Tulisa interview: ‘I’m The Female Boss more than ever – I’ve earned it bitches!’

If there’s one thing we love at Attitude, it’s a fierce female who can pout her way through vicious drug allegations and come out the other side twice as fabulous. And rising from the still-warm ashes of the tabloids she so prominently featured in through summer this year, Miss Tulisa Contostavlos is making a comeback of epic proportions.

Putting her urban N-Dubz roots on the back-burner, Britain’s pre-eminent Female Boss is now embracing a camp side that has hitherto been kept under wraps, displaying it in all its Moschino-clad glory at her first live show in 18 months at G-A-Y last weekend (November 29). With half-naked men, high fashion and ‘VOGUE’ at the top of the agenda, we sat down with T to chat about her new musical direction, making the courtroom her catwalk and earning her gay icon stripes.

Looking back over the last year, did you ever think you’d be seeing out 2014 on such a high?
“I think deep down I’ve always kept the hope. When people were like ‘What do you think is going to happen’, I’d be like, ‘My heart tells me I’m going to be better than ever but my head tells me prepare for the worst,’ So it’s a bit of a battle. I wanted to believe, but at the same time you don’t want to be cocky, because it’s a life lesson. You have to feel like it’s all going to be over, so when you do ride it out on a high you appreciate it even more. There were moments when I was like ‘I don’t understand how I’m going to come back from this. I can’t see it happening’, but then I’d be like ‘No, I’ve gone through way too much crap for it to end like this.’”

How have your experiences this year changed you?
“Well I’m calling it my ‘year of enlightenment’. It’s hard to explain how I’ve changed without making it sound like I was a bad person before – or a bitch – but I just feel like I… I wasn’t a bad person, I just had a lot more to learn, and I could have been better. The year that I’ve had has brought out the best in me, if that makes sense. I do feel like I’ve put so many different areas of my life to the test: the way that I think about things, the way that I approach things; becoming less judgemental and more understanding. People who know me have noticed a change. I call it finding my chill, haha!”

The Living Without You video saw you storm into gay icon territory in record speed – do you consider yourself to be a camp person?
“Hahaha I am! We’re always joking that I’m a gay man trapped in a woman’s body. It was a side to me that was always – not kept under wraps on purpose or anything – but because of the N-Dubz’ image being so hard and urban, I never really got to bring out my camp side, which was very much a big part of my personality. It’s a perfect opportunity now to be like ‘This is the real me’ and bring that to life through the video. It was me who said “I don’t want anything urban! I want campy-campy, I want half-naked men, I want high fashion, I want strutting, I want posing, I want VOGUE!” And everyone was just looking at me thinking ‘I can’t believe these words are coming out of your mouth!’”

There’s a bit in the video where you’re being stretched out by a strapping half-naked man: Did you get cramp…?
“Haha I love it! There are so many comical moments in that video. I loved holding the Moschino cup and sitting on the guy. It’s so funny because some people were like ‘Why have you got a McDonalds cup in your video?!’ I was like, ‘Oh DAHHLING, do get with the fashion these days! IT’S MOSCHINO!’

The concept for the video was you on a glamorous photo shoot: Just how accurate a representation of a real life shoot with you is it?!
“Well it’s definitely getting there now! I think because the song is quite desperate, like, lovey-dovey ‘Oh you’ve left me I can’t live without you’ – and that is NOT a way I would react to a break up –  so it was kind of a bit of a piss-take in the sense of ‘Living without you is a curse that I can’t take… NOT REALLY, JUST KIDDING! Here I am, living life… without you!’ It’s a complete contradiction to the song – we had to get some Female Boss in there somewhere!

You were also giving good face during your trial. With Nigella Lawson preceding yours, do you think she set a precedent for courtroom pageantry?
“It was strange. Even though it was such a serious thing and such a big trial, I felt like it was made into a fashion show every day, and when that happens there’s only one way to deal with it, which is to strut your stuff and get your best garms on! I was like ‘Look, if you’re going to criticise me for what I’m wearing and turn it into a fashion show then well, I’m gonna give ‘em a bloody good fashion show!’”

It must have been hard having that pressure to look perfect while you’re going through such a stressful time.
“It was a bit stressful, but it kind of made it all feel lighter. That was the good part of the day: Getting up, putting a new suit on and being like “Oh I look bloody good!” It put some light on the whole situation. I may have been going through the toughest time in my life but at least I could do it in style.”

You made another iconic entrance this year, on The X Factor…
“Haha I was told to do that! At first I was terrified, I didn’t want to do it. I got the call from ITV and they were like, ‘Tulisa, dahling, I want you to go online and Google Ursula coming out of the sea.’ I was like, ‘Oh no! I can’t do that, it’s so cringe!’  but before I knew it I was in the white bikini, strutting out of the water! I hoped that people wouldn’t think I was taking myself too seriously because for me it was a bit of fun, but people kind of did the opposite and were like ‘FIERCE!’ so it worked either way!

What do you think the main difference making music now compared to when you made your debut album The Female Boss?
“Coming out of N-Dubz, it was really hard to find myself as a solo artist, because you have to be a certain kind of female to be in N-Dubz. It was hard to make it believable and give people ‘me’ when I didn’t know who ‘me’ was at the time. This year, because of the lessons I’ve learned, I feel like I’ve – not detached myself from N-Dubz – but I found myself as a solo artist. I found my feminine side. If I’d have tried to do it back then, no one would have believed it, but now that everyone’s gone through the journey with me and seen the change, people get it a bit more.”

Does your new material draw from your experiences over the least 18 months?
“Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to turn around and be like, ‘I’m never speaking about it ever again!’ but that’s not going to happen so I just have to ride it out. A lot of my fans tell me: ‘You inspire me because you live your dramas and mistakes in the public eye rather than keeping it under wraps.’ As much as I want to sweep it under the carpet it’s kind of a good thing because it shows we’re all human, we all have our moments. Musically, I definitely think people will feel more like I’ve drawn on the year I’ve had when it comes to the second single, but it’s still up-tempo.”

Is it all going to be up-tempo?
“Yeah, it’s all going to have that dance vibe. The second single has got emotion in it, but it’s more kind of… epic. Everything’s big and hard-hitting. I want hits. I don’t have any plans in the near-future to put out any ballads, put it that way!”

Do you still think of yourself as The Female Boss?
I consider myself The Female Boss more than ever! Now I’ve earned it bitches! Hahaha!”

You had you first live performance in 18 months at G-A-Y on Saturday – Why did you choose that venue for your comeback?
“I felt like it was the perfect location, the perfect audience, and I think more towards where my fan base is leaning now. I think I’ve branched out to a different audience now compared to when I was in N-Dubz. I represent different things, I am a different person, and G-A-Y was the perfect place to express that. A lot of it is very camp, so what better place for people to embrace it and love it the way I love it. I wanted to enjoy what I was doing and feel fierce on that stage. For me there was no other place to do it.

What advice would you give to anyone going through a sticky patch themselves and who might not see the light at the end?
I always say ‘Believe, believe, believe.’ You are what you make yourself and you’re only as big as you tell yourself you are. It doesn’t matter how bad things get and how low you go, always see things in the bigger picture. You control your life and you can be who you want to be. It’s about working your ass off and believing. As soon as you start to lose faith and put yourself down, well, you know where it’s gonna go from there.

You can pre-order Tulisa’s new single Living Without You on iTunes now here.