Fleur East’s new music is “more mature”.
The 35-year-old star – who was runner-up on ‘The X Factor’ in 2014 – last released music in 2020 and after her recent stint on ‘Strictly Come Dancing’, she is back with the new single ‘Count The Ways’.
The ‘Sax’ hitmaker – who has released the upbeat tune on her own label Platinum East – is thrilled to be back to her “first love” and has got her “stride” back following the devastating loss of her father, Malcolm, who passed away in 2020, and the impacts of the COVID-19 on his music plans
She said: “I’m really excited to be releasing new music. The last body of work I released was my album ‘Fearless’, which was my first independent album since leaving Syco in 2020. It was shortly after my dad passed away and just at the time that the pandemic came into our lives, and everyone went into lockdown, so I had to cancel my tour, I had to cancel all my promo, I had to cancel everything. It was such a shame that it was released at that time, and it was really difficult. Since then, and since losing my dad, I’m just finding my stride again and getting back into music.”
Being on the BBC One Latin and ballroom show reignited her love of performing and she can’t wait to get back on the stage.
Fleur said: “I started writing this year and I just felt so inspired and everything just came back to me. It’s been a while since I’ve done my own live show and I absolutely love performing. After being on Strictly every weekend, the buzz of performing came back. I absolutely love it, and I can’t wait for people to hear this new music. It’s coming from a different place, it’s a lot more mature – it comes from a real place.”
Speaking of her new song, she said: “‘Count The Ways’ is all about putting a spin on listing the things that you love about a person and it flips that narrative – it’s listing the ways that somebody lost you. It’s quite a playful take on ending a relationship and talking to that person that hurt you from a position where you don’t have any pain left, from a position of power. It’s quite tongue in cheek, but also from real, real emotion. I love it because it’s a lot more mature and is very musical. Matt Prime produced the song and I wrote it. It all came together, very quickly. In a matter of a couple of hours, really. I just felt so inspired as soon as I heard him playing instruments and I was just like yeah, this is it.”
She added: “Music is my first love, and it always has been. Although I do presenting, fitness, and lots of other different things, music is my number one love and I always feel quite vulnerable sharing my music with everybody because it’s really a deep part of me. So I always feel a bit exposed when I share music with everybody, but I just feel like I’m in a place now where I’m ready for everyone to hear it.”
Fleur plays a headline London show at Union Chapel March 16.