Fleur East felt "really low" after being dropped from Simon Cowell’s Syco Records.
The 31-year-old star has made a comeback today with her first single since 2015, ‘Favourite Thing’ – her first on new label Hunter Corp Records – and has opened up about the dark time she went through after being let go by the major label in October.
Speaking about the pressures of being signed to Syco in interview with HuffPost UK, she admitted: "You have a whole team behind you, but as the artist, you take the brunt of everything.
"If the song doesn’t do well, it’s ‘Fleur didn’t do well’. If a video doesn’t look good, it’s ‘Fleur doesn’t look good’. You’re the face of everything, which is really hard."
Fleur – who was a runner-up on the 2014 series of ‘The X Factor’, and had a top five hit with her debut single ‘Sax’ from her LP ‘Love, Sax and Flashbacks’ – says she found it "really tough" not being able to deliver the music she had made to her fans, who began labelling her a "flop" online.
She continued: "So ultimately, on social media, the fans were going, ‘you’re a flop. What are you doing? Where’s your music? We voted for you to release music, what is this?’ And that was really tough, and I was very, very… very low after that.
"And that’s another thing, ‘oh Fleur’s been dropped, Fleur’s a flop’. All that stuff, that’s really horrible to hear. And it’s like ‘guys, there’s so much more to this story’. I just kept thinking, ‘I want to release the music’. It’s not as easy as people think’."
After a stint on ‘I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!’ last year, Fleur is feeling "stronger" than ever and is "really happy" about the new music she’s made.
She concluded: "But hey. I feel like finally I’ve got a chance to show them what I’m made of. And now, I’m happy that I’m in a position where I can finally give the people who voted for me on ‘X Factor’ and supported me on ‘I’m A Celebrity’ the greatest gift I can give them, which is my music."
Fleur was filming the music video for ‘My Favourite’ the day before she jetted out to Brisbane, Australia, for the jungle show.
She said at the time: "I like a challenge. I’ve got a new single coming out, I shot the music video and here I am. Rock and roll!"
Meanwhile, Fleur has revealed her new single is very much inspired by her Ghanian roots.
She said: "The song has influences from my mother’s side of my family in Ghana.
"My mum has always made sure I know a lot about my heritage.
"It’s really anthemic and upbeat. I’m so grateful to be starting 2019 in the position I’m in.
"I really feel like people got to see the real me in the jungle.
"I’m so much stronger as a person now and I’m really happy with my new music."
The full interview on HuffPost with Fleur is available to read now here: https://bit.ly/2VtMC9t
‘Favourite Thing’ is out now on all major platforms.
Fleur East felt ‘really low’ after Syco Records split
