Red Moon
22-12-2007, 11:54 AM
Why Alesha's troubled past has made her desperate to win Strictly Come DancingTrue to form, Alesha Dixon has remained, publicly at least, the very picture of effervescence this week.
Whenever she has been confronted by one of the many cameras that have religiously followed her behind-the-scenes progress as she prepares for tonight's final of Strictly Come Dancing, she has fixed it with the same traffic-stopping smile that has become her trademark.
Such public displays of cheerfulness have, however, become more and more difficult to summon up.
After three months of 12-hours-a-day training, the beautiful singer is shattered.
There have been tears. She admits she hasn't been eating properly. But she will allow no let up in the punishing training schedule she has set herself.
The 29-year-old has become convinced that she needs to win the BBC1 dancing competition to breathe life into her flat-lining singing career.
"Second is nowhere," she told an associate this week.
"I must win. There is nothing that could possibly be more important to me than this."
Even her professional dance partner Matthew Cutler is exhausted as they rehearse their energysapping five dances for this evening's decider.
"Matthew is out on his feet as well," said an insider on the show.
"But Alesha is amazing. She is absolutely done in, but she refuses to take a break.
"She finishes practising a routine and starts it all over again. The girl has got tremendous will."
It is a will that has seen her deliver a series of flawless performances.
Her rumba had an excitable Bruno Tonioli swooning: "You have the seducing power of Salome".
Even his hard-to-please fellow judge Arlene Phillips christened Alesha "a gorgeous gazelle".
Little wonder, then, that she has been installed as the bookies' favourite ahead of her rival for the crown, 20-year-old former EastEnders actor Matt Di Angelo.
Given her success, she has, not surprisingly, been inundated with requests from family and friends for tickets to tonight's grand finale.
Cheering her on will be her mother Beverley and ever-present grandmother Clem, who has herself become something of a favourite with the show's ten million viewers.
There will be no seat, however, for the father who left the family home when she was four, or the elder brother who has emerged from the shadows this week to accuse his sister of turning her back on her family in the pursuit of fame and fortune.
So why has the mixed raced singer's West Indianborn father Melvin Dixon not been invited to share in his daughter's proudest moment?
The official line from the BBC was that the electrician now lives abroad and is unable to attend.
But his absence serves only to place under the spotlight a longstanding and bitter family feud, as well a childhood described by one of Alesha's relatives as "hellish".
"I am always amazed when I see Alesha," said the family member, who asked not to be named.
"She is always so happy-go-lucky and positive, but she has been through so much in her life. She deserves all the good things that are happening to her now because she has had to fight hard for everything."
Publicly, the singer, who found fame as a third of the now defunct all-girl trio Mis-Teeq in the early Noughties, has spoken of "long idyllic days" during her childhood in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire.
The reality, it emerged this week, was very different. Her elder brother Mark Harris went public with claims that after her father walked out, Alesha's white mother took up with a succession of oftenviolent boyfriends who came and went from the family's rundown home.
Alesha mum Beverley
It was, it is fair to say, a far from traditional set-up. The singer's mother Beverley has three children by three different men (Alesha's youngest brother, John, is 19).
At one point, her brother Mark said, all three siblings had to share a cramped room with the three offspring of one of their mother's lovers.
On another occasion the children, who he claimed often went hungry, watched screaming from a window as their mother was subjected to a brutal attack in the street by one live-in boyfriend — which put her in hospital.
Given Alesha's exhaustion and fragility, such tawdry tales (not to mention her brother's claims that after finding success she "went into celeb overdrive and got very selfish") could not have come at a worse time.
A source revealed: "Alesha is devastated by what Mark has said. He has had his own troubles and saw the chance to cash in.
"She hasn't seen him for months, but she is horrified by his betrayal."
Despite her dysfunctional upbringing Alesha remains close to her mother, say family friends.
One said: "It's not what you would call a normal mother and daughter relationship.
"Beverley is a bit of a free spirit. She is well into her 50s, but she dresses like a teenager."
Alesha's relationship with her father, meanwhile, has remained distant since her parents split.
According to her brother, Dixon snr, who went on to have three further children following his split from her mother, initially made the effort to pick up his daughter every week.
But gradually the visits became later and later, and occasionally he would not show up at all.
Friends say that although there has been contact between the pair over the years, the relationship is, at best, strained. It is not helped by the fact that her parents hate each other.
But Alesha has remained close to her maternal grandmother Clem.
Indeed, it was to Clem that Alesha turned when her marriage to British rapper MC Harvey imploded in equally humiliating circumstances last year, just 12 months after their glitzy showbiz wedding.
Amid a flurry of lurid redtop headlines, Harvey — one-time singer with the controversial rap group So Solid Crew — was caught cheating on his beautiful new wife with another singer, Javine Hylton.
It was alleged that Harvey, who was appearing with Javine in the West End musical Daddy Cool, was dragged naked out of Hylton's home when her boyfriend arrived home to find the couple in bed together.
Alesha moved out of their Hertfordshire home as Harvey sought publicly to explain his betrayal by claiming their six-year relationship had floundered because of his wife's insistence on putting her career ahead of his hopes of starting a family.
The wretched Harvey, it should be said, already possessed the most dubious credentials for the role of loyal husband and would-be father.
At the same time, So Solid Crew had already become infamous for their glorification of gang violence.
The group's leader Dwayne Vincent, better known as rapper Megaman, was acquitted last year at the Old Bailey of murdering a man gunned down in a revenge attack.
In the same week he married Miss Dixon in June 2005, Harvey was himself convicted of assaulting a policeman who had stopped him for using his mobile at the wheel of his car.
After the split, Miss Hylton's spurned ex Karl Gordon accused Harvey, who is now attempting an acting career, of "trading in a Bentley for a Skoda".
Alesha reacted to the collapse of the marriage by promptly putting her handmade wedding dress on eBay and promising to give the proceeds to charity.
Nonetheless, she was still devastated when she discovered Miss Hylton, who was once a contestant on ITV talent contest Popstars: The Rivals, was pregnant byHarvey (their baby is due next month). Indeed, friends say his infidelity remains a source of deep upset.
Alesha has steadfastly refused to discuss the episode, save to say: "It was so important to me to be a role model, to be married with strong foundations. I found it very embarrassing. I hibernated. I didn't even want to go to my local shop."
Such was her distress at the time, Harvey, 28, revealed last month, that he feared for her safety: "I was worried she'd hurt herself," he said.
"She was crying and emotional." Worryingly, perhaps, in Harvey's absence Alesha has, it seems, been unable to cure herself of her attraction to eminently unsuitable males.
This summer she had a series of dates with American record producer Pharrell Williams, who is best known for his very public caddish and lurid descriptions of his series of liaisons with Jade Jagger.
The shapely singer was also said to be seeing handsome nightclub bouncer and would-be model James Chandler, until he revealed details of their sex life to a tabloid earlier this month.
Bounders apart, she was also linked to her fresh-faced fellow finalist Matt Di Angelo after they were seen dancing at London nightclub Movida at the beginning of the series. But insiders on the show say they are no more than friends.
Of course, her intensive training schedule for Strictly has left little time for dating. Nor is there any hope of a break. Immediately after Christmas she has been booked for a promotional singing tour of Japan and Asia before a series of engagements back home.
Whatever the result of tonight's final, her career has received a much needed fillip thanks to the contest. It has not come a moment too soon. Mis-Teeq, who had scored a handful of chart hits, were dumped by their record company in 2005 after sales waned.
Then Alesha went solo, but her first two singles bombed and her debut album Fired Up was never released by her record label.
But since her public resurgence she has already begun discussions about a completely new album to be released next year.
She has also set her sights on an acting career and has been signed to appear alongside Brian Cox and former ER actress Alex Kingston in the upcoming Britflick, Milestones.
But a fretful Alesha is convinced her hopes depend on victory tonight.
A source told the Mail: "She feels everything is resting on this once chance. After all the hard work she has put herself through, she doesn't want to be pushed back into the shadows."
Given her fierce determination to escape that troubled upbringing, few, surely, would not hope she fulfils her dream.
Source and Pictures: Daily Mail (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/showbiz/showbiznews.html?in_article_id=504077&in_page_id=1773)
Whenever she has been confronted by one of the many cameras that have religiously followed her behind-the-scenes progress as she prepares for tonight's final of Strictly Come Dancing, she has fixed it with the same traffic-stopping smile that has become her trademark.
Such public displays of cheerfulness have, however, become more and more difficult to summon up.
After three months of 12-hours-a-day training, the beautiful singer is shattered.
There have been tears. She admits she hasn't been eating properly. But she will allow no let up in the punishing training schedule she has set herself.
The 29-year-old has become convinced that she needs to win the BBC1 dancing competition to breathe life into her flat-lining singing career.
"Second is nowhere," she told an associate this week.
"I must win. There is nothing that could possibly be more important to me than this."
Even her professional dance partner Matthew Cutler is exhausted as they rehearse their energysapping five dances for this evening's decider.
"Matthew is out on his feet as well," said an insider on the show.
"But Alesha is amazing. She is absolutely done in, but she refuses to take a break.
"She finishes practising a routine and starts it all over again. The girl has got tremendous will."
It is a will that has seen her deliver a series of flawless performances.
Her rumba had an excitable Bruno Tonioli swooning: "You have the seducing power of Salome".
Even his hard-to-please fellow judge Arlene Phillips christened Alesha "a gorgeous gazelle".
Little wonder, then, that she has been installed as the bookies' favourite ahead of her rival for the crown, 20-year-old former EastEnders actor Matt Di Angelo.
Given her success, she has, not surprisingly, been inundated with requests from family and friends for tickets to tonight's grand finale.
Cheering her on will be her mother Beverley and ever-present grandmother Clem, who has herself become something of a favourite with the show's ten million viewers.
There will be no seat, however, for the father who left the family home when she was four, or the elder brother who has emerged from the shadows this week to accuse his sister of turning her back on her family in the pursuit of fame and fortune.
So why has the mixed raced singer's West Indianborn father Melvin Dixon not been invited to share in his daughter's proudest moment?
The official line from the BBC was that the electrician now lives abroad and is unable to attend.
But his absence serves only to place under the spotlight a longstanding and bitter family feud, as well a childhood described by one of Alesha's relatives as "hellish".
"I am always amazed when I see Alesha," said the family member, who asked not to be named.
"She is always so happy-go-lucky and positive, but she has been through so much in her life. She deserves all the good things that are happening to her now because she has had to fight hard for everything."
Publicly, the singer, who found fame as a third of the now defunct all-girl trio Mis-Teeq in the early Noughties, has spoken of "long idyllic days" during her childhood in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire.
The reality, it emerged this week, was very different. Her elder brother Mark Harris went public with claims that after her father walked out, Alesha's white mother took up with a succession of oftenviolent boyfriends who came and went from the family's rundown home.
Alesha mum Beverley
It was, it is fair to say, a far from traditional set-up. The singer's mother Beverley has three children by three different men (Alesha's youngest brother, John, is 19).
At one point, her brother Mark said, all three siblings had to share a cramped room with the three offspring of one of their mother's lovers.
On another occasion the children, who he claimed often went hungry, watched screaming from a window as their mother was subjected to a brutal attack in the street by one live-in boyfriend — which put her in hospital.
Given Alesha's exhaustion and fragility, such tawdry tales (not to mention her brother's claims that after finding success she "went into celeb overdrive and got very selfish") could not have come at a worse time.
A source revealed: "Alesha is devastated by what Mark has said. He has had his own troubles and saw the chance to cash in.
"She hasn't seen him for months, but she is horrified by his betrayal."
Despite her dysfunctional upbringing Alesha remains close to her mother, say family friends.
One said: "It's not what you would call a normal mother and daughter relationship.
"Beverley is a bit of a free spirit. She is well into her 50s, but she dresses like a teenager."
Alesha's relationship with her father, meanwhile, has remained distant since her parents split.
According to her brother, Dixon snr, who went on to have three further children following his split from her mother, initially made the effort to pick up his daughter every week.
But gradually the visits became later and later, and occasionally he would not show up at all.
Friends say that although there has been contact between the pair over the years, the relationship is, at best, strained. It is not helped by the fact that her parents hate each other.
But Alesha has remained close to her maternal grandmother Clem.
Indeed, it was to Clem that Alesha turned when her marriage to British rapper MC Harvey imploded in equally humiliating circumstances last year, just 12 months after their glitzy showbiz wedding.
Amid a flurry of lurid redtop headlines, Harvey — one-time singer with the controversial rap group So Solid Crew — was caught cheating on his beautiful new wife with another singer, Javine Hylton.
It was alleged that Harvey, who was appearing with Javine in the West End musical Daddy Cool, was dragged naked out of Hylton's home when her boyfriend arrived home to find the couple in bed together.
Alesha moved out of their Hertfordshire home as Harvey sought publicly to explain his betrayal by claiming their six-year relationship had floundered because of his wife's insistence on putting her career ahead of his hopes of starting a family.
The wretched Harvey, it should be said, already possessed the most dubious credentials for the role of loyal husband and would-be father.
At the same time, So Solid Crew had already become infamous for their glorification of gang violence.
The group's leader Dwayne Vincent, better known as rapper Megaman, was acquitted last year at the Old Bailey of murdering a man gunned down in a revenge attack.
In the same week he married Miss Dixon in June 2005, Harvey was himself convicted of assaulting a policeman who had stopped him for using his mobile at the wheel of his car.
After the split, Miss Hylton's spurned ex Karl Gordon accused Harvey, who is now attempting an acting career, of "trading in a Bentley for a Skoda".
Alesha reacted to the collapse of the marriage by promptly putting her handmade wedding dress on eBay and promising to give the proceeds to charity.
Nonetheless, she was still devastated when she discovered Miss Hylton, who was once a contestant on ITV talent contest Popstars: The Rivals, was pregnant byHarvey (their baby is due next month). Indeed, friends say his infidelity remains a source of deep upset.
Alesha has steadfastly refused to discuss the episode, save to say: "It was so important to me to be a role model, to be married with strong foundations. I found it very embarrassing. I hibernated. I didn't even want to go to my local shop."
Such was her distress at the time, Harvey, 28, revealed last month, that he feared for her safety: "I was worried she'd hurt herself," he said.
"She was crying and emotional." Worryingly, perhaps, in Harvey's absence Alesha has, it seems, been unable to cure herself of her attraction to eminently unsuitable males.
This summer she had a series of dates with American record producer Pharrell Williams, who is best known for his very public caddish and lurid descriptions of his series of liaisons with Jade Jagger.
The shapely singer was also said to be seeing handsome nightclub bouncer and would-be model James Chandler, until he revealed details of their sex life to a tabloid earlier this month.
Bounders apart, she was also linked to her fresh-faced fellow finalist Matt Di Angelo after they were seen dancing at London nightclub Movida at the beginning of the series. But insiders on the show say they are no more than friends.
Of course, her intensive training schedule for Strictly has left little time for dating. Nor is there any hope of a break. Immediately after Christmas she has been booked for a promotional singing tour of Japan and Asia before a series of engagements back home.
Whatever the result of tonight's final, her career has received a much needed fillip thanks to the contest. It has not come a moment too soon. Mis-Teeq, who had scored a handful of chart hits, were dumped by their record company in 2005 after sales waned.
Then Alesha went solo, but her first two singles bombed and her debut album Fired Up was never released by her record label.
But since her public resurgence she has already begun discussions about a completely new album to be released next year.
She has also set her sights on an acting career and has been signed to appear alongside Brian Cox and former ER actress Alex Kingston in the upcoming Britflick, Milestones.
But a fretful Alesha is convinced her hopes depend on victory tonight.
A source told the Mail: "She feels everything is resting on this once chance. After all the hard work she has put herself through, she doesn't want to be pushed back into the shadows."
Given her fierce determination to escape that troubled upbringing, few, surely, would not hope she fulfils her dream.
Source and Pictures: Daily Mail (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/showbiz/showbiznews.html?in_article_id=504077&in_page_id=1773)