Home-grown & red hot
Listen up, ladies: Dionne Bromfield, Sunday Girl and girl band Parade are about to take over your iPod. Meet the UK’s newest stars
The Fabulous make-up room is playing host to unadulterated chaos. Our tipped-for-the-top music stars are being preened, coiffed and styled ahead of their shoot while their entourages are milling about looking terribly important.
Every one of the girls is steeling themselves for a busy summer. Thanks to Adele, Jessie J, Tulisa from N-Dubz and Ellie Goulding, the British music scene is buzzing with female talent right now. And all our girls are hoping to add their names to this illustrious roll-call. Dionne Bromfield is only 15, but is on course for chart domination thanks to her incredible voice and the backing of her godmother (Amy Winehouse, no less), who has signed her to her label, Lioness Records. Dionne recorded her second album, Good For The Soul, while juggling her GCSEs.
Five-piece girl band Parade was formed just over a year ago from open auditions. Today the girls share a PR team with Take That and have bagged a top-10 single, Louder.
And then there's solo star Jade Williams, better known by her stage name of Sunday Girl. She's fast carving out a name for herself as a style icon, her unique sense of fashion landing her some lucrative contracts.
Little wonder, then, that these girls are being touted as the ones to watch. We meet them and find out why they're set to be the next big things.
The teen queen
Talk to Dionne Bromfield and she'll stun you with her down-to-earth manner and industry knowledge. She's just 15, but has already released a debut album, Introducing Dionne Bromfield, in 2009 and is about to do it all over again with her second.
She credits her huge success to her godmother and good friend, Amy Winehouse. Dionne's mother Julie, who used to work in the music industry, and Amy, 27, have been friends for years.
"Having Amy as my godmother has been a huge influence on me," Dionne says. "She's so supportive. She's always saying how proud she is of me. Last time she saw me, she started crying and I had to comfort her!"
Dionne is very aware of Amy's battles with drink and drugs, but insists that despite her recent on-stage troubles, she's fit and healthy at the moment.
"She's better than ever," says Dionne. "I don't read the papers so I don't get bothered about what's written about her. I know what the real Amy is like - I spend a lot of time with her."
Dionne's career began in 2009 with a YouTube video of her duetting with Amy on the Alicia Keys classic If I Ain't Got You.
"At first I wanted to be a doctor," she laughs. "Then a beautician. But I became intrigued by the history of music. I'm all about '60s Motown. Aretha Franklin is one of the greats for me. I also like Beyoncé, Pixie Lott and Jessie J."
But how does a teenager who is taking important exams also focus on a music career?
"My school allows me to take time off, but I try to do the music after school," she reveals.
And mum Julie's making sure she's enjoying her childhood and still staying grounded.
"Mum says: 'Don't be spoilt' or 'Stop being a brat'," says Dionne. "She tells me to stay humble.
"I don't always tell my school friends what I'm doing with my music because I don't know how they'll react. They might say: 'Well done' to my face while they're thinking: 'Who does shethink she is?'"
Talented, level-headed, and fiercely ambitious, when asked about what she'd eventually like to achieve, Dionne is in no doubt.
"Well," she says, "a Grammy would be all right."
- Dionne's album Good For The Soul is out tomorrow. The single Foolin' is out now.
The indie chick
As a child, Jade Williams realised she loved singing, but she also knew the chances she would perform in public were very slim.
"My mum used to hear me in my bedroom and she'd try to make me sing in front of her, but I wouldn't. I was petrified," Jade, now 23, says.
"Then she took me for a session with a hypnotist. Straight afterwards, I went to my group choir practice and I performed a solo. I couldn't believe the difference."
Jade's fear of performing publicly goes back as long as she can remember.
"Every New Year I'd make a resolution that I was going to sing in front of people," she recalls. "But it took until I was 17 to actually do it. I've never had lessons, singing has been a natural thing for me."
Jade's stage fright stopped her from pursuing her love of music - she never performed while growing up. Instead she begged her local pet shop to give her a weekend job, which is how she became known as the Sunday Girl.
"I was so happy there, I stayed for five years," she says. "I even did Biology and Chemistry at A Level because I thought I wanted to be a vet."
But following the hypnosis when she was 17, Hertfordshire-born Jade felt confident enough to join a few bands and realised where her destiny lay.
"A guy came up to me in a bar where I'd been singing and asked if he could manage me. I had no idea about the music industry and didn't even really know what it meant."
But since then she hasn't looked back, and this chance meeting put her in touch with songwriters, including Jim Elliot who wrote Kylie's All The Lovers.
"He just completely got it," says Jade, who lives in east London with her boyfriend, Leigh Keates.
Five years on and signed to Polydor Records, she's now performing all over the world, has supported Ellie Goulding and designed a range for Firetrap, which will be launched in September.
Before, I used to shake and be terrified, but now I only get niggles of stage fright," she says.
"I just jump around loads and get the energy pumping around my body. I guess I go into character. When I was in Australia it was such a buzz performing to 25,000 people a night."
It's a feeling she'd better get used to.
- Sunday Girl's new single is out in September. Firetrap by Sunday Girl will be available from September 28 from House of Fraser and Firetrap.com.
The hot new girl group
Parade: Lauren Deegan, 22, Emily Biggs, 21, Bianca Claxton, 20, Sian Charlesworth, 24, and Jessica Agombar, 22Parade has a goal in sight - and it's a huge one.
"World domination," reveals Liverpudlian lass Lauren. "Fingers crossed, we can be as big as the Spice Girls."
And with a top-10 debut single, Louder, already under their belts, and an album due for release soon, it looks as though they're on the way.
What's immediately clear is just how close they all are. The atmosphere is genuinely warm, with none of the competitiveness you might expect from a girl band.
Well, at least not with each other anyway.
"Our individual styling is very different from The Saturdays," sniffs Jessica, when the subject of their biggest rivals is raised.
We're aiming for world domination
"Style-wise, they all dress similarly. Also we do a lot of street dance and although The Saturdays dance, it's not street. We're more urban."
They're anxious to point out the differences between them and The Sats, but that doesn't mean the girls aren't thrilled to be compared to a successful band.
"They've had nine top-10 singles and we're being compared to them," grins Lauren. "For us, that's a huge compliment. Us girls need to stick together!"
It's true that Parade is made up of diverse characters. Bianca insists she's the rocky one and Blondie is her style icon: "Especially with my hair the way it is", she says.
Emily is the "bohemian and hippy one because I grew up by the sea," and Jessica is the Cockney girl who "loves all the high-street brands like Zara and Topshop." Lauren describes herself as the more "grungy" one who worships Ashlee Simpson, and finally there's Sian, who's the eldest of the group. "I grew up in Bolton and was brought up around guys," she reveals. "I've got the male sense of humour."
They're all great fun and quickly win us over with their giggly natures.
"Living in the Parade house in west London is mental," says Jessica. "We had a party when we moved in and it got so out of control it went on until 8am the next morning."
"Our neighbours complained," adds Bianca.
But Sian insists it was loud music not drunken antics that got them in trouble, and Jessica chips in that now they stick to the safer, more neighbourly option of barbecues rather than wild all-night parties.
The pressure to look good, they claim, doesn't affect them. They never exercise - "we don't have time" - preferring to get their workouts rehearsing dance routines.
"Although I do have thighs of steel because I squat on public toilets," Lauren concludes.
A girl after our own hearts.
- Parade's new single Perfume is out now.