The charts right now are ruled by urban-inspired beats from Texas and South London. Grime is mainstream, Charli has gone back to the rave, and the girls are personal, brash, and funny. It seems like a great time, then, to remember a girl who showed up on X-Factor, showed her potential by crossing over to the US, and showed us a glimpse of the future from a place I don’t think any of us were expecting.
With her sharp British accent, Cher Lloyd could ride with Charli XCX, and her songs sit better alongside the current rap girls renaissance than they did in a pop scene dominated by Katy Perry, Coldplay, and early GaGa. Even Lloyd’s fashion – which married 2010s high-octane glam with trainers and streetwear – looks more like something you’d see now on a K-Pop group than what celebrities were wearing at the time. Lloyd germinated alongside Nicki, hitting the big time even before Iggy Azalea, and recognised the Minaj moment early, incorporating staccato dancing and candy-colourful costumes into her performances without feeling like a copycat. At the time, many critics wrote Cher Lloyd off as a bit of a chav – after all, there was a suburban badgal sensibility to her that was unusual at the time, and the British press has never failed to play class warfare – as well as the product of talent show drama that had a definite shelf life in the music industry. Coupled with a reputation for being difficult that today would be contextualised differently (having a meltdown over being forced to wear Cheryl Cole’s heels feels much more Kristen Stewart at Cannes or Florence Pugh refusing to lose weight than, as the press at the time put it, bratty, diva behaviour). Still Lloyd surprised everyone: debuting at number one with her single and in the top 10 with her album whilst working with some surprising collaborators (Dot Rotten and Busta Rhymes on her debut). I can’t help but wonder what would have happened if some middle-aged, rich, white men hadn’t known better than Cher what would appeal to her market.
Her big hits were sulky teen bangers, but the machinations around Lloyd pushed her pushed her into Shakespears Sister and John Lennon covers on X-Factor, and at the point her career could’ve ascended to the next level she released Sirens, a personal ballad totally at odds with her image. Whilst her voice could compete on the TV talent show stages at their preferred genre, what producers and record execs seemed to miss was that her strength was attitude. Sure, she could do the Rihanna part of an Eminem song and follow choreography well enough, but whereas Rihanna’s persona was versatile enough to cover ballads Cher really came alive during the rap breakdown. What they had on their hands was a singer good enough to do her own hooks and who had her own sense of flow and personality, and the music industry at the time didn’t know how to deploy her, nor did they want a young woman with thoughts of her own. Cher wasn’t copying bigger names, but she was learning from them, and with some time to work out her sound with a few different producers (think early career Raye, going from Brixton pop to club classic to vintage inspired pure pop, all the while honing her signature look and sound that allowed her debut album to be a triumph) Cher Lloyd could have found a place as an underground pop artist, somebody relatable enough to do their PR in Nandos (chicken shop date what?) and some practice performing before being sent to the wolves at V Festival with a bad reputation.
Instead, by the end of The X Factor SYCO (impresario Simon Cowell’s record label) were trying to get Cher to be a teeny-bopper, entirely missing what Louis Walsh noticed (and made a frankly creepy comment on) – that she seemed older than that. Her influences weren’t simply rappers of the time like Jay-Z and Drake, but 90s hip-hop and some alt rock, and she thrived in covers of Missy Elliot and Dre verses and mashups of unusual genres. Lloyd saved herself multiple times many times from a merely adequate performance in the mould of the kind of singer TV talent shows cultivate by switching styles to an incendiary performance of a rap verse, without feeling culturally appropriative or fake. Despite witnessing this weekly, her debut album attempted instead to give Billie Piper realness with the credibility lent by ageing or up-and-coming features that felt picked by the label. Still, though, it was successful, and many listeners were surprised by her obvious talent. Cher’s forays into new genres felt playful, and her ‘jukebox’ approach to album making, where every track has a different vibe, would suit the brave new world of streaming more than it did the ‘picking up a CD in Tesco’ world of the early aughts.
Since 2010 we’ve seen Cher Lloyd imitations from Jesy Nelson, Camilla Cabello, Tate McRae – girls with nice singing voices trying to be bad, but without the vibe to back it up (and, in the case of Jesy and Camila, questions of blackfishing and animosity from their former bandmates). All of them are pure pop, whereas Cher has the potential to be a genre crossover act, straddling several of the genres on the charts right now without straying too far from a mass-market pop sensibility. Since then we’ve seen Bhad Bhabie’s manager tell the industry ‘Don’t bet the horse, bet the jockey’ in regards to his underage Trilby, and are much more aware of the artifice in the entertainment world – of TV editing and PR – than we were back then. Lloyd herself is a tale of two women: one, a talented girl respected by industry veterans like Red One; the other, Simon Cowell’s ‘favourite brat’ who needed older men around her to manager her career and image. She found success for her unique perspective and had the industry sanitise that before selling it, with some success, but I personally would love to see that spark again. In a world of Raye, genre experiments, and 90s revival, Cher Lloyd should walk back into a career that allows her to be herself. She’s 30 years old, enjoying motherhood and makeup instagram with the occasional foray into a dance-inspired standalone pop track, but we haven’t had an album from Cher for a decade – or even a track from her since 2020. Cher Lloyd deserved better, and I personally hope she chooses to continue making work.
* a quick note – I have actually never watched an episode of X-Factor, only the videos of Cher as research for this. I remember it being in the paper, and I bought both her albums new.
On This Topic:
- A ‘you’re sleeping on Cher Lloyd’ playlist, including this banger
- two songs / from her less-listened-to second album
- and a feature (this isn’t good in an objective sense, but it is fun, and I think there’s great potential for Cher to be a voice of attitude on the pop side, and I’d love to see her guest on an actual rap song)
To-Do:
- Go home
- Call N
- Plan NL
Today’s Culture:
- Nicole + Felicia
- Elie Saab
- Dior (Can you tell I’ve been wedding dress shopping? I will not be wearing a Dior gown on the day unless Maria Chiuri decides to gift me one, but perhaps I can incorporate some New Look elements into my trousseau…)
Late Romantic 
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