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K-SYRAN & SUGABABE AMELLE BERRABAH RELEASE ‘TESTIFY’: WHEN YOUR MAN LETS YOU DOWN, WOULD YOU KISS YOUR GIRLFRIEND?
Sugababes’ Amelle Berrabah, teamed up with smart dance connoisseur, multi talented Norwegian singer/sonwriter K-Syran, for controversial, modern girl-power anthem ‘Testify’, out now via Intimacy Records. A surprisingly inspiring, summer tune, about the growing trend of how girls are turning to their best female friends for physical love when their husbands or boyfriends are no longer able to meet their needs…”When your man lets you down, would you kiss your girlfriend?.
“It’s a modern song of female empowerment,” – explains K-Syran – “I’d seen many of my female friends turn to their girlfriends once their marriages break down, so I felt compelled to get that message into song, as I see it as a growing trend. Amelle was searching for a new single and she felt the message of this track grabbed her from the start. ‘Testify’ can be read in many ways. Every woman will find it touches her differently.”The singer/songwriter/playwrite and actress, adds: “It’s the ambiguity of ‘Testify’ that leaves us girls with that cheeky smile…Take the message of ‘she’s my lover’ anyway you like, that was my intention when I wrote this track.”
Live: 23 July T-20 Promotions Live Music Rainton Meadows Arena
"I just wanted to sing... and I very much went with what everyone else told me I should be doing."
Jade Ewen will take to the West End stage for Disney's Aladdin later this month - and it sounds like she was always destined to play Princess Jasmine.
Ewen told Digital Spy that Disney's animated films have "always been a massive part of the reason" why she performs.
"It was sort of my introduction to musical theatre," she explained. "My mum would always buy me and my sister the VHS - every year we'd get a new Disney film.
"My very first movie that I learnt the songs to was The Little Mermaid - but my favourite was Aladdin, because Jasmine was the first Princess I saw and thought, 'Oh my gosh, she looks like me!'
"But I never ever dreamed that I would be playing her - and I remember when I heard about the audition for it, I was too scared to allow myself to get excited about the possibility... because it's so, so tough.
"Just to book a leading lady role… it's not an easy thing to do. So when they told me I'd got it, I screamed. I screamed and screamed and I couldn't believe it. And then I had to keep it a secret… I couldn't tell anyone!"
The 28-year-old first came into the public eye as a Eurovision hopeful - finishing fifth in 2009 - and was a member of Sugababes from 2009 to 2011. But Jade told DS that she now feels like "a different person" to the one who found fame in a girl group.
"I just wanted to sing but I didn't really have a sense of self and I very much went with what everyone else told me I should be doing," she said.
"You need to feel happy and fulfilled and you need to sleep well every night. Since being back on stage, it's really made me appreciate that this is what I was supposed to do.
"The fame stuff should always be a byproduct. But when that - and all the propaganda and the gossipy stuff - is the focus, and the performance thing is secondary? It kind of feels, to me, pointless. I don't get enjoyment out of that.
"I feel really happy doing press now, because I'm doing something that I'm really excited about. I'm happy to sit and do interviews, and I'm relaxed. You feel smiley and proud and positive. It's a really nice feeling."
She's since won rave reviews for her musical theatre work - including the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre production of Porgy and Bess, and In The Heights on the West End.
But Jade - who stars opposite Dean John-Wilson in Aladdin - is reluctant to ever rule out a pop music comeback.
"If music comes back up in the future, I'm going to do it and I'm going to commit to it 100%. I will never say I'm not going to do that again, because I've learned quite quickly that nothing ever goes to plan!"
See Jade Ewen in Aladdin at the Prince Edward Theatre, London, with previews from Friday, May 27.
Earlier this year we took a trip across the pond to meet with Dean John-Wilson and Jade Ewen - the newest Disney Prince and Princess to hit the stage.
Find out how it feels to play a dream role, what it was like to meet Alan Menken and where they would fly to if they had their own magic carpet.
Since appearing on Britain's Got Talent in 2008, John-Wilson has been seen in the UK tour of Sister Act, Songs For a New World and the National Theatre's critically acclaimed production Here Lies Love.
Former Sugababe Ewen was recently seen in In The Heights, her other theatre credits include The Lion King and Whistle Down The Wind.
Casey Nicholaw directs and choreographs the show which features several of the original songs including "Prince Ali", "Friend Like Me" and Menken and Tim Rice's Academy Award-winning song "A Whole New World".
Keep an eye out for our video with Trevor Dion Nicholas (the Genie!) coming to WOS later this month.
Aladdin opens at the Prince Edward Theatre on 15 June 2016.
Sugababes’ Amelle Berrabah, teamed up with smart dance connoisseur, multi talented Norwegian singer/sonwriter K-Syran, for controversial, modern girl-power anthem ‘Testify’, out now via Intimacy Records. A surprisingly inspiring, summer tune, about the growing trend of how girls are turning to their best female friends for physical love when their husbands or boyfriends are no longer able to meet their needs…”When your man lets you down, would you kiss your girlfriend?.
