Biography

So this is the bit where the pop singer says how great it is to be free of the band that made them
famous. They explain how liberating it is to leave pop behind. Songwriting, the pop singer
announces, has been like therapy. They have found out who they really are.
Well, Nicola Roberts has not left Girls Aloud. Nor has she turned her back on pop. And, she adds,
the process of writing and recording her debut album – ‘Cinderella’s Eyes’ - has led her to find
out very little about herself. “It’s not like I haven’t been through all these emotions before,” she
says. “I’ve been living with them for years.”

Nicola might know who she is, but the question is whether anybody else does. They might know
that she is one fifth of a girlband who seemed to keep pop afloat during this century’s rather lean
opening decade, and they might know that she was The Ginger One (or sometimes, because she
doesn’t spend her time grinning like a lunatic, The Moody One). But wherever the spotlight fell it
also felt like Nicola Roberts personified the spirit of Girls Aloud. It was Nicola whose rare but
cherished solo moments would be guaranteed to send fans into meltdown; in band interviews she
was the one who sprang to life with unpredictable outbursts and flashes of passion and
mischievous wit.

Nicola’s penchant for the unexpected is writ large on a debut solo album 18 months in the making.
Thanks to some surprising collaborations with producers like Diplo, Metronomy, Dimitri and
Dragonette, it’s as fresh as anything else you’ll hear this year, a riot of colossal pop melodies,
underground sounds, singing, rapping, shouting and remarkable honesty. There’s ‘Yo-Yo’, which
marries classic pop lyrics (“don’t want to be the last to know, will it be a yes or a no?”) to a post-
Dalston Ronettes vibe and a pulsing, demented electro breakdown. Cautiously optimistic ‘Lucky
Day’ has its feet firmly on the dancefloor, while ‘Sticks & Stones’ is a series of frank snapshots
behind the scenes of life in a pop band. (Spoiler alert: it’s not always laugh-a-minute). Most
tellingly, the breezily confrontational ‘Take A Bite’ - “you push me to fight, everybody’s got a
limit, so put ’em up” - feels like an object lesson in what it might sound like if, having been yelled
at, heckled, told she’s ugly and crap for almost a decade, a 25-year-old was finally allowed to
scream back. It sounds, as you might expect, quite spectacular.

So Nicola Roberts knows exactly who she is, and very soon so will everyone else. Those who fell in
love with the audacious, funny, inventive pop records Nicola made over four albums with Girls
Aloud will find plenty to get their teeth into on this new album, and for everyone else there’s a
whole new Nicola bursting out of these frank and fearless pop songs.
“If music makes you feel good, regardless of whether it’s Cascada or MIA, you like it, and that’s
always right,” she says. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned from all of this it’s that there should never
be any rules with music.”

In 2011 Nicola Roberts has something to really smile about. Whether she chooses to is, like
everything else, up to her.

http://www.nicolarobertsmusic.com

Agent