『Overcome·访谈』That Grape Juice采访Alexandra Burke

That Grape Juice sat down with Pop phenom Alexandra Burke last week at her label HQ here in London.
The ever-bubbly 21 year old opened up to us about a number of topics including her rise to stardom, the darker side to fame, the status of her much talked about collaboration with Beyonce, her thoughts on whether Rihanna could win the X Factor, US plans, and much more. As ever, we ask the questions other interviewers won’t! Enjoy…
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Interviewer: Sam // Transcription: Bisi Kadejoh // Edited by: Trent
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Alexandra Shouts Out That Grape Juice

Sam: Hey Alexandra…it’s great to finally meet you!
Alexandra Burke: It’s nice to finally meet you too darling.
How are you?
I’m great thank you! First of all I would like to say thanks for all the support on the site.
Let me first congratulate you on all your success to date…Platinum album with ‘Overcome’, breaking singles records left, right and centre. It really is refreshing to see true talent on top again…
Thank you (laughs).


Though your rise to stardom was achieved primarily via ‘The X-Factor’, you’ve been performing for a while now (weddings, bar mitzvah’s etc). Tell us a little about your musical journey – your hustle if you will.
I’ve been working since I was 12 years old, always been the kind of girl that’s been quite head strong. Never letting my mum do anything; I’ve always wanted to do it for my mum basically. It’s all happened so fast.. It’s crazy because I would always perform at bar mitzvahs, parties you know name it, funerals everything. I was there performing; and even if it wasn’t for the money, for the experience of live work and always going to open mic things. I’m not sure if you’ve heard of Troy Bar, ‘the spot’ in Convent Garden, I use to go to those events and sing all the time and that helped me with being a live performer.
I remember saying to my mum when I was younger “mum I don’t want to record in the studio because I can’t stand it because there ain’t no people giving me feedback, I’m gonna make a live album for the rest of my life.” She’s like yeah “let me see you try” (laughs) then I started learning about how the studio works you can create and make your mistakes and do it all over again, and the live part of it is just where the magic happens. It’s all been a big journey, but it’s been awesome.


·Can we expect any more singles from the album? There have been some murmurings about a surprise collabo…
You know what, you know me already that I love my collaborations (laughs). But the next single I think you guys will be very spicy and it’s something very fresh. I can’t say much I can’t ruin it for you all (the collabo that is), but in due time. My goodness everyone will be very shocked at least I hope anyway and love it the way I do.


·Many were excited to hear that you’ve signed with Epic Records in the US last year. How involved with your project at this point are they?
Oh they are very   involved. From the beginning we had meetings with Epic, they all flew over to see me perform when I was on the X Factor tour, and then I flew over to New York to have meetings with them. They are incredible, Epic is an amazing label, I can’t wait to start to get started with the promotion over there. I’m actually working on album for America specifically, it is ‘Overcome’ but a couple tracks change, maybe about five changed for the American release. It’s really cool I can’t wait to go over there but at the moment I am concentrating on Europe, Australia in 2 weeks, then Asia and then America.


·What producers, writers, and features are going to be on the American version of the album?
I can’t say any features, but I can say RedOne and I have been working on a lot of tracks. We have been creating some magic in the studio recently. Another producer called Lucas, he’s awesome. Also, a writer who is called Salvon, he is part of RedOne’s team. He co-wrote ‘Broken Heels’ so he is helping me out with the tracks too. We have a lot of amazing people.


·Everyone and their mum remembers that golden moment when you shared the stage with Beyonce. In fact, there’s been much talk of a possible collaboration with her. What’s the current status of that?
The collaboration is still out there but she is on a break at the moment. I know she is releasing a new single but she is so taking her time out right now. I say watch this space because you never know what’s going to happen in the future.
关于和Beyonce的合作。不确定。

·JLS is currently trying to make an impact in the US market. What do you think are the major differences between US music market and UK market?
There’s a major difference in terms of the style and the way the swagger is in America. I feel like in America they love Hip-Hop, R&B mixed with Pop; but over in Europe I’ve noticed it’s just up-tempo, Pop techno stuff and the UK, kind of love everything. So with America you kind of have to make sure your swagger is on point for your release over there, because America you only kind of get one chance to break it and if you go into it half heartedly they will know! So (with) America you have to be really careful. I would say if you are going to go out in America you need to be spending least 3 months over there absolutely full-on promotion, and that’s what I intend to do.
alex谈美国和英国音乐的区别。英美的差别还是很大的，进军美国要十分小心。她认为准备进军美国至少要3个月的时间来准备、宣传，这也是她准备做的。

7楼也是关于美国的，翻译一下
alex已经着手准备美国版的overcome了（名字还是叫这个）
大概有5首歌不同
现在2周内，她比较关心欧洲和澳洲的市场，接下来才是美国和亚洲

·Fairly or unfairly, many reality TV singers are often labelled puppets. Honestly speaking, how much of a say do you have over your career?
Majorly big say! And I love the fact that they have given me a station from the get go. From the day I won, they were like “what do you want to do?” I was like “hello!”, and it’s just cool that I have got that say. As well as that, I trust whose around me, I trust my team; they are a great team for me and they work really hard for me. And at the end of the day I wouldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t for my team helping me out and being passionate about my music. I get a huge say, down to my videos; who I pick in my videos is up to me; me and the director. I would never tread on anyone’s toes, but in terms of dancers and stuff too, I pick that. I want to feel comfortable with who’s next to me in my videos and onstage.
·Interestingly, the biggest acts to come from the ‘X-Factor’ have all been people of colour- namely yourself, Leona Lewis and JLS. However, if I’m to be honest, a critique often levelled against you all is that your music doesn’t reflect this. What’s your response to this?
What does that opinion mean?

·Some people feel as if, there’s not much of an urban featured on Leona’s material or JLS’ or sometimes Alexandra Burkes’…
Right. All I can say to that is that my music is really just who I am. And what I love is that when they did ask me “what do you want to do, where does your music want to go?” Well I said to them my back ground is Motown, I’ve listened to Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight, Aaliyah, Michael Jackson, The Temptations, The Stylistics, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey – you know all these amazing people who made music what it is today. And I love the influence of Hip-Hop, R&B, Soul, Rock, so I wanted to put everything in that blender mix it up and the outcome is me. But at the same time, my songs have to come from my heart. I cannot be an artist that goes on stage and say so this song I’m about to sing “blah blah blah”; I need to make sure I have a story behind each song that’s why they come from my diary. I mean ‘Nothing but the Girl’ that’s an example, that’s quite R&B, ‘Goodnight, Good Morning’ that’s R&B stroke Hip-Hop, ‘6 Foot Under’ is Motown, ‘Bad Boys’ is quite Pop. So on my album I’m quite proud, there’s a mix of everything, so if you like Motown track 6 applies to you, if you like a bit of pop then 1 to 4 applies to you if you know what I mean. There’s a mix of everything. I can’t speak on behalf of Leona or JLS, but that’s my answer to that!
人们总是问她她到底想要做什么样的音乐，回答是 Motown 。alex说她现在做的完全是她想做的也是做真实的自己。这张专辑融合了R&B，Hip-Hop，Motown和Pop.

·Which 3 singers would you say had the biggest influence on your career?
Michael Jackson, Beyonce and the Queen – Aretha Franklin – yeah absolutely she taught everybody else (laughs).
影响最大的三个歌手。

·Whitney Houston’s being receiving a little flack for her performances of late. What’s your take on this?
I love her! God, she;s one of my biggest idols. You know what? I can’t judge because I haven’t seen her live yet and my motto is “I will never judge an artist if I haven’t seen them live in concert”. To me, live is the way forward, it’s a learning experience, and Whitney – to me – is still a legend and is still a hero of mine. So I cannot judge her until I hear her live there in my space; and you never know you see these things on UTube and you hear these things which have been edited in a certain way. I don’t know the truth so therefore I’m not going to pass judgement until I see it for myself.
sam问alex对wh最近不太理想的现象做什么评价。alex回答她从不评价任何一位歌手，如果她还没有听过演唱会的现场。所以因为她没听到wh的现场，不好评价。无论如何，wh是她的超级偶像，在她心目中永远都是传奇，是个英雄。

    看着挺舒服的~~~~~