Exclusive: Alexandra Burke shocks fans by ‘snubbing’ Brighton Pride
X Factor winner Alexandra Burke has sensationally pulled out of performing at this year’s Brighton Pride event. The pop diva was due on stage at the Girls on Top tent at 6pm on Saturday, where thousands of revellers were eagerly waiting her arrival.
PinkNews.co.uk was told that the star, who won X Factor in 2008, cancelled at the very last minute because her team were not satisfied with the venue with a crowd estimated in the thousands, and claimed it was not significant enough for the singer to attend.
One source told this publication that the star’s people “did not like the look of the place”.
In a statement Pride Brighton and Hove said: “The team at Pride Brighton & Hove are sad to announce that despite agreeing the full details of her performance in advance, Alexandra Burke and her management decided to remove her from the line-up at the last minute, disappointing thousands of her fans.
“Pride Brighton & Hove would like to thank Fatboy Slim, the Freemasons and all of the performers who waived their fees to perform at Preston Park for their support of Pride Brighton & Hove 2012 and the LGBT community at large.”
The turn of events are all the most surprising as last year Alexandra Burke happily attended Brighton Pride 2011 and told Pinknews.co.uk that she “was on top of the world” at being chosen as a headline act, adding: “I love coming to Brighton, especially when I have time off as well”.
GaydarRadio presenter Alex Baker tweeted the star’s Twitter account, saying: “@alexandramusic not bothering to perform at Pride is disappointing. Her fans were waiting all afternoon in there…Shame on her!”
Fan, Emma Robinson, from Brighton, told PinkNews.co.uk: “How dare she, she’s getting too big for her boots. What’s wrong with the woman? What’s wrong with Brighton? It was a great day, she was her last year, so why is she not here today as promised?”
Later this evening the star tweeted from her official account: “Hey Guys, due to circumstances out of my control I’m unable to perform at Brighton Pride today, so sorry guys”.
Her PR representative, Simon Jones, from Hackford Jones PR tweeted: “Alexandra Burke travelled to Brighton today for Pride, but due to technical & production issues on site, she was sadly unable to perform”.
Meanwhile, Brighton Pride 2012 headliner and local resident, DJ Norman Cook (Fat Boy Slim) revealed to PinkNews.co.uk that he had wanted to perform at Pride for more than a decade, but had previously never been able to because the weekend had always clashed with his DJ’ing commitments. He told PinkNews.co.uk: “I’m a Brightonian, and I’ve always wanted to appear at Brighton Pride. Normally I am in Ibiza, but when they said it was [Brighton Pride] and was going to be in September, I said yeah. It’s great!”
