BB FANS

Sep 9 2005 iccroydon
By Sarah Bailey

THE BEATLES, Queen, Pink Floyd, Cliff Richard, even Bob the Builder and Mr Blobby, have all done it. But can Croydon's Big Brother star Vanessa Layton-McIntosh join them and snatch the number one spot this Christmas?

The 20-year-old has teamed up with south London record producer Charles Bailey to launch herself as a singer and plans to release her first single at the end of November.

She's even looking for people from Croydon to star in the video.

Vanessa, 20, said: "I have been working with a vocal coach and my confidence is going up all the time. I always enjoyed dancing and did a lot of that in the Big Brother house, but I never expected to be doing singing.

"It's really exciting and it's a totally new direction for me. I still want to be a children's television presenter, but at the moment all that is on hold while I work on my singing career."

The pair are penning three rhythm and blues songs and will choose one to be released as her first single.

Last year Band Aid 20 took the coveted Christmas number one spot with the rerelease of charity record Do They Know It's Christmas, but Charles is confident Vanessa can do just as well.

He said: "She's got something and I've been in the business for 20 years so I should know. People are going to be so shocked with how good she is and she's got a great clean and fresh image.

"We need to be encouraging more home-grown talent and Vanessa could go all the way. She could be Britain's answer to Beyoncé."

Industry professionals say they will be interested to see how she fairs but are warning the odds are stacked against her.

Gennaro Castaldo, head of press and public relations at HMV, said: "Her success will really depend on the quality of the song. Big Brother is a huge show and does have a big fan base but it's whether they can accept Vanessa as a serious musical artist.

"If she's going down the catchy pop song route then that's more commercially viable whereas doing rhythm and blues is quite courageous because there's a lot of competition.

"Undoubtedly she'll get a lot of coverage for her first single because of her connection with Big Brother, but whether she can turn from being a novelty into being a proper singer we'll have to wait and see."

NO, next

wasnt there a song in the 80s called "eat it"?
it was a spoof of beat it by michael jackson
vanessa could sing that!

good heavens NO

Theres only one Beyonce!

How can Vanessa compete with this:

Me thinks no Vanessa.Please give us some peace

You asked if Vanessa was our answer to Beyonce...that's like saying is Prince Charles our answer to Brad Pitt....I like Vanessa, and she's pretty,but I have heard her sing and I tell you this she sings like a dying cat.

Remember BB people are real people....give them hope.

luv ya all...one more thought if you were in BB remember everyone is watching ya.

Jim

I'm going to reserve judgement till I have heard the song. Incidentally, theres a copy of "At This Time Of Year" by Craig Phillips going begging on E-bay, if you are so inclined.

Mind you, you can also get laminated £5 mary notes, and "Off The Hook" Maxwell stickers. I was particularly impressed with the ***RARE*** Mary notes, because apparently "its not often you find them laminated" and if you like them, the seller can have you some more made up.

And Marys suitcase was up but whoever was selling it took it off again coz there was some sort of problem with the bid or the reserve or sommat.

Hi just to let you know that post wasn't me, people probably realize i don't really talk like that about people anyway.

are you back in the closet now?

is this to do with the other message Nicki was telling me about??

Rofl. Was that not you? Gah, I congratulated you and everything.

Scrapes the scrambled stuff from the cheek and leaves for Tescos...

When you do eventually come out though, Know that you already have the blessing of the Minxington

hehe thats good, the guy is convinced i;m gay so if you see me saying anything else like that then ya know iots not me

There were lots of posts Jim, but we moved them off the forum, because we weren't sure if it was really you or not at the time.

just been reading the actual post, didn't realize Vanessa was from croydon or is.