The Golden Forde

This month, Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl spoke to Rolling Stone about his life and music, and used the opportunity to take a potshot at music’s easiest target: the female pop star. Praising New Zealand chart-topping teen Lorde, Grohl juxtaposed her music with what he referred to as “stripper pop”, and paid Lorde the highest compliment he could think of: he invited her to sing at Nirvana’s Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame performance.

It was just another off-the-cuff example of an increasingly pronounced movement within the music industry; the anti-pop vilification of artists – usually young women. Singers like Lorde, Lily Allen, Adele and M.I.A are frequently touted as the new “anti-pop” stars – as if pop music is inherently bad; as if tearing down pop music is somehow an original enterprise; and as if pop music is all one thing anyway. Snobbery, it seems, is forever...
In Ireland, there has been one defining feature among solo female pop stars: they barely exist. The girl group B*Witched were a phenomenon, albeit short-lived. More recently, singers like Nadine Coyle and Una Foden (nee Healy) achieved huge success with their outfits, Girls Aloud and The Saturdays. But solo female pop stars are elusive creatures on the Emerald Isle. Coyle, for example, made little headway with her solo album Insatiable, released in 2010. Only former Louis Walsh protegé, Samantha Mumba, has really hit the heights. But in the fourteen years since Mumba’s first single, we’ve yet to find another female vocalist who can consistently achieve chart success both at home and abroad.
So why is Irish model Nadia Forde getting so much flak for stepping up to the plate and taking a swing at pop success?
It's that old snobbery gene again: as if pop stars were manufactured and rock stars organic. It reflects a level of ignorance regarding the extent of manufacturing, brand management and traditional star-making machinations pumped into artists like Lady Gaga; and it is based on a mistaken assumption that less deliberation goes into the latter's music, clothes, collaborations and red carpet appearances than are invested in Cheryl Cole's; and of the ludicrous belief that her music isn’t the result of years of working and networking, but rather sprang from the earth, fully formed, with a unicorn as its spirit animal.
From which we can deduce this much: it would be ludicrous too, if Nadia Forde's beauty and her success as a model were to be heald against her. She is as entitled to be taken as seriously as any aspiring musician – so let's see and hear what she has to say...

Nadia began her career, aged seven, shooting ads for Holy Communion dresses. The 25-year-old's singing career, which officially kicked off last month with the release of her first single ‘BPM’, hasn’t just been built on good luck, coincidence and serendipity, but hard graft, a strong work ethic, an ability to market herself – and yes, an impressive level of talent.
Forde’s modelling career took off the summer after she sat the Leaving Cert. She was immediately in demand, travelling throughout Europe for photo-shoots. Having originally planned to study nursing, her conventional career plans were put on 'hold', as she decided to try out this modelling lark ‘just for a year'.
It was through press calls, photo shoots, product launches and all of the other graft that is grist to the mill in Irish modelling that the young woman discovered her capacity for hard work, her ambition – and her ability to roll with the punches.
“In modelling, you need a tough skin,” reflects Forde, who’s curled over a cup of green tea in Dublin’s 37. “I know a lot of people don’t take modelling very seriously, but it is an industry based on rejection and judgement – and you do really have to be tough and have a lot of faith in yourself to be able to deal with that and not let it get to you. And it’s not just the job aspect of it – it’s that other people judge you for it too.
"People make so many assumptions about me because I model," she adds. "But I’ve become very okay with being judged by my looks – that’s the industry. I’d be far more hurt if you were very critical of my music.”
Why? Because music is by far the most personal project Forde has ever embarked on. She was always a fan – and wanted to express herself creatively. Forde went through all the rites of passage of performance-loving Irish kids: a few ads, a stint in Billy Barry, a role in pantomime – and so on. But while Nadia continued to harbour dreams of becoming a singer, she had no idea how to go about it.
Two years ago, she changed management from a Dublin modelling agency to London’s ROAR – a commercial brand-managing agency, who specialise in dealing with cross-platform stars like Tulisa, Jamelia and Kelly Brook. When ROAR representatives saw Forde perform in panto, they were impressed with her singing and encouraged her to have a go. She was immediately signed by Autonomy Music, who also represent Johnny Borrell, Feeder and Kate Nash, along with the Irish electronic dance wizards, Le Galaxie – lending considerable artistic credibility to Forde’s emerging reputation. What followed was a recipe for pop success: good contacts, a solid brand, decent publicity ideas – and Forde’s openness to putting herself out there.
“The meeting with the label was about eighteen months ago,” explains Ford, “and it really turned into a long process of sitting in with producers and songwriters and seeing if it was something we really wanted to pursue. But then, when we started recording the single, we were also shooting an electronic press-kit, with behind the scenes footage – because the labels all do that now. We realised we had so much footage we could turn it onto a TV show. So we approached TV3, who were aware I was making an album anyway, and basically just handed over all of our footage.”
The three-part television series, Nadia Goes Hollywood, was a fly-on-the-wall documentary that allowed Forde to not only introduce the infamously begrudging Irish public to her campaign to cross-over into music, but also to give audiences a glimpse of the girl beyond the glossy underwear photoshoots that had become her forte.
“It became weirdly normal being filmed all the time. You just get used it to and try do the work. But it means that what was captured is all genuine – all the tears and anger and frustration, because I really was so invested in what I was doing. It wasn’t about performing for the cameras. At all. In a way, I don’t mind if people judge me from the TV show, because that’s just who I am.”
But while Forde was focussed on finding her authentic voice, the darker arts of talent management were being worked. The model's PR agents tried to send her to staged casual events and to fix her up with up-and-coming stars – at one stage they brainstormed about setting up an introduction to Chris Brown. (Note: Nadia, get yourself a better matchmaker!).
To her credit, Forde resisted the publicity nonsense as much as possible, and concentrated on writing music – something not even the label had expected from her.
“I really wanted to prove that I could be involved in writing songs,” nods Forde, ”because they just wanted me to sing other people’s music. That's fine when you love the songs, but there’s a distance there that doesn’t feel genuine. It’s different if you’re in a band and you’ve the same vision about your music, but if you’re trying to be your own person and constantly singing someone else’s lyrics about experiences that aren’t yours, it’s quite odd. I wanted to be my own person, and have an element of control – and also to feel genuinely involved with, and proud of, what I was doing.”

The first song Nadia Forde wrote was an up-tempo pop/dance track called ‘BPM'. It became her debut single. The track was remixed by venerable dance music producers Dave Audé, Razor & Guido, Swaghammer and Jumpsmokers – and the video was filmed at a 1920s mansion in the Los Feliz Hills, California, the setting for many music videos, including Britney Spears’ ‘My Prerogative.’ But the song also had a much more unlikely muse behind it.
 “I was on my way to a session in LA and we knew we wanted to do a dance song. I wasn’t sure what we were going to write, but I knew I wanted something that was a feel-good, girlie song. On the way in I was looking on my phone and Bressie was ranting on Twitter – as he tends to do! He was talking about lyrics and saying ‘Why does every song in the charts have ‘dance’ and ‘club’ and ‘beats’ – it’s so predictable'. So I said ‘Hey, I might just write a song with all of those words repeated over and over again!’ It was just a jokey thing, because I never even thought that they’d select the songs I’d written to be released as singles.”
It might seem ironic that – in the course of trying to ensure the public take her music career seriously – Nadia deliberately dipped into the book of pop clichés, but she insists that there is nothing wrong with a bit of wit.
“Katy Perry and Lily Allen do funny songs that are also brilliant and great to listen to," she observes. "You can release songs that have a sense of mischief or fun about them, but be serious about the work. I do like the song – I wouldn’t release it if I didn’t. But it also helped us decide to release ‘Haunted’ so it would show a different side of me. I’m really proud of that song.”
As she should be. A complete 180º from ‘BPM’, the emotive ballad finds Forde in confessional mode about her difficult childhood – and her estrangement from her parents.
 “‘Haunted’ is probably more the style of music that I like,” admits Forde. “I like songs that are emotional and it’s probably the most honest, open thing I’ve ever written. I keep getting texts about it, when friends or people I know hear it. That can make you feel very exposed, because it’s so personal. It’s about my parents, basically: they're alive but they’re not together. My dad is remarried, but he’s had no involvement in my life for a good many years. And growing up, my mother wasn’t a fit mother. She wasn’t able to take care of me or my brother, so we were raised by my aunties and grandmother.
"I’m hearing people come up with their own interpretations of the song and thinking it’s about death, but it’s not," she adds. "It’s just about accepting that something is not going to happen in this lifetime. As I say in the song, I’ve tried to fix it many times but it can’t be fixed. And it could be about any kind of relationship where the people aren’t good for you, but you keep going back and trying to convince them to step up and love you. I think it’s a taboo topic in many ways: people don’t really talk about the emotional process that goes with situations like that. So it was odd for me sitting down to write the song, because it was the first time I’d really examined it closely.”
Getting very involved in the production of the track, Forde proved that she has the creative ideas and inspiration to support her singing ability.
“I wanted the instrumental parts to sound like the music in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang," she smiles, "because that was one of my favourite films as a child, and you can hear that in the riff. I did a few shows in LA and performing that song in small acoustic gigs was incredible. There was no embellishment, no dancers, no glitz; it was all very raw and stripped back. But people started coming up to me afterwards and telling me about their experiences, that they'd been through something similar, and that was really moving.”
Forde admits that, as a result of her parents’ absence, she became scared of rejection. Though she's fought to overcome that, she explains that she's far more reflective than the tabloid cuttings suggest.
“I’m quite introverted," she insists. "I’m not the biggest partier in the world, despite what people may think. Because I model, there are all kinds of stereotypes that go with that, so people do make assumptions about you. I know there are people who are like ‘Nadia, really? Singing? Not another model-turned-singer'. I’m not stupid, I know what people are thinking. I've got better with criticism, because it’s going to be there no matter what you do. But this is something I’ve loved and wanted to do since I was a kid, and I’m getting the opportunity to now.”

Nadia Forde is also hoping that her burgeoning career as a singer and a songwriter may finally allow her to assert herself as a woman, and an artist, in her own right – instead of constantly being referred to as someone’s girlfriend. Having dated DJ Mark Noble and rugby player Luke Fitzgerald – the latter relationship ended two years ago – Forde is still widely associated with these men in media coverage. It's an aspect of vapid showbiz reporting of which she’s grown increasingly weary.
“It's weird when my personal life is spoken about," she says. "People refer to boyfriends and stuff. That's hard. Like, who cares, really? But they do it anyway.”
Managing publicity can be tricky at the best of times. Forde – whose 25th birthday party was widely covered in the press – is aware that there’s a thin line between using appearances to promote your work, and merely using it to promote yourself. But she asserts that she doesn’t entertain any media that’s focused on her personal life, and has no interest in being pigeon-holed as a talentless socialite.
“I don’t feel complicit in it when it comes to personal stuff," she asserts, "because there's a lot of stuff that I could have said, but I didn’t. Seriously, I’m like a vault waiting to happen!”
It seems that her upcoming album may nudge that vault open somewhat; she laughs uproariously as she tells me that her producer has her recordings saved under the working title of ‘I Hate Men’.
“Oh yeah, there are a lot of ‘I Hate Men’ songs on there, and I know people are quaking in their boots thinking ‘Oh my God, is she going to bring that one out?’”
The album isn’t a game of name and shame, rather an exercise in self-expression – and universal lessons learned. The singer isn’t trying to stir up more gossip column inches: much more important is that Irish music fans accept her work.
“It's extra important for me to be taken seriously here in Ireland, so I can try and undo some preconceptions that have been built about me here. Whereas in other countries it’s a blank slate. Even last week I was getting phone calls warning me about a story that was coming out about my ex – two years later. Like, why are people still writing about this?”
Forde is also open about the nature of some of her modelling publicity, including a photoshoot with FHM that will be released next month. The shoot was organised by her London management – it's a familiar strategy within the agency, as their client Tulisa was "awarded” FHM’s Sexiest Woman In The World in 2012. Forde is neither pretending the photoshoot was dropped into her lap – or that she felt particularly sexy doing it.
“I’m the same as any girl; of course there are bits of my body I’m not comfortable with. It’s a performance. Even that photoshoot with FHM, the photographer was like ‘It’s Sunday morning, you’ve just had amazing sex with your boyfriend, you’re now relaxing in your underwear having coffee and it’s all very chilled'. And you have to perform to that brief and get into that mindset. It’s weird! So of course, when people see photos you see the confident side of me; but it’s a staged snapshot. It’s not me.”
In truth, Forde felt much more exposed when she was asked to perform the national anthem at the Ireland v Sweden match at the Aviva Stadium in September – another gig that came about thanks to her previous work and connections.
“I’ve done loads of jobs for 3 Mobile, and I was at an Ireland game as a guest and one of the 3 Mobile reps started telling people that I'd been in LA and was singing. Then I had to do a Strictly Come Dancing event and afterwards, Johnny Giles started a sing-song and I joined in. The next day, my agents got a mail asking if I wanted to sing the national anthem at the September 6 game between Ireland and Sweden.”
It may have been a pressure cooker situation, but Forde knew it was an opportunity to show the Irish people what she could do.
“I was really scared people wouldn’t react well,” she admits. “Because while I'd been working on music for a year at that point, it was all still in the development process and I hadn’t released anything – so I was worried people would roll their eyes and think, ‘Oh, they’re just letting some random model sing, look at the state of her'. So I was conscious of showing people that this is what I do now. Also, just to be able to tell the story in years to come, it’s an amazing thing to have done.”
She describes the night as surreal and admits it wasn’t until she emerged onto the pitch that she realised the enormity of what she was doing.
“Before I sang, I was in this completely sound-proofed dressing-room, so you can’t hear anything that’s happening outside," she recalls. "Suddenly, you emerge from having a cup of tea to walking into the stadium and hearing 50,000 people scream. I totally understand it now when all the players talk about the rush and the buzz of the crowd, because it’s an amazing feeling. And I played such a tiny part in the night, but the atmosphere was electric. And I was scared because I was doing a slower version of the song and I thought people would run away ahead of me, but people were staying with me. It’s just an incredible feeling.”
Over the next few months, Forde will be travelling between Ireland, LA and the UK to finalise her debut album, which will be released before Christmas. She reveals that she’s currently looking for songs to add to her own, in order to round out the album.
“At the moment," she reveals, "I’m fighting with a guy from Extreme for a single called ‘Pretty Little Angels'. It’s about allowing yourself to make mistakes and getting back up and it’s a beautiful song I really want.”
For such a young woman, Nadia Forde has a wise head on her shoulders, a seriously ambitious streak and an admirable desire to prove Irish begrudgers wrong. She may also provide the Irish music scene with a refreshing move away from the easy villainising of pop music. In a music world that still holds to the shallow dismissal of pop as “inauthentic” or “uncool”, meanwhile, Ms Forde might just act as a catalyst, enabling all of us to remember that great pop music is for everyone, and that anti-pop stars are usually just as commercial as their pop contemporaries – they’re just far less open about it.
May Nadia Forde’s honesty serve her well. The plaudits should follow...

‘BPM’ is available now