Alesha Dixon went to Buckingham Palace, but she didn't meet the queen. "I met her husband, though,'' Dixon announces, blithely unconcerned with matters of how the Duke of Edinburgh should be formally addressed. The vivacious, extremely pretty singer apparently attracted the attention of the Duke during the artists' line-up for the Queen's Jubilee concert in 2002, where she appeared with girl group Misteeq in an outfit best described as flimsy. "He said to me, ‘Aren't you cold, dear?' I said, ‘What are you going to do? Lend me your jacket, then?'' She emits a ripe, infectious laugh. "That's one of my fondest memories."
Beautiful moment
"Growing up in Hertfordshire, the pop world could have been Mars. It looked untouchable, another dimension. But standing on stage, waiting to shake hands with the Royal Family, it suddenly hit me, the size of the show and the calibre of artists and, ‘Oh my God, we're here! We're a part of this!'"
"It was a beautiful moment. Just to get my nan in Buckingham Palace doors was great. She's such a royalist. Me and the girls were more excited about meeting Harry and William.''
Party animals
Misteeq had two top-10 albums and eight top-10 hits between 2001 and 2003. Dixon's distinctive and groundbreaking reggae MC stylings really set them apart, like a party animal gate-crashing a teen disco. But when independent record company Telstar went into liquidation in 2004, the girls decided to disband "There wasn't a massive bust-up,'' Dixon says. "There's this myth that girl groups are all really bitchy and hate each other, but we weren't forced to sing together."
"We were friends. We split because we had no contractual ties, and we thought it was the right thing to do."
Bright pop
Two years since we last heard from her, Dixon returned to the charts last month with her debut solo single, Lipstick, a bouncy, bonkers, one-note dance rant, in which Dixon effectively sings about women complaining in a voice that somehow blends Minnie Ripperton with Shaba Ranks. The follow-up, Knockdown, a jangly, reggaefied slice of bright pop, can currently be heard all over the airwaves, in which the irrepressibly enthusiastic Dixon apparently advocates combating depression by declaring: "Bo biddy bup bo biddy bup bo!''
"It is about life's lows, but I don't want to write depressing songs,'' says Dixon. "The world's bad enough without my music depressing anyone. I'm performing to uplift the crowd and get people motivated.''
Staying playful
Her album, Fired Up, will be released by Polydor this month. Unusually for someone coming out of what would have essentially been regarded as a frivolous pop group, there has been no attempt by the now 27-year-old to establish herself as a "serious artist''. Mixing ragga, indie, electro and disco, Dixon's oeuvre remains playful pop music. "This life is too short to be serious.''
Enough relaxing
Such is Dixon's natural ebullience and fidgety disposition, it is frankly hard to imagine what she has been doing with herself in the intervening years, living what she claims to be a quiet married life in the countryside with former So Solid member turned actor, MC Harvey. "I had a year of relaxing and that's enough,'' she hoots. "I never want to relax again. I've got too much pent-up energy.''
That quality of energy marked her out in Misteeq, particularly whenever she launched into her tongue-tripping MC-ing. "A rapper for me is somebody telling a story. MC-ing is more associated with compering. It's about hosting and hyping up the crowd.''
Rapping novelty
As a teenager, she would imitate a particular Jamaican uncle, which might explain the peculiar grittiness of her rapping voice. "I was drawn in by the energy and power, the sense of controlling the crowd. There were no females doing it, so it was a novelty when I would get on the mic in a dress."
"I had this one lyric I would do: ‘You're nicer than the chicken and the rice and the gravy/You're so damn lovely, I'll be your wife and I'll have your babies.' It was so cheesy, but it always got a good response, probably because of the dress, and that gave me the confidence to develop.''
She has spent a year making her solo album. "I feel guilty sometimes saying I'm going to work, because to me making music's just fun. If you're not in the studio jumping up and down after every song, something's wrong.''
Flaws are human
Even the increasingly intrusive and often downright hostile bent of mainstream media pop coverage, notably in gossip magazines and tabloid newspapers, holds no fear for her. "Flaws are what make you human. These magazines try to make women think they are ugly. They are so shallow and rude that I would never allow anything they write to bother me.''
Sassy and sexy
For a brief period at the start of the decade, Misteeq were the sassiest, sexiest outfit in British pop, a refreshingly feisty R&B trio who rode in on the garage dance music craze with a new wave of black British stars, including Craig David and controversial urban posse So Solid Crew. Between 2001 and 2003 they had two top-10 albums and eight top-10 hits, blending American-style glamour and UK club beats. Dixon's distinctive and groundbreaking reggae MC stylings really set them apart. But when independent record company Telstar went into liquidation in 2004, the girls decided to disband.
