BROMLEY: Pop princess Pixie Lott chats about fame

Pop princess Pixie Lott is busy – or, to put it more correctly, extremely busy.

When I finally manage to speak to her after several weeks of fixing and unfixing interview times she is still in the fast lane. The 18-year-old is on the motorway on the way from one engagement to the next before squeezing in some practice with her guitarist for a Stevie Wonder cover song she wants to perform.

With all this going on anyone could be forgiven for being a bit tired and just wanting some time to themselves without having to face a barrage of questions. But Pixie is not like this at all.

Instead she's friendly and warm and talking to her feels a bit like chatting to an old friend who I have not seen for awhile – that is, if I had any friends who had gone straight into the charts at number one with their debut single.

Mama Do always had the ingredients to be a modern pop hit from the first moment it was recorded with its catchy lyrics and her soulful vocals. But it seems modest Pixie was not so sure as she explains: “At the time I wasn’t like ‘oh this is going to be a big hit’. I didn’t even think it was going to be the first single. It wasn’t until we all sat round and listened to the album and thought what would be the best song to introduce me as an artist and Mama Do seemed to fit quite nicely.”

Modest popstar

She added: “[Being number one was] really crazy really. I didn’t know what to expect at all and I was just so happy when I found out. We found out the midweeks on the Tuesday but then the Kelly Rowland song got released at the end of the week so everyone was a little bit nervous but we came out okay in the end."

This modesty is a sign that she is very much the same person she was when she was growing up in Petts Wood and Bickley.

'Life is . . . really busy'

The former pupil from the Italia Conti stage school in London and associate school in Chislehurst is prepared to work for fame but it will not change her.

She said: “Life is just really busy. Like the schedule’s just filled up and we are doing lots of shows at the moment and photoshoots and interviews and all that kind of stuff. I’m enjoying it. I enjoy all aspects of it but obviously the best part is doing the shows with my band and festivals and just singing live with people is definitely the best.

“My friends are just so excited because they know I’ve been working on it for ages and couldn’t wait for it [the music] to be released and now everyone’s just really excited and they come and watch me at my shows and they keep all the press articles and yeah they are just all really great.

"I’m always back in Bickley because most of my friends still live there.”

The future promises to be even busier for the starlet. Her next single Boys and Girls is out in August with the debut album Turn It Up out the following month before Cry Me Out comes out as a single before Christmas.

She is also already planning to go down different musical avenues in order to mix up her soulful pop vibe.

“I think it’s cool to do stuff with people from other genres just to make it a bit different so say if I did something with a hip hop person or like a kind of band would be cool. There’s this new rapper called Asher Roth and he’s just done this new song called I Love College which I really like and I thought because he’s young and I’m young it would be good to do a little collaboration,” she said.

Pixie has not been in the media spotlight for long but has quickly learned not to be off guard when the paparazzi are around after she got papped in her pyjamas outside her house. But she has always known what she wants: “I just want to keep on writing great songs and just sell loads of records and to perform to massive massive crowds and just be happy making music and be a respected artist.”