Fleur East reveals REAL reason behind Simon Cowell record label exit – amid huge comeback

The star has unveiled her massive-sounding new song Favourite Thing today; her first release under the new Hunter Corps label. She had previously been signed to Simon Cowell’s Sony imprint Syco, but parted ways with them last year. Now, she has opened up in a new interview about why exactly her second album never saw the light of day with them.

She told Huffington Post she had “a year and a half of recording pretty much every day”, but execs were never quite happy enough with what she was making.

“I was going into all these meetings, like, ‘when’s the next [release], I think we’ve got it now guys’… and then having to keep going back to the drawing board,” she recalled. “That’s really hard to deal with.

“Ultimately, I guess I was quite bold, because I kind of pushed meetings and just said, ‘what is happening?’.

“I said, ‘if we’re not releasing, and if we’re stuck, then please just let me know’. Which to some people might sound insane, because it’s like, ‘mate, you’re on a major label, why rock the boat?’

“But then there was 10 years prior to even getting on The X Factor and getting signed to Syco… and I just thought, I’d worked so hard to get to that point, I don’t want to be signed if I’m not releasing music.

“So if I have to leave, then I’ll leave.”

She added: “And they were really respectful and said, you’re such a big talent, we don’t want to hold you back. And we’re stuck. So… we’re just going to let you go.

“I thought I had the music ready, and the team didn’t think it was strong enough. And because Sax was such a big song, it’s a blessing and a curse. It’s amazing, it sets you up really well, but then at the same time, you’re always competing with that.

“And I feel like, maybe everyone was like, ‘we need to get the next Sax’. And I was like, ‘we don’t need the next Sax, we just need more music’.”

Indeed, Sax was a huge breakout hit for East back in 2015, but her second single was released without much fanfare and failed to impact the charts.

Now, she has released new material, months after reaching the Top 4 on I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!.

Favourite Thing by Fleur East is out now.