'I actually nearly said no when they asked me to be in Strictly Come Dancing because I was so worried what people in the music industry would think,' reveals the 31-year-old pop starlet from Welwyn Garden City.

Instead she threw her street cred to the wind and shimmied into first place in the popular BBC1 ballroom dancing show, winning a legion of new fans.

Before joining dance partner Matthew Cutler to waltz into the hearts of the nation, Alesha was best known as one third of R 'n' B girl group Mis-Teeq.

Having taken a National Diploma in Sports Studies, she formed the band with her friend Sabrina Washington when she was 18. Eventually a three-piece, they had two platinum albums and even some US success with their hit Scandalous.

Then, in 2004, she signed a solo deal. But her first solo hit didn't come until 2008, a year after her appearance in Strictly Come Dancing.
Alesha readily admits that her early solo material suffered because 'it
was probably a bit too predictable'.

'It was all a bit "girl leaves girl band, girl gets solo deal" – and there wasn't really much of a narrative to it,' she explains.

But that would all change when she stepped on to the dance floor and, three months later, triumphantly lifted the disco ball trophy.

Since winning the festive favourite celebrity dance contest in 2007, Alesha has enjoyed three hits, sold almost a million records and been a personal guest of Gordon and Sarah Brown at Downing Street (when Mr Brown described her 'a national treasure').

Earlier this year she joined a group of celebrities, including Cheryl Cole, Chris Moyles, Ronan Keating and Gary Barlow, to climb Mount Kilimanjaro for Comic Relief.

Alesha was delighted to be climbing alongside one person in particular and eventually the two went on to work together.

'I've been a fan of Gary Barlow's since I was 14 years old,' she beams.
'We wrote a song together, around Elton John's piano. He's absolutely brilliant.

'We did it in LA. It was myself, Gary and John Shanks who's done a lot of the Take That records like Rule The World and stuff with Miley Cyrus.

'Even though I'm comfortable in Gary's company, I was nervous when we approached the song.

'Obviously, the lyrics are quite genuine and heartfelt and it was just one of those moments. I was sitting there keeping a straight face but inside I was smiling because I was with Gary which was a really big deal for me,' she owns.

The song, To Love Again, will be released next Sunday (November 15) and Alesha is bubbling over with excitement about its prospects.

'We were so excited because when we went on the radio tour we were listening to Radio 1 and Chris (Moyles] played it in the morning and then Fearne (Cotton] played it, and we were getting quite a few plays out and about. 'And in all the time I've been in this industry, I've never had a song played on Magic!,' she giggles.

Though still charmingly down to earth and humble, Alesha says that her experiences on Strictly Come Dancing have made her wiser.

She's not commenting directly on the backlash that occurred after she replaced Arlene Phillips on the Strictly judging panel, but she does say: 'I like to think I'm wiser now. I think I just deal with things as they come, you know. That is what life is about.

'The saying is "it's not the destination, it's the journey". I suppose I just try to embrace the good and the bad, and acknowledge that the bad stuff happens for a reason and you've got to learn from it and you've just got to move on from it. Nothing's guaranteed,' she adds sagely.

She's learned that from experience. Even her TV dancing success didn't guarantee success for her debut solo album.

The Alesha Show reached number 26 in the charts after it was released this time last year. It re-entered at 14 in February and again at 11 in May.

It took Alesha nearly a year to produce the album after leaving Strictly and one could argue that, had she released it sooner after her success on the show, it would have charted much higher first time around.

'I wasn't even thinking about that, that's the interesting thing. I was just thinking about having a good time,' she says, though she admits that the show brought her to the attention of a whole range of people.

'I was getting letters from people in their eighties, nineties and four-year-olds, so it was like, this is scary,' she remembers.

Presumably with the publicity produced by her new slot as a judge on the show in mind, Alesha's record company, Asylum, is rereleasing The Alesha Show on November 23.

Between weekend stints on Strictly and its BBC2 companion weekday show, It Takes Two, Alesha headed out on a tour of Great Britain last month.
She says: 'I love performing live and the tour, like my album, is called The Alesha Show.

People will get to hear all my songs like The Boy Does Nothing and Lets Get Excited.

'We have made it a proper show of music and dancing. Strictly has been an influence because there are a lot of dance routines and a real big band feel with samba and Charleston moves. I learned all those amazing dances on the show, now it's my chance to use them during my live music show.

'Music is my first love and getting out there performing my single to the fans is still the best part of the job – that and working with Gary!'


Alesha comes to Southampton Guildhall on Tuesday, November 17, after rescheduling her October 24 show due to Strictly Come Dancing commitments. Tickets cost £18.50 from (023) 8063 2601. Original tickets are valid for the rescheduled date.
To Love Again, written by Alesha and Gary Barlow and released digitally on November 15, is one of four new songs on the re-issue of The Alesha Show – The Encore, which is out on November 23.