Tulisa Contostavlos was paid £50 to join N-Dubz, but she nearly quit the group just before they “made it”.
The 36-year-old singer, who is part of the ‘I Need You’ hitmakers alongside her cousin Dappy and their friend Fazer, admitted Dappy’s father, her Uncle B, offered her £20 to join the group when she was 11 years old, but she upped the price to £50.
Speaking on reality TV show ‘I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!’, she said: “My uncle offered me 20 quid and then I bartered him up to 50. Then I said, ‘You’ve got a deal.’
“We were in the studio training ourselves from the age of 11 until the age of 17, when we actually got some success.
“We already had so many years grafting away. From the age of 11, that’s all we did.
“At the moment we made it, I was at the sort of ‘give up’ phase.
“I had been there since I was 11 and I was 17 and it wasn’t happening.
“I always believed I was going to make it with the group. I never had a doubt.
“Then I got to 17 and after so many years of doing it I did have this little falter moment, where I was like, ‘Oh crap, what if this doesn’t happen? What if this doesn’t work out – what have I got to back it up?’
“And it was in that moment, literally in a few months, when for the first time in my life I felt that sensation … that’s when we finally cracked it.
“It just goes to show in all situations, hang on in there guys.”
Tulisa also told how N-Dubz is a nod to NW, the North West London postcode.
When asked by her campmate Oti Mabuse what N-Dubz stands for, she said: “North West London postcode. NW.”