During her time as a judge on The X Factor, Tulisa Contostavlos developed a signature move. At the beginning of every episode, the pop star would raise her right arm across her chest and show off three words inked in italics on her forearm: The Female Boss. More than a decade’s worth of hindsight has afforded fans a new perspective on that tattoo. Yes, it was very corny, but it turned out to also be very apt.
The singer, who rose to fame as one-third of the hip-hop group N-Dubz, is entering the I’m a Celeb jungle this week already a survivor of sorts. When she was 26, Tulisa said she felt as though she’d clocked 60 years of life experience – a good chunk of those not positive. The highlights (or lowlights rather) being: the lurid leaking of a sex tape, a drug sting operation by a tabloid, and of course, the good old-fashioned misogyny and classism inherent to being a working-class woman in the public eye. Eating a platter of raw fisheyes? It’ll be a cakewalk in comparison.
