Rebecca Ferguson has revealed that her split from Zayn Malik inspired her debut album.
The X Factor runner-up started dating the One Direction member in March, but the couple split in July.
The singer has now revealed that the breakup, along with her previous relationships, inspired her to co-write every song on her upcoming album Heaven.
"I wrote a lot of tracks about what was happening to me at the time I was making the album, and that includes things with Zayn," she told the Daily Star Sunday. "A lot of the songs are about past relationships. The theme is relationships in general, making them, breaking them, love and loss.
Rebecca Ferguson launches two boats during the London International Boat Show
"Recording was hard. It wasn't a case of skipping to the studio and being happy. I got really emotional and sometimes I had really bad days. I poured out all my heart and soul into the album and would often cry.
"At the beginning they didn't know I could write so they were bringing songs in for me but I put my foot down and said if you want me to be a credible artist you have to let me write. Now I've co-written every single song on the album."
Ferguson is said to be at the centre of a £1 million bidding war for the publishing rights to her new material.
I love that she was heavily involved in the making of the album.
Me too. I also like that she only worked with a small group of people on the album. I think this will result in a more coherent and intimate body of work.
Extended Interview:
Quote:
Rebecca explains: “I’ve always wanted to be a singer. I don’t know how long this will all last. So I’m really lucky to have had the platform to do it the way I want to do it.
“I knew if I did this any other way I’d have regrets. If I do fail then I want to say I failed on my own terms.”
Rebecca, 25, says her writing partner Eg White, who helped with most of the songs on her debut album Heaven, brought out the best in her in the studio.
She says: “He was the type of person who I could open up to and confide in.
“I feel like I learnt a lot about myself going through the writing process, putting my experiences on paper and into the tracks.
“I got really emotional some of the days. Sometimes I had really bad days and didn’t feel up to it.
“But even when I was having really bad days I used to force myself to write about it. I poured out all my heart and soul into the album.”
The Anfield star, who finished in second place when she competed in the ITV series, admitted that splits from ex-boyfriends including Karl Dures, who is the father of her two children Lillie May, seven, and Karl, five, inspired a few of the songs on the album.
Rebecca briefly dated One Direction star Zayn Malik when they both travelled the UK with the X Factor tour at the start of the year but their relationship ended before the summer.
She says: “I wrote a lot of tracks about what was happening to me at the time I was making the album.
“Recording it was hard. But I think it was a good thing to do because it does help.
“A lot of the songs are about past relationships. I haven’t spoken to any of my ex-boyfriends about it.
“Everyone thinks it is about Zayn but I wasn’t in a relationship with him for that long. I’ve had relationships that have lasted a lot longer.
“It’s really an accumulation of my life. The theme is relationships. It’s about meeting people and breaking up. It’s not just my past relationships but my friends and my mum’s too.”
While X Factor winner Matt Cardle and fellow contestant Cher Lloyd have both returned to the show to plug their songs – Rebecca said she was “happy to hold out” and is hoping for a slot on the show next month.
She says: “It needed to be right and that takes a lot longer than people think when you are writing your own material.
“I wanted it to be from the heart. I debuted the single on Radio 1 and I had always dreamt of that. Everyone has had nice things to say about it.”
So how is Rebecca’s life outside the studio and how is she coping with being famous?
“It’s funny when people say that because I honestly don’t feel it. I still feel like Becky”, she says. “But this past year has been life changing. I’ve been really busy.
“The best part of it for me is being able to afford nice things for Lillie May and Karl that I would have never been able to give them before.
“I’m very blessed. I’ve bought us a nice house in Surrey and Lillie and Karl are living with me now so they’re really happy.
“But I’m always coming back to Liverpool. I miss Liverpool and it will always be my home.
“Whenever I come back home everyone is so proud and happy for me. They are so supportive.
“There is a high possibility I’m going back on The X Factor to perform and it will be really nice to show people how I have grown.
“I’m also going to be touring next year and I’ll definitely have a few dates in Liverpool. I’m a home girl.”
Me too. I also like that she only worked with a small group of people on the album. I think this will result in a more coherent and intimate body of work.
I get asked to support alot of charities i get so many calls and emails, i have now decided to choose the charities i feel passionate about, charity is something close to my heart the one teaching my mother taught me was to give to those less fortunate and to always count your blessings, by giving i mean not just money but time even seeing a homeless person and having a conversation instead of walking past, i believe we can all do something.
i like real charity by that i mean getting stuck in and getting your hands dirty centrepoints’ a homeless charity, and has a fantastic approach to this getting celebrities to camp out and actually sleep out as would somebody who is homeless to raise money, its great and its real! i would much prefer that too turning up to a glitzy event wearing a gucci dress sipping on champagne, talking about poverty! :S ,although i would be a liar if i said i hadn’t done it! but i also respect those opinions that would beg to differ, over the next few months im going to be choosing a select few charities i feel absolutely passionate about and will start to post them on my various sites.
i was lucky enough to visit bluebell children’s hospice a couple of months ago i met such amazing people it really touched me how much love there was in that place,
that week i had been having a moan because i was tired ide been working really hard and visiting that place was the biggest kick up the bum, there i was moaning about day to day things! and there was these poor little babies some the same age as my children in pain and suffering from illnesses, i wanted to cry so many times but i thought the last thing the children need to see is my tears what they need to see is a smile and so i enjoyed talking laughing and speaking to the children and families doctors and nurses and each one was just lovely, i feel passionately about this charity because ive seen first hand what they do the rehabilitation , the music therapy , the respite they give to families with sick children and the after care when a child has passed on i would ask all my followers to support this charity and give what you can, giving isn’t always money , its time its being a voice and its volunteering
Trashlounge reviews some of the new songs from Rebecca's debut album:
Quote:
We were lucky enough to be sent a four-track sample of Rebecca Ferguson‘s forthcoming debut album Heaven, due December 5th, and though an acoustic version of ‘Shoulder To Shoulder’ suddenly made the prospect of it being amazing seem a bit too optimistic, PANIC NOT.
Here’s a quick track-by-track natter of the songs we’ve heard:
‘Nothing’s Real But Love’
We’re all familiar by now with this breathtaking lead single, which can basically be summarised as a giant hug in the form of a 3-minute song. The influence of co-writer Eg White (‘Chasing Pavements’, ‘Warwick Avenue’, ‘Leave Right Now’) is wonderfully blatant, and though Radio 1 have so far been suspiciously quiet on the playlisting front (even though ‘Swagger Jagger’ made its A-List… just saying), it will go down a treat on X Factor providing the visual production isn’t too OTT.
‘Glitter & Gold’
A change of mood from ‘Nothing’s Real But Love’ but no less sophisticated, ‘Glitter & Gold’ wouldn’t sound out of place on either of Adele’s albums. With lyrics like “All those friends that were such a chore, you’re gonna need ‘em more than ever before”, we get a brilliantly ballsy Rebecca who won’t be walked over by anyone.
‘Fairytale (Let Me Live My Life This Way)’
This is genuinely unlike anything out in 2011, and fully justifies the reports that publishers have been willing to part with upwards of £1 million for the rights to the album. It’s more like an old-school classic from the 1960s than anything else, and with a big, bold brass section and Rebecca’s most confident vocal to date, this track is just all sorts of incredible. Gabrielle who?!
‘Shoulder To Shoulder’
This is the song she performed acoustically on a regional radio station recently and got us all in a panic that ‘NRBL’ would be the record’s only highlight. But the studio version is roughly three thousand and four times better. It’s not as immediate as any of the above, but as a dreamy and effortlessly classy song with a powerfully affecting vocal, it’s no less amazing. The two-minute mark onwards in particular is all sorts of brilliant.
There you have it. Bring on the rest of the album.