Lauren Murray became a household name in 2015 when she auditioned for the X Factor. She was mentored by judge Rita Ora while on the show and ended up coming a very respectable fourth place. We caught up with her recently to find out all about her time on the X Factor and her new EP Worth It.
Lauren knew from a young age that she wanted to sing. “I was very into music always singing and dancing. I remember for my 5th Birthday I begged my mum for a CD player, which was literally the love of my life.” Fast forward to 2015 she was working and singing as more of a hobby, she admits she struggled to know how to break into the industry so thought she would give X Factor a shot.
“At the time I was working at the dentist, and I was only singing in pubs as a side thing, I just knew I wanted to take singing more seriously. But I didn’t really know how to. It’s really hard to get yourself out there and I had already been doing the circuit for years, so thought WHY NOT?”
After coming fourth and leaving the show she found it a challenge to know what to do next, not knowing much about the industry it was a quick and steep learning curve for her. “Coming from a background where I knew next to nothing about the industry, was quite difficult after the show because I felt like I had no one to really guide me. People forget that yes you sing on the show, but essentially it is a TV Show, so afterwards it literally is “see you later”. So I really had to try and learn a lot pretty quickly.”
And it was one hell of a journey for her to get to where she is today. She began recording songs once she finished the show. “I had been recording for over a year when my management at the time fell apart, so all the songs I had written and recorded were scrapped and I had to start all over again. Then I joined with FROD management and I had a completely fresh start which is where my EP “Worth it’ all came from, I really enjoyed finally putting all the music together and now it’s out there for people to hear which makes me so happy. ”
One of the things that Lauren wanted to do with the EP was to find the right sound. “One of the main reasons I love the EP so much is that every song is completely different. There really is little of this and a little bit of that. I think the hardest part when starting a project like this is finding direction and the right sound for you as an artist and I feel like I’ve found that now.”
“One of the tracks on the EP is called Worth It and I thought it would be the perfect name as the title of the whole thing, because it relates to a lot of issues I think people suffer with like low confidence, low self-esteem feeling like giving up or not being good enough, I mean through this process I felt like that myself a times and I wanted to put a positive spin on that and say actually yes we are all worth it we can all do whatever we put our minds to, just like I have.”
She is also very thankful to her fans who she says are a “dream.” She’s had great feedback since Worth It was released just over two weeks ago. ” went to number 7 on the pop iTunes chart, and number 26 on the iTunes album chart which was absolutely amazing I couldn’t believe it, especially after all this time.” “The whole process has been amazing all the songs I love, ” She says, “I can’t describe how crazy, it feels to have something you have worked on for so long, I’ve joined all the pieces to the puzzle. ”
Talk turns to what’s next. ” I hope this year is my year, Hopefully, we will also have a tour coming up and were are already In talks about the video for the next track so everything is going in the right direction. I just cannot wait!”
Worth It is out now!
Let us know which is your favourite track over on @CelebMix!