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As you get older, live more days, experience more birthdays, jobs, Christmas’ and episodes of Eastenders you come to realise and accept that life has many ugly sides you’d wish you’d never witnessed and that the happily ever after story often gets messed up.. Life now is so different for youth than it was in my day. Me and my west London homies could rave at Granaries in South London, Shinolas in East London or The Rocket in Tottenham without being harassed .Now I hear kids cant step outside of their own postcodes!? I can’t even fathom that.
In old skool days there weren’t many opportunities to badmouth people unless it was to their face and you needed some balls to do that. Nowadays a literal nobody can cyber bully another human and make their lives hell. What is the hater getting out of this? Nothing. Except spreading the hate. Is it any wonder that we are now more depressed, miserable and anxious than we’ve ever been?. Some of the stories I hear and witness are pathetic.
I’ve worked in TV and music for nearly 2 decades now and believe me, as well as the glamorous perceived life there is A LOT of ugliness and morally unjust action and decisions that happen daily that would leave a very bad taste in folks mouths if exposed.
I choose to observe, accept and carry on positively. Sometimes we make acquaintances via our work that leave us with a feeling of faith and that there are some good people in amongst the shallow BS and one such act for me have always been the group formally known as Mis-Teeq.
I had known Alesha Dixon long before the groups fame as we dated a pair of best friends years ago but when I got to know her other 2 band mates I wasn’t disappointed. Always friendly, professional, polite, beautifully turned out and real-these girls were a pleasure to watch make it to the top.
So I was disappointed when their record label Polydor went bust back in the day consequently leading them to split up.
They all lay low for a while before all refocusing, rebranding and re-emerging. Aleshas story you know, Su-Elise set up a stage school and lead singer Sabrina Washington chilled out for a while before making new music as a solo artist. We saw her try her hand very well at a lovers rock, old skool reggae sound – she was amazing live and then all was quiet again for a minute.
Well, not for long cos ‘’Sabrina’s new music’’ has been a hot topic bubbling on the underground for months now and finally last month she invited me to come and watch her making her first solo video for her new single ‘’OMG’’.
I arrived on set at the huge Wembley studio to be greeted by the usual catering crew and dancers running around in the corridors with a real sense of excited anticipation.
I was ushered into Sabrina’s dressing room to see her looking stunning in her first outfit and having the hair and makeup ladies just finishing up so we could catch up.
Sabrina has that aura of a royal princess about her. She always has from the first day I met her. Quieter than the rest, modestly confident in her own talent and genuinely warm and friendly to everyone around her from fellow celeb to teaboy..
Her single ‘’OMG’’ is produced by Labyrinth and it’s a girlie anthem about a relationship gone wrong, the guy thinks he has had the last laugh but the girl has the upper hand. Written with Ali Tenant (infamous song writer who used to work alongside Wayne Hector-both songwriters to the stars inc Westlife and Beyonce) , Sabrina revealed that Ali is a great friend and a fantastic writer, and in the studio they like to laugh and have a great working chemistry.
Also hanging out looking extremely relaxed for a director was Emil Nava-brother of the legendary video director Jake Nava. Sabrina revealed she wanted Emil Nava to direct as his older brother Jake used to direct lots of Mis Teeqs videos , at the time Emil used to assist him , they both love beauty shots and most importantly she trusted him.
On set I was astonished to see just how lithe, supple and mesmerising Sabrina’s figure is- I had total green eye! As if that wasn’t enough, her stylist Richard Shoyemi (who’s known her since her Mis Teeq days) had poured that figure into outfits from Dolce and Gabbana , Chanel and Vivienne Westwood as well as up and coming designers : Kate Hamilton and Beatrice Newman .
Then Sabrina picked up a pair of shoes that looked like they belonged in a futuristic art museum designed by Richard himself. Then I spotted an even flyer pair with a massive spike by Paule Ka Paris. They all looked like a scene from Vogue meets Harpers and later Sabrina confessed that whilst they looked wild on film ‘’the glass shoes were a nightmare to walk in’’.
Sabrina loves working with Richard cos ‘’he’s mad as hell- with a great sense of style and is unafraid, we’re on the same page and saw the same vision’’.
You could see that Sabrina and Richard are an art match made in heaven as Sabrina was clearly Richards muse. He confessed to me ‘’The reason I love styling Sabrina is because she is very much like my muse I have thoughts of out of this world style concepts and Sabrina just goes with it and wears each look as if it was custom built for her so Its always amazing to work with her as she brings my thoughts to life’’ .
Sabrina told me that Grace Jones was an inspiration for the video and Richard added ‘’Sabrina loves showing her amazing long runway legs and her fantastic
abs and she has a very sexy class too’’
Richard was running the wardrobe arena like a pro and had at least 15 outfits ready for the shoot but I think only 5-6 got shown in the end. Sabrina clearly like the blue leotard with metal boning in the sleeves that was made for her by up and coming designer Kate Hamilton and if I had her figure I might’ve slyly ‘’borrowed it’’ .
On set I had to laugh as I witnessed Sabrina holding girls like dogs on leashes- oh yes I thought-looks like Emil is playing out some of his fantasies here!.
Later Sabrina confessed that in Mis Teeq she had compromised so much so she was unsure of her musical direction, so she experimented loads and now her new sound she describes as dirty pop-which could also be her album title.
Sabrinas putting her new music out independently- although there have been rumours of her signing to Cash Money as boss Baby is still in talks with her management. Sabz disclosed that she had had a possible situation with EMI but it was taking too long, and wanting to make the most of her timing once she came out of ‘’I’m a celebrity get me out of here’’ she is taking her chances.
She still keeps in touch with her Mis Teeq sistren ‘’I saw Alesha when I came out of jungle- and I saw Su at your Motown birthday party’’ but her current favourite UK music act on rewind is Tinie Tempah with his hit no.1 hit ‘’Pass out’’, and she likes Mclean.
Sabz also loves the current camaraderie between black British music acts that is clearly uniting and making successful acts even stronger. She says her closest friend in the industry is comedian Kojo-whom she met via their mutual Radio 1 DJ friend Reggie Yates.
Sabz also loved all the social networks that help her meet other artists. Her favourite artists to follow on twitter are Chipmunk and new Jive signing Talay Riley- apparently ‘’he twitteres and pictures everything’’.
Obviously the video has proved its popularity as once it was released it had only been out 2 days before receiving 65,000 hits, and currently its over 125,000. Sabrina was shocked saying ‘’the response has been fantastic!’’
OMG is released on March 22nd. With the uk ‘urban stars’ recently running things in our charts-Tinie Tempah- and the American charts-Taio Cruz, its probable that Sabrina is next in line!