Is Fleur East’s comeback single going to be your favourite thing?
In its recent history, X Factor has struggled to produce fully fledged popstars like it did back in the days of Leona and One Direction but Fleur East was most certainly an exception to the rule. Many will have spotted her on the latest run of I’m A Celebrity….Get Me Out Of Here, so what exactly happened with her career? Snapped up to Simon Cowell’s record label pronto, massive defining single put out (‘Sax’), enjoyable debut full length, she hardly put a foot wrong. For whatever reason, the success of ‘Sax’ which should have been her defining moment, ended up being her hi-and-bye to the music-buying public. No considerable push for her second single ‘More and More’, even less promo for the iconic ‘Breakfast’ and then….radio silence. Literally.
Whatever happened back with her messy debut campaign, Fleur has moved on with a new record label and a huge presence in the mainstream media thanks to her appearance on the huge jungle-based reality show. Hallelujah, whoever she is working with now is keen to capitalise on the recent interest and, hallelujah once again, it is not a shoddily cobbled together pop-by-numbers comeback. This is exactly how Fleur should be sounding in 2019 – vibrant, fresh, modern and invigorating.
The layered chants that make up much of the chorus sound anthemic and huge, swelling ‘Favourite Thing’ into something that should make casual listeners stop and pay attention. The loyal fans will also be breathing a sigh of relief that, like many of her peers, Fleur hasn’t settled for the less competitive Radio 2 route, she is gunning for the mainstream and early sales figures show she might well be making her impact. It’s what she deserves.
Fleur East possesses such a wealth of talent and star power that she’s already half way there. A minuscule bit of label support and sufficient promotion seems to be the missing piece; hopefully album number two will be the restart needed to propel Fleur into the leading British popstar that we all deserve. As the Popjustice poll would say, I have a good feeling that, given all the tools, this lady is well equipped to save pop in 2019.