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Ashley: "I quit because X Factor wasn't exploitative enough"

TV News

Ed Williamson

1st November 2011

In a sensational turn of events, X Factor ship-jumper Ashley Baptiste has exclusively revealed to us why he quit boy band The Risk. It wasn't because they didn't spend enough time playing Risk.

Last week Ashley Baptiste shocked the world by leaving The Risk on the eve of the key Halloween night showdown for round whatever-it-was of The X Factor.

Tight-lipped until now on the reasons for his departure, the singer gave the full story to when we caught up with him yesterday, exclusively revealing his concerns at the show's recent tendency to be less exploitative of its acts.

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From watching previous shows, I'd understood that they were going to dredge up some raw and painful event in my family history - a sudden and shocking bereavement, perhaps - and insist on barging their way into our home, forcing us to talk about it and filming me crying into my gran's cardigan.

Having my most private emotions exploited to keep Simon Cowell in diamond-studded blowjobs is what I've dreamed of doing since I was a little boy, and it looked like that dream was going to become a reality.

But instead it became all about the music, and that wasn't the direction I wanted it to go in.
He also questioned the commitment to exploitation of mentor Tulisa Contostavlos.

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I don't think she really got the point, to be honest with you.

She'd spend far too much time with us, for a start, and ask us our opinions about things.

We really needed her to spend all week on holiday, pausing only to leak made-up stories about backstage rifts to the Daily Star, show up for three hours on a Saturday, bark some pre-scripted praise at us on camera then sod off to get her bum waxed.

Contostavlos: "She tried to get me to do vocal warm-up exercises. That's when I knew it was over."


Baptiste went on:

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In the early days of N-Dubz, when they were raw and urban, they used to spend hours crying in front of cameras for people's mawkish entertainment whilst Trouble by Coldplay was on in the background. It's all they wanted to do before they got famous and all the singing and songwriting took over.

She's sold out if you ask me.
These comments lend weight to the views of critics who claim The X Factor has strayed too far from its original format, including former winner Shayne Ward, who commented:

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When I was on it, you'd have got laughed out of the place if you mentioned singing.

I had three grandparents with severe wasting diseases, low self-esteem resulting from childhood obesity and a dog trapped down a well, and that was more than enough to see me through.

Do you think I had to worry about singing? Of course not. Just get filmed walking through fields on my own looking wistfully into the distance.
Neither Contostavlos nor fellow judges Gary Barlow, Louis Walsh or Kelly Rowland were available to comment, fuelling further speculation among concerned onlookers that they were all too busy working diligently with their acts in a bid to help them towards long-lasting, worthwhile careers in the music industry.

More:  The X Factor  Tulisa Contostavlos
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