X Factor star was ‘told to hook up with Justin Bieber' to promote album

The X Factor was a staple in any noughties teen's Saturday night TV viewing, and it brought us some of the biggest stars of today. From One Direction to Little Mix, if you wanted to be successful at music, for many that was the way to go.

But in recent years, a darker side to the treatment of contestants (who were often still teenagers themselves) has been uncovered, from Alexandra Burke being told to "bleach her skin" by trolls after winning the show, to clips resurfacing of Simon Cowell telling hopefuls they should "go on a diet".

And now one of the show's most well-known contestants, Cher Lloyd, is speaking out about her time on he show, and her experience in the music industry after coming out of it.

The now-31-year-old sat down with Paul C Brunson on his podcast, We Need To Talk, where she recalled how executives in the music business would encourage her to make drastic moves to promote her music and become more famous.

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However, she did credit X Factor mentor, Cheryl Cole, for "always being good" to her when she auditioned in 2010, and landed fourth place in the whole contest.

But it wasn't until she left that she was thrown out into the world to fend for herself, and upon asking for budget from a record label to promote her album in the US, she was given a bizarre choice.

"What I needed to do to make this record take off is hit some of the clubs and find out where [Justin] Bieber is, and I should go try get with him", she says, adding that she was "very much with" her husband at that time, and was told not to tell anyone that they were planning to get married.

"He was even stood in that office while I was told they weren't going to spend any money on the album, that I was to go and hook up with someone mega famous and basically leech off the back of someone else's fame...was I not good enough?"

While Brunson noted that the revelations were "horrendous", he pointed out that it "doesn't feel far-fetched for the industry".

Since a number of successful singles, Lloyd has taken a step back from the spotlight, but still continues to make music on her own terms.

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