Sinitta Malone is a singer and performer. Born in Seattle, Washington, she moved to the UK aged nine, attending boarding school in East Sussex. Her hit records include Toy Boy and So Macho. She has mentored on The X Factor and was a contestant on I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! in 2011. Sinitta lives in Weybridge, Surrey, and has two children, Magdalena, 19, and Zac, 18.
When I was a young child, I travelled to cities across America and Australia with my mother [the singer Miquel Brown] while she performed in the world tour of Hair. Meat Loaf was in the cast and when he sang Aquarius without a microphone, the power of his voice almost brought down the walls. The show’s sponsor was Hilton Hotels, which were very glamorous in those days. The cast would take over a couple of floors and I was like the kid in The Shining, riding my tricycle along the hallways. We had serviced apartments in Brisbane near Surfers Paradise, close to the beach. I remember seeing dolphins for the first time there.
If I wasn’t allowed in the theatre, I stayed at the hotel on my own, ordering room service and listening to the radio. Nowadays, my mother would probably be arrested for leaving me, but she was young and doing her best to cope.
When I overheard one of the actors talking about the merry-go-round in Central Park, I imagined it would be like Disneyland. I begged my mother to take me there and she drove all night so I would wake up in New York. It was a huge disappointment because it was just a normal, rusty carousel, but we always had fun.
When my mother dated David Bowie, in the early 1970s, we joined him on tour. We also toured with Bowie’s guitarist Mick Ronson for his album Slaughter on 10th Avenue. It wasn’t until much later that I understood how famous all these people were and what they’d achieved.
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I made my entrance on The X Factor’s Judges’ Houses in Barbados in 2008 wearing a gold bikini, accompanied by the James Bond music. The following year, in Los Angeles, when I was asked to wear a bikini again, I declined because I wasn’t feeling bikini-body ready. The producers said that was boring and arranged to take me shopping. Instead, I went to a plant nursery and bought some large banana leaves. I always play pranks on Simon Cowell and so I wore them as a joke to make him laugh before changing into a cute dress. I had told the production team I had a dangerously sexy bikini, so they made sure to capture Simon’s reaction on the first take. Then, of course, I came out in the leaves, but I never expected it to even make the cut! It was so hot, within minutes of them shooting, the leaves were wilting and the sticky tape was coming off.
I met Simon when I was 14, because he and his brother, Nicholas, were dating my friends. My mother and I regularly joined Simon and his family on holiday. Simon’s parents would rent an apartment in Palma, Mallorca, then they moved there. We always went away at Christmas together and when we started making more money as adults, we went further afield to places like the Banyan Tree in Thailand and Mauritius. After The X Factor’s success, we’d spend summers on Simon’s favourite hired yacht, Slipstream, visiting the Amalfi coast, St Tropez and Sardinia. We may be exes, but we’re more like siblings and are godparents to each other’s children.
Simon and I often spend Christmas in Barbados with our families, either on the yacht or at One Sandy Lane, private villas owned by our good friend Maureen. Simon plays Santa, arriving on a jet ski, spoiling the kids rotten. Lunch is usually around the pool and then we might have dinner at Sandy Lane Hotel, which does an incredible buffet.
In the 1990s, my dancers and I were flown to Abu Dhabi and Dubai to perform for the sheikh. I awoke one morning to see a Rolls-Royce hanging outside my bedroom window on a crane. The car was an incentive for me to spend the evening with a “gentleman”. I was horrified; just because my stage costumes are skimpy, it does not mean that I am a prostitute.
In Dubai we flung our clothes on the beach — we were wearing swimwear underneath. Within 15 minutes, we were arrested. Thankfully, because we were guests of the sheikh, we were released.
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I used to visit Ibiza regularly, performing at Insomnia, Ku Club and disco clubs that opened at 2am. I would stay at Pikes hotel and one day in 1987 I heard a commotion outside. From my balcony, I saw Elton John screaming at Enrique Iglesias at the top of his lungs. They were arguing over cabanas because Elton had taken them all and Enrique needed some for his guests. I went down to try to placate the situation and saw George Michael there too.
I did a show in Portugal with my dancers in 1987 and we were paid in cash. Post-gig, the driver picked us up and put the money in the boot, but then he kicked us out of the car in the middle of nowhere. This was before we had mobile phones, but luckily a stranger came along and called the police. They weren’t remotely interested in trying to recover the money and we suspected the robbery was set up by the promoters. I was so traumatised, I refused to go back to Portugal for years.
My mother and I are really into wellness holidays and Chiva-Som in Thailand is my reset place — I leave feeling 20 years younger. I’d like to visit Venice, but I haven’t been there yet as I want to go with my for ever love for a romantic trip. Maybe I could do a recce before I meet my husband, though.
Sinitta appears in Now That’s What I Call A Musical, which will tour the UK and Ireland from September 6 (thenowmusical.com)
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