Wes Nelson recalls turning down Simon Cowell record deal: ‘I didn’t feel ready to commit’

Wes Nelson feels he has achieved the impossible by turning down Simon Cowell and a string of lucrative TV deals to go from Love Island totty to bona fide hip hop star.

The 23-year-old Geordie is on a hot streak after going his own way. After his first song, See Nobody, reached No.3 in the charts, he has dropped a new tune, Nice To Meet Ya.

Wes, who reached the Love Island final in 2018, told Guilty Pleasures: ‘A lot of people were telling me it’s impossible to go from reality TV into music.

‘You have seen it so many times, people have not succeeded. Now I just want to become a credible music artist.’

He admitted: ‘That’s not going to happen overnight… but first hurdle jumped.’

Now signed to EMI, Wes built his own music studio from scratch after rejecting Cowell. ‘I was talking to Simon’s A&R,’ said Wes, who also appeared on The X Factor: Celebrity two years ago.

‘I didn’t feel ready to commit to anything. I didn’t know my sound, I wanted to go away and learn how to record myself and experiment.’

As for other labels, he was hindered by his reality reputation, explaining: ‘It was detrimental in terms of record deals, they looked at it as more of a negative.’

It wasn’t only Cowell that Wes turned his back on. ‘All the TV stuff I turned down, it would have been my biggest financial year,’ he said.

‘So many massive contracts on some of the biggest shows. I turned them down blind, not knowing I would get a record deal.’

But the former Thai boxer has ‘no regrets’ about appearing on shows such as Love Island. ‘They are amazing learning curves,’ he said. ‘I wouldn’t be as confident if I didn’t do those shows.’

More Guilty Pleasures…

Loved-up Dua is enticing on the cake

Dua Lipa is more than happy to go up against her lover Anwar Hadid in the charts after he released a little grunge track.

The We’re Good singer gave Anwar’s efforts an ‘A+’, iced on a chocolate cake as they celebrated his own music career with an al fresco meal in London.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CN8ZwOTM2qU/

Grammy winner Dua, 25, smothered Gigi Hadid’s little brother with kisses and cuddles at their table and posted on Insta: ‘So proud of you.’ The 21-year-old American’s track is called Off@Night.

Isolated in London with his famous girlfriend, Anwar says his music is about ‘inarticulate irritation — that feeling when you lack the right words to adequately express yourself’.

With model Anwar going into music, Brit performer Dua went into modelling, giving her own take on how to sex up a pair of trainers. She teamed her Pumas with black tights and a PVC corset.

Sex toys? 50 Shades’ Dakota goes to work on an egg

It’s Fifty Shades Of… ooh, I say for Dakota Johnson, who has joined the wave of celebrities launching sex toys.

The Hollywood siren’s ‘all-body massager’, called Drop, is a cheap thrill at £32, while similar items from the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow, Cara Delevingne and Lily Allen are around the £80 mark.

‘It’s an all-body massager that can be used to stimulate all erogenous zones — with a partner or solo,’ Dakota, 31, said of her egg-shaped vibrator, released through ‘modern intimacy’ company Maude.

‘Its versatility as an intimate massager and everywhere body massager is absolutely epic.

‘Not to mention it is travel size, discreet and legit.’

Bed-hopping won’t cure broken heart… Dodie’s bonk statement

Promiscuity can make you feel a right dodo, says Dodie, who bed-hops with men and women in her X-rated video. The 26-year-old said her track I Kissed Someone (It Wasn’t You) is ‘set in the aftermath of a newly single person’s messy night out’.

But the Sick Of Losing Soulmates singer warns it’s never the way forward.

‘It’s the feeling of trying to patch over a broken heart by indulging in a revenge fantasy of promiscuity — sadly only resulting in feeling lost, lonelier and shameful,’ added Dodie.

Make no bones about it… Easy Life’s Murray has stage fright

Life on stage isn’t so easy for Easy Life frontman Murray Matravers, who says sometimes he wants to bolt like a horse.

Pictured riding through London streets for new track Skeletons, the 25-year-old told Guilty Pleasures: ‘I used to get terrible stage fright.

‘I still experience the same anxious sensation from time to time in everyday life but telling yourself you can do something is an important tool for me.’

The track is from Easy Life’s debut album, Life’s A Beach.

Model Lori could B the one for Michael

Michael B Jordan has found the woman to make him ‘extremely happy’.

The Black Panther star is in a relationship with 24-year-old model Lori Harvey and, although he wants to keep their romance private, he isn’t shy when it comes to gushing over how much he loves her. 

Michael, 34, said: ‘I’m still private, and I want to protect that but it just felt like it was a moment of just wanting to put it out there and move on. I am extremely happy.’

We Jost wanted to keep it simple

After two divorces, Scarlett Johansson has explained why her wedding to US TV star Colin Jost was deliberately simple.

The Black Widow star and Colin, 38, tied the knot during lockdown last year. ScarJo, 36, said they wanted their wedding ‘to feel like it had an intentional intimacy as opposed to being something that felt like we were restricted by all these things’.

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