WHAT I'VE LEARNED ‘Everything I do is for my mum'

Singer Alexandra Burke, 33, lives in north London with her footballer boyfriend Darren Randolph, 34. She is expecting their first child

- GEMMA CALVERT

I knew I wanted to sing from the age of five. When I was nine, I was living with my mum [former Soul II Soul singer Melissa Bell) in Bahrain, where she was working. She got me on stage singing with a live band and I remember thinking, 'This is what I want.' When I was 12, Stevie Wonder wanted to sign me, but Mum thought I was too young. Instead, she put me in auditions and the first one I got a job from] was also at the age of 12, for the BBC's Star for a Night, hosted by Jane McDonald.

Do whatever it takes to make your dreams work. I've never wanted to do anything else in life but sing. When I left school at 15, I ripped up my college papers and said to my mum, 'Give me five years to get a deal, and if it doesn't happen by the time I'm 20, I'll go to college to study law or nursing.' At 20, I won The X Factor!