There are many people for whom “blessed” is a lazy hashtag, synonymous with influencer marketing and that most cardinal of internet sins: humble-bragging. When Alexandra Burke says she’s blessed, you can look deep into her smile-creased eyes and see that she means it.
Some 15 years after the singer won the fifth series of The X Factor, Burke retains the enthusiasm she brought to that winning run of performances.
Her subsequent career — a Christmas number one, the first British female artist to have a million-selling single in the UK, three studio albums, a fashion line, singing with Elton John at London’s O2 Centre, and a West End career that has allowed her to tread the boards alongside Whoopi Goldberg and Jason Donovan — has, she notes, been a something of a whirlwind.
“It’s all a bit of a blur, but a great blur,” she says. “It hasn’t stopped. I’m the kind of person who is easily satisfied with small things in life. I rarely complain about anything. This is all a bonus. You never know what you’re going to get on that show. It’s all systems go when you’re on TV for three months. It’s powerful and amazing, and if you last to the finals, you’re on TV every week. You can’t take that moment for granted. You don’t know what’s going to happen after. Here I am 15 years later. I’m working. I still feel like there’s so much more I want to achieve. I feel very privileged.”
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The countdown is on! 😬 😊 https://t.co/mJUJJqn93c
— Alexandra Burke (@alexandramusic) May 4, 2023
A runner-up on Strictly Come Dancing, a £5,000 winner on Who Wants to be a Millionaire, a Star Baker on Celebrity Bake Off, and one of only three contestants to make it to the end of the intensive training course required for the finale of Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins, Burke’s parallel television career speaks to her irrepressible drive.
“The minute I heard there was a SAS show, I wanted to do it,” says Burke. “I didn’t think I’d make the final. I just wanted to get through without handing in my badge. I know a lot of this comes down to luck, but I work very hard. I’m surrounded by great people which makes the experience even better. I wake up every day — even when the baby wakes me up early — and think I’m excited at what the day offers. If that means working around the house and looking after the baby, then wow. Life has been handed to me on a big, gorgeous platter.”
Her latest challenge is, thankfully, less gruelling than getting pushed around by former special forces personnel in the Jordanian desert.
Burke’s impressive debut film role is as Candice in Pretty Red Dress, a big-hearted musical feature from first-time writer-director Dionne Edwards. As the film opens, Candice, a checkout assistant and sometime singer, is shortlisted to play Tina Turner in a West End musical.
Her long-awaited big break coincides with domestic flare-ups. Her teen daughter Kenisha (Temilola Olatunbosun) is having problems at school just as Candice’s partner, Travis (Natey Jones) returns from prison on licence. He buys the aspiring star the dress of her dreams for the audition, only to become obsessed with wearing the red garment.
“Honestly, I was beside myself when I got the part,” Burke tells me in late May, on the day before Tina Turner died. “To give you some backstory, my mum actually made me give up acting at 16 and said, you need to concentrate on singing. The dancing and acting will follow; you need to focus. So somewhere inside me, the 16-year-old me was screaming with joy. It was magical to be able to tell my family: I got the job. The biggest thing for me was being able to sing and dance as Tina Turner. Her songs have been the soundtrack to my life. You think about her legacy. You think about the impact she made on my life. She’s an icon and a saint and an amazing human being. I tried my best to deliver.”
Edwards’s script for Pretty Red Dress has clout for a project critics are already suggesting — following on from Kinky Boots and The Full Monty — feels like a West End musical in the making. The film’s confrontations and admissions coalesce into a portrait of a family coming to terms with a secret; it’s an experience for three people, not just one.
“It’s about acceptance,” says Burke. “When you are close to someone and they disclose something about themselves that shocks you, you have to move on and accept them and live an effective life. That’s what’s so important about Dionne’s film.”
Alexandra Imelda Cecelia Ewen Burke was born to David Burke and Melissa Bell in 1988. Her mother was a backing singer for Stevie Wonder, Whitney Houston, and Liza Minelli before assuming front-of-house duties with Soul II Soul.
“I remember watching my mum on Top of the Pops and thinking: I want to be you,” recalls Burke. “You look like a right princess. You’re gorgeous. That was it. That was the career path. I had to be on Top of the Pops like my mum. From a very young age, I just knew there was nothing that could stand in my way.”
Burke made her TV debut, aged 12, on the talent show Star for a Night. That same year, her mum turned down Stevie Wonder’s offer to get her signed to his Motown label so that Burke could focus on her education. She buckled down and passed nine out of ten GCSEs, knowing she didn’t want to attend college. She auditioned for the second series of The X Factor in 2005 and made it through to the final 21 before Louis Walsh send her home, saying she was too young. She returned and triumphed three years later, aged 19, powered along by some maternal pro-tips for her performance of Whitney Houston’s Saving All My Love For You. (Years later, on a related note, Burke made her West End debut in 2014 as the lead in the West End production of The Bodyguard.)
“I had my mum’s help,” says Burke, whose mother was already battling diabetes mellitus and kidney failure during her successful X Factor run; Bell died in 2017.
“She was a back-up singer for Whitney Houston she had a lot of information and insight into how Whitney was and how she performed. Growing up my mum was my secret weapon. Every child goes through their ups and downs with their parents. But ultimately my mum was my biggest supporter and my biggest fan. I wouldn’t be sitting here talking to you without her. I was so lucky to have her advice in my back pocket because she had all the inside information. She knew what to look out for and the things to not be disappointed about. She was an icon. She had four children. She was a single mother. She still had a career. I don’t know anyone stronger than my mum. I don’t have any excuse. I got to get up, get out and keep going. Her advice will live on beyond me. If my children choose this career path one day, I’ll tell them what Grandma told me.”
Since coming to international prominence the disarming Burke has spoken to a wide range of issues, from IBS to anxiety. In the weeks after George Floyd’s death in 2020, she posted a video chronicling a raft of micro-aggressions she had encountered in the music industry, including being asked to bleach her skin and refrain from braiding her hair.
“There have been improvements but there’s a lot to improve on,” she says. “There’s a long way to go and I don’t think we’ll get there in my lifetime. But at this moment, I think people are feeling safer and more comfortable than they used to be.”
Burke’s domestic partner is AFC Bournemouth and Republic of Ireland goalkeeper Darren Randolph. In keeping with her heritage she’s having an Irish twin; in April, she and Darren revealed on Instagram that they are expecting their second child. Their first, known publicly as “Little Grape”, was born nine months earlier in June 2022.
“My gorgeous nan is half-Irish and half-Jamaican,” says Burke. “She’s from Connemara. I’m still trying to figure out my family tree and unfortunately, I lost my mum, so I can’t ask her. My partner is from Dublin, His dad is half-American and his family all still live in Ireland. So, when he retires, he really wants to take me to Ireland, put our little family in a car, and show me around. He’s not retiring just yet. So that’ll give me more time to discover my roots.”
Pretty Red Dress is in cinemas now
