Interview with Lady Leshurr

2 March 2021

How are you feeling about joining The Circle?

It's crazy, really. My emotions are all over the place. I'm a bit nervous, but at the same time, I'm quite excited. I'm looking forward to giving TV the entertainment that they've been dying for. I'm very excited.

 

What entertainment do you think you're going to bring to the show?

Well, I'm just full of banter. Anybody who knows me off Instagram or Snapchat will know that I have got this energy 24/7, so there's never going to be a dull day in Leshurr's house. There's never going to be a dull day on The Circle with me because I've just got that energy. Also, I'm going to incorporate Big Narstie's energy to align with mine because we're very similar, but at the same time, obviously I'm small and tiny, so I'm going to go in with boyish clothes to make me stay in character because it's kind of like method acting. I've really got to tap into how he acts, how he talks, how he walks and hopefully it makes me get to the finals.

 

Why did you decide to play the game as Big Narstie?

Well, at first I picked Matt Lucas, because I love him and I just loved Little Britain, but then I thought, is he funny offline? Do you know what I mean? I actually started to think, people can be hilarious on TV, but does it correlate with you online and all your posts and stuff? So I had a little nose and I just thought, out of the two, Big Narstie's actually got personality off TV and in his tweets and on his posts on Instagram. So I just thought, okay, he's probably the better one to do and I’m much more familiar with him. I’m going to give him a call to see what he says, how he says things, so that I can stay consistent because if I mess up with that, I think that's what will get people guessing.

 

Have you ever been catfished in real life?

I've never been catfished in my life. I haven't done it to someone either. I just think that's so evil. I've seen the actual show called Catfish, and I saw the girl catfish her best friend, and I just thought, “wow, that is just so evil. I could never do that”. I could pull pranks all day, but not catfish someone to make them fall in love with me, and then when they find out it's me, it's just horrible, it's pretty ruthless.

 

Do you feel a pressure going onto a show like this?

There's a lot of pressure with playing someone else, but the main reason why I wanted to go in and be someone else, is because I'll never get this opportunity again. I'm never going to be able to be someone else again. Well, I could, but this is the perfect time to be a catfish and be a troll. I can't wait, but it is pressure at the same time, because I don't want to let Big Narstie down. I don't want to go out straight away. I want people to get to know me and understand that I'm a funny person.

 

You like trolling people?

Not in the sense of being an online bully and stuff. I mean, because of what I do as an artist, people think you're not going to respond to certain things. Whereas I am that person, because I'm so petty. I'll write back what I want to write back, and my biggest example of this is my song Queen's Speech 4. I responded back to someone that spoke to me on Twitter, saying, "Oh, you're rubbish. Stop. Quit music." And it was literally 9am in the morning. I replied, "It's 9am, you probably haven't even bushed your teeth yet, but you've came to be mad at me." And that's what made me make one of my biggest songs, Brush Your Teeth. So I know that there's always a negative, but there’s always a positive in a negative and I'm going to troll in a positive way!

 

What sort of things do people have to say to push your buttons and make you react?

For me personally, if anyone speaks about my mother, my family or my sister or anything like that, that’s what pushes my buttons. If you have anything to say about me, you might as well just say it. You can call me this and that and I wouldn't mind, but don't bring people that are not involved in what we're trying to do here. I mean, I just think it's really insensitive.

 

What happens if you saw another celebrity on Twitter, in real life, saying something, would you bite back to them?

If they said something online about me, and I saw them in person? I would have to confront them. I mean, otherwise it would burn me that I had the opportunity. I believe everything happens for a reason. God has put that person here for that moment for us to address the situation. So I would have to come to them and be like, “did you say that about me on Twitter? I'm here now. Can you say it again?” If someone has said something and it's gone viral, I will try to address it if I see that person, because for me and my inner peace of mind, I think holding grudges and stuff like that, it just eats you up, doesn't it? So I always try to fix things before it gets worse.

 

Have you got a game plan?

It's going to be a mixture of having the banter, having a sense of humour, flirting with the girls and then being really cool with the lads. Getting in there with the lads and trying to maintain that popularity, because I feel with everyone in life, you need happiness. If people make you laugh, you don't want them to leave, so why is anyone going to evict me from The Circle? I'm going to be the funniest one in there. I think my sense of humour is going to come across and they're not going to want to let me go. So yeah, that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to rely on being funny to get me popular.

 

How will you react if somebody else on the show is mates with him in real life?

Oh my gosh. Imagine that. I mean, how am I going to style it out? Like I said, I'm going to speak to him. I'm going to jot down all the notes I need from Big Narstie, so worst case scenario, if someone really knew him in there, I've got all the slang that he uses, correct. Because that would be the person to be like, "Yeah. I know Big Narstie, and that's not him." It's scary because I'd never thought about that.

 

How are you feeling about being in the flat on your own?

Being in the flat on my own is not a problem. I live on my own, I've been in a flat for five years now on my own. And considering lockdown is still existing, I think it's going to be easy for everyone that goes into The Circle because we've all kind of experienced the self-isolating and not being able to communicate with people physically. So yeah, I think it will be quite easy for me.

 

What about the fact that you're being filmed 24/7?

I mean, being filmed 24 hours of the day is the only thing that makes me a bit nervous because I might forget and then people will see me being the weirdo I am. I talk to myself, I talk to myself a lot but not the crazy way, but more like reminding myself I have to do things and that's not something I want to highlight on the show!

 

Are there any other bad habits that viewers might see?

I bite my nails a lot and I might be rapping a lot in the show, which is going to annoy people, just because that's the only thing that's going to keep me sane if there's no social media. I don't really like to read books, but that's the only things really that I can do, so I'm probably going to come up with some new songs.

 

Do you think that this will show a different side to you that fans haven't seen before?

Yeah. I think it might show a different side to me, especially to the supporters that follow me because some people only follow me for my music. So when I post up music, I see the algorithms go up and then if I post something about TV, it's different, it either goes higher or it goes lower. So I know some people don't really know my personality, they just see me as the musician and that's it, whereas this is going to be able to showcase my personality. And not only that, just having a laugh on TV and people being able to vote at the end. I just think this is the only time for me to express and be myself on a show like this.

 

What do you make of social media?

Social media is pretty toxic. I've learned the hard way and I've had to cut down. I think a lot of the reasons why young kids are suffering with anxiety and mental health is because of social media. They're following the people that look so perfect and they can't do no wrong and then they feel like that's what they need to look like and stuff. That's why for me, the main reason why I don't follow anyone on Instagram, is because I don't want to be fed junk food. I just see that type of stuff. I see my brain as the mouth and me digesting all this stuff. Majority of it is junk food, so it's not going to be healthy for my brain and my soul, so I don't follow anybody. I think another thing that I like to do on social media is I'm natural and I'd go on with my hair messy and stuff because I want people that listen and follow me to know that, you don't have to be looking 10 out of 10 all the time. Be yourself, if that's how you are, then be yourself, because it is a lot of pressure. I know a lot of people have broken down due to having to have that perfect image consistently in their real life, but it's just not possible, is it? You can't continue to live a life like that. So I think it's harder to be fake than to be real. I think it's so much work and energy to have this facade going. So yeah, social media, I don't really like it, but I know that I need it. For what I do, I have to have it, which is annoying, but at the same time, I've cut down so much of it now.

 

What made you cut down how often you use it?

I think it comes with growth, why I've cut down on social media. It wasn't a decision that I made, it literally is just maturity. I used to sit on Twitter all the time, just looking at people's tweets or tweeting myself and I just could not do that now, it wastes so much time, you could do so much for yourself instead, positive wise or learning a new skill. Then when I got that screen time thing on the phone, I realised how much time I was spending on certain apps. I just thought, “okay, I never knew this but it's good to know”. But then I eventually just became busy and I just found a lot in myself that made me realise I don't really need to be as prominent as I was on social media, even though it's great in cases, but for my peace of mind and how I feel up here in my mental health, there has to be some sort of balance, and there's never been a balance with social media. I feel like no one has a balance with social media, they just jump on it because it's in their hand.

 

What’s the longest you’ve spent on your phone in one day?

I think the longest I'd been on my iPhone was 19 hours, literally, the apps were Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook. It's just those four. Oh, and TikTok as well because I've been on TikTok quite a lot. I just couldn't believe it. I was releasing a video so I kind of understand. But at the same time, it's like, no wonder my neck hurts because I've been on the phone for so long.

 

How do you think we can make social media a nicer place?

I think to make social media a nicer place is to be kind. I see too much body shaming. I see too much bullying. There's just so much that I see online that enrages me, and that's the reason why I can't be on it. But a lot of the time, if I do go on it, I do love to express about mental health. I feel like that, especially in 2016 when I first started talking about it, that's always had a stigma around it. I feel like openly talking about things we are uncomfortable about talking about, could make social media a much better place. When we talk about topics like plastic waste, or we talk about climate change, stuff that I probably would sit and talk with my friend in the house, but I probably wouldn’t get involved online because it's like, actually, you said a point that I never would have even thought about in that way. So I think talking about topics and discussing things that we're uncomfortable about, would make people learn and educate themselves in areas that they're quite ignorant and oblivious about. So yeah, it would definitely make social media better.

 

This series is for Stand Up To Cancer, was that a driving force behind you signing up to the show?

Yeah, definitely. The main reason that I'd done this was because it was for cancer, and I lost my sister Carmen in October 2019. It's got to that point now where I can actually talk about it, before I couldn't talk about it. If there’s anything I can do to bring awareness now I’ll do it, because before I didn't really understand it. Losing my sister was the first time it had happened in my family. She didn't know that she had it, she left it for a year and never got checked up. So for me, it's more about learning about that and doing my research to know that this can happen to me, it can even happen to a man. Most men don't know they can get breast cancer, and I just want to bring more awareness to that, especially in the Black community. There’s real disparities within the Black community when it comes to checking ourselves and getting help when we need it. I think that's why people who have platforms really need to help. I use my platform for positivity and to always inspire. It's not to drag or boast or brag, it's always trying to bring awareness of something or something that I've experienced that I don't want other young people to experience.

 

Do you think Carmen will be with you during the show?

I hope she is. I hope she will be, because it's so crazy, after she passed, I never used to see her name around and we never used to call her name, Carmen. Her nickname was Bone, because she just loved bones, I know that sounds so weird. But yeah, we called her Bone. As soon as she passed, I kept seeing her name everywhere. I remember, I came back from America and I went to meet my friend and we went for a drink in Soho and I'd gone downstairs to go to the toilet, I've looked up and I've saw my lyrics Out of Queen's Speech 4. It says, “don't think you're buff because you're wearing contour”, underneath it said, Carmen Angelica, I think in Greek that means angel of God or something. So I literally saw that as a sign. I thought, my girl is with me and then I started getting dreams about her. She was in there, smiling at me so I knew she was okay. So yeah, I think she will be with me in this game.

 

Those experiences sound comforting?

Yes it is, because I saw her the week before she passed, so it was crazy because I had things that I had wanted to say to her that I couldn't because she'd already passed. I felt guilty but literally praying and talking it out and thinking, "Please come to me. I need you to hear me and forgive me for certain things." And she came in my dream and I said, "I'm sorry” and she was just smiling at me. It was crazy, she had silver hair. Why do I feel like when people pass, they have silver hair? It's so weird, she looked angelic. I think it definitely gave me the closure and comfort I was looking for.