new deal with ITV to make five more series of Britain’s Got Talent and one of The X Factor, his once-mighty talent show has struggled for ratings. Figures for Wednesday’s episode of The X Factor: The Band fell as low as 1.45 million, improving only slightly to 1.6million on Friday.
Last night an X Factor spokesman said: ‘Mis-Teeq were never asked to perform for free. We had early discussions but it was our decision not to move forward with this.’