On the Cover ALESHA DIXON HAS FACED TRIAL AFTER TRIAL BUT THE STUNNING SONGSTRESS HAS BATTLED HER WAY TO SUCCESS NONETHELESS. AS HER DUET WITH JAY SEAN IS RELEASED TO ADORING FANS, SHE OPENS HER HEART IN THIS EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
YOU’RE ALWAYS GOING TO COME ACROSS AGEISM, RACISM, SEXISM. ALWAYS
If what doesn’t kill us is making us stronger, then Alesha Dixon must be made of steel. Born in Hertfordshire to a Jamaican father and English mother, a young Alesha grew up facing many trials and tribulations. Her father left when she was a mere four years old, reportedly causing much dysfunction in her family.
Between the ages of eight and ten, Alesha witnessed her mother suffer domestic abuse at the hands of her partner. The star stayed silent about this for over two decades – an indication perhaps of just how deeply it scarred her. Last year, she filmed BBC documentary Don’t Hit My Mum in which she admitted: “I don’t remember living in harmony, I don’t remember any fun times because the scary times have blocked out anything that was good… Every child should have the right to grow up in an environment where they feel secure and fearless going into the world, and I didn’t really feel that.”
MAYBE I SHOULD MARRY AN ASIAN MAN JUST SO I CAN WEAR THESE OUTFITS TO A WEDDING
How did your duet with Jay Sean come about?
Jay and I have been friends for about a decade now and we have worked with the same people and spoken on many occasions over the last seven to eight years about doing a collaboration together. Because we’re friends it was more about finding the time to do it ourselves because it wasn’t something that was contrived in any way. The reason it came together now was because I was telling producer Alan Sampson (produced Ride It) about Jay and how we’ve tried for years to make it happen. He said ‘funny you should say that because I have this track called Every Little Part of Me which I think would be brilliant.’ We played it to Jay and he fell in love with it and it just went from there. The whole thing was very organic and natural.
You come from a mixed race background. How important are your roots?
It’s part of who I am. You have to embrace who you are. I’m proud of being half English and half Jamaican. I think being mixed race is actually a blessing because you get to appreciate and understand two different cultures. Sometimes in life people are scared of what they don’t know and things that are different, but when you’ve grown up with a family that is half white and half black you just see everybody as equal. You don’t judge anyone and no one is better than anybody else. Being mixed race is actually a real blessing in disguise.
Read more in Asian Woman issue 46 out now.
Source http://www.asianwomanmag.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=135&Itemid=115
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