EXCLUSIVE: Britain's Got Talent child star hits out after having her entire image 'controlled'
Natalie Okri made it to the Britain's Got Talent semi-finals as a child, and went on to get signed by Simon Cowell's music label. Now as an adult she is still making hits but has gone in a completely different direction
Natalie Okri brought the nation to tears in 2009 when, at just 10 years old, she delivered an achingly sweet rendition of Alicia Keys' No One on the Britain's Got Talent stage.
Natalie's performance earned her praise from all of the BGT judges, including famously hard-to-please Simon Cowell, and she even made it to the semi-finals where she competed against heavyweights such as Diversity and Susan Boyle. Sixteen years later Natalie is still involved with the music industry, but her journey towards making music that reflects who she is inside has not been without its challenges.Shortly after BGT, Natalie was signed to Cowell’s Syco Entertainment label. What seemed like a dream come true quickly became overwhelming as the girl struggled to balance time at school with her new world of rehearsals, studio hours, and live performances.
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"My mum was very concerned, and my dad, who’s a barrister, got the contract cancelled. When I was 16, I released my first-ever song and started again. I started taking it more seriously in my third year of university when I was about 19, releasing regularly from there," she previously told Cene magazine:
Although she was initially pleased to be signed by a label again in 2020, Natalie now looks back on that time with a degree of regret. In an exclusive interview with The Mirror, she admitted that she feels like she lost creative control over the music she was making and the way she was being marketed, saying: "When you're so young and you have a label, so many people's hands are in it, and you don't really get that much of a say.
"They choose your songs, they choose your look, they choose what you wear, and they kind of tell you what your story is, rather than you having your own story. It's very much like [a game of] design your artist."
Now, as an independent artist at 26, Natalie is reclaiming her voice. The singer has done away with the influence of record execs, deleted her old catalogue of tracks that she no longer feels reflect her values, and stopped drinking in the studio.
This turning point came after her track Roll With Me, which she worked on with rappers Sneakbo and Ramz, took off on TikTok - only for her to get a shock when she heard her own lyrics quoted back to her in church.
Natalie shared: "I was leading praise and worship in the choir, and these little girls that were like 12 and 13 years old came up to me and started singing my lyrics back to me. In the lyrics, I'm swearing and they sang the swear words to me.
"And this is in church, and they're young and I was like, 'Whoa, don't sing those lyrics.' It dawned on me that I'm influencing these younger girls to be swearing and to be drinking alcohol and just living this lifestyle that is not even a lifestyle that I live.
"I just felt like it was not a good influence on the younger generation. I would like my music to inspire, to uplift, to be positive, and to encourage and not be a bad influence."
The singer has called some of the expectations label execs used to place on her "toxic", adding: "They like to see you shaking a bit of arse on the music video. They like to see you doing things that are sometimes toxic and I don't want to have to be the artist that lives up to that expectation anymore. I would rather be true to myself."
She has since released R&B tracks Blessings and Hot, and made appearances on BBC Radio 1Xtra. This May she celebrated a new career milestone - performing her own music at the Liverpool Gospel Festival.
Fans cheered her on after she posted a behind-the-scenes video of her rehearsals, gushing: "Beautiful cover and song. Congratulations girl."
Natalie added: "I feel like we're in a time where people need something that is refreshing, they need something that can uplift, motivate. I've noticed that a lot of people have been changing their kind of music into music that is more positive, cause, yeah, it's just that time. People are actually now seeing my story and seeing me for who I am. I'm really excited to see where that's going to go."
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