Pixie Popster

FOR all her youth, and easy, laid-back style, Pixie Lott is a driven young woman.

She may be only 18, but has already starred in a West End show, performed on prime time telly, is releasing her debut single, and is getting rave reviews everywhere she goes. Oh… and she’s out on the road with new pop sensations The Saturdays.

Tonight this prodigious, though mercifully unprecocious, talent takes to the stage at Oxford’s New Theatre.

“Things are just so exciting at the moment,” she gasps.

“I love every day, all aspects of what I’m doing – interviews, photoshoots, whatever. It’s good to be busy. Performing is my favourite part, though.”

Of course stars, even ones as young as Pixie, don’t appear out of nowhere. Her story is one of hard work – and just a little luck.

Enrolling in the Saturday school of prestigious talent academy Italia Conti at the age of just five, she was always destined for the big time.

“That was mainly for acting classes, but then I went full-time when I was 11,” says the native Essex girl. “You get your fair share of stage-school brats, all jazz hands and that, but it was an amazing place to grow up in; it was so much fun.”

Pixie’s real name is Victoria. She was given the nickname by her mum as a baby as she was so small and “looked like a fairy”.

“It just stuck from there, and it grew so everyone calls me Pixie,” she says. “I know I’m in trouble if I get called Victoria.”

So how did she get into music? “I come from the least musical family ever,” she laughs.

“I was always singing around the house, things like Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Donny Hathaway, and all the great soul singers, especially Stevie Wonder.

“I was really shy when I was young, though. It wasn’t until I went to stage school that I would sing in front of anyone. That brought me out of myself, and I grew up a bit.

“Musical theatre is so different to this kind of singing, though.

“At stage school, I’d always be singing in productions. But when you’re playing someone else, it doesn’t matter if no one likes you.

“When you’re performing your own songs, though, you have to be completely yourself, and people have to love you for who you are. At first that was a bit weird, just walking on stage as me, but now I’ve done a few shows it’s okay.

“The best thing is to just be yourself. That’s what my music is all about, showing people what you believe in.”

As for the luck, well that comes from the impressive range of industry insiders she has already had the chance to work with – all of whom have spotted her potential as a chart-topper in the making.

They included manager David Sonenberg, who has worked with the likes of The Fugees, John Legend and Black Eyed Peas; songwriter and producer Teddy Riley, who worked with Michael Jackson; Danish producer Cutfather (Pussycat Dolls and Kylie); and RedOne, whose credits include Lady GaGa’s Just Dance and New Kids On The Block.

“I’m just really lucky to work with these people,” she says. “But if I’m put in a room with someone and I know what amazing songs they’ve done, I try to embrace it rather than get nervous.

“I’ve always written songs, just on my little piano, but I’d never shown them to anyone.”

Previous brushes with fame include a role in the West End production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and BBC 1’s A Celebration To The Sound Of Music. She has also been offered a modelling contract with top agency Select.

But regardless of mounting success, and despite landing a management contract and scoring record deals in both the UK and America, Pixie swallowed her pride and threw herself into the ordeal of appearing, unsuccessfully, on ITV1 stage school drama Britannia High. She failed to get beyond the auditions. So why did she bother?

“It was just because it was there,” she says. “Everyone said I should go for it, so I did. Even if I’d got through, I could have turned it down anyway, I suppose. I did it for the experience really, more than anything.”

Debut single Mama Do is out this week, followed, in September, by album Turn It Up, featuring one of her favourites Cry Me Out.

“I prefer singing sad and emotional songs because I can really get into the character.”

Pixie Lott plays the New Theatre Oxford with The Saturdays tonight.