Tulisa

**Tula Paulinea Contostavlos** (born 13 July 1988), known as **Tulisa**, is an English singer, songwriter, rapper, actress and television personality of Greek and Irish ancestry. She was a member of the Camden-based hip hop and R&B group N-Dubz. Tulisa was also a judge on _The X Factor_.

## Background

Tula Paulinea Contostavlos was born on 13 July 1988 in Camden Town, London. When Contostavlos was five, her mother, who has bipolar disorder and schizoaffective disorder, was sectioned under the Mental Health Act. The 2010 BBC programme, _Tulisa: My Mum and Me_, described Contostavlos' life looking after her mother before joining N-Dubz.

On 9 March 2020, Contostavlos revealed she suffered from Bell's palsy.

### Family

Her Irish mother, Anne Byrne, was born in Churchtown, Dublin. Anne and her three sisters were in a 1980's big band and swing group, called Jeep. Contostavlos' father, Plato Contostavlos, is Greek-Cypriot and at one time was keyboardist with Mungo Jerry. Plato's brother, Byron Contostavlos, was bassist with Mungo Jerry and later became the manager of N-Dubz.

## Career

Tulisa was in the band N-Dubz with her cousin Dappy and their friend Fazer. The group became very popular. Tulisa was a celebrity judge on _The X Factor_ in 2011 and 2012. She mentored the "Groups" category in 2011. They included Little Mix, the first group to win the competition. Tulisa returned to the show in 2014 because Mel B was ill.

As a singer, Contostavlos has recorded three studio albums with N-Dubz, _Uncle B_ (2008), _Against All Odds_ (2009) and _Love.Live.Life_ (2010). In 2011, she started work on a solo album. In 2012 it was released. _The Female Boss_ got a lot of bad reviews and did not chart well. Three singles were released from the album. The first single, "Young", entered the UK Singles Chart at number one.

In 2022, N-Dubz went on a reunion tour. They have also appeared on _Celebrity_ _Gogglebox_ together since 2023.

In 2024, Contostavlos was a contestant on the twenty-fourth series of _I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!_ where she came tenth place.

## Drug trial

In June 2013, Costostavlos, along with rapper Mike GLC were arrested on suspicion of supplying class A drugs. In July 2014, Contostavlos' trial for supplying cocaine ended because it was discovered that the journalist who accused her, Mazher Mahmood, had lied to the court.

In July 2014, she made a documentary about her time during the trial named _Tulisa: The Price of Fame,_ which premiered on BBC Three to a moderate success, attracting 615,000 viewers (3.8% of the audience within its time slot).  In April 2015, Justice Nicholas Kearns, President of the Irish High Court, described her as having been "cruelly deceived in a shabby sting operation", but dismissed her attempt to sue the _Irish Sun_ for defamation.

After the collapse of her drug trial, _The Guardian_ Suzanne Moore wrote an article on Contostavlos image and reputation and wrote that "Tulisa is famously a working class girl made good, though of course made good is never what she is allowed to be". In Moore's opinion, "Tulisa has been branded by the media as a chav and therefore almost anything can be said about her".

## Discography

- _The Female Boss_ (2012)

### Television

|Year|Title|Role|Notes|||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|2007–2009|_Dubplate Drama_|Laurissa|Series 2–3|||
|2010|_Tulisa: My Mum & Me_|rowspan="5"|Herself|rowspan="2"|Documentary|
|2010–2011|_Being... N-Dubz_|||||
|2010–2012|_Alan Carr: Chatty Man_|Guest; 3 episodes||||
|2010–2016|_Celebrity Juice_|10 episodes||||
|rowspan="2"|2011|_Before They Were Dubz_|Documentary|||
|_Wall of Fame_|Guest Panellist|1 episode||||
|2011–2012, 2014|_The X Factor_|Judge||||
|rowspan="2"|2012|_Britain's Got Talent_|Performer|1 episode||
|_The Talent Show Story_|rowspan="5"|Herself||||
|2012–2020|_Loose Women_|Guest; 5 episodes||||
|2013–2015|_Sweat the Small Stuff_|5 episodes||||
|2014|_Tulisa: The Price of Fame_|Documentary||||
|rowspan="2"|2016|_Hoff The Record_|Cameo appearance|||
|_Off Their Rockers_|Guest Prankster|Series 4, episode 6||||
|2018|_Don't Hate the Playaz_|Herself|1 episode|||
|2024|_I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!_|Contestant||||

### Film

|Year|Title|Role||
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
|rowspan="2"|2011|_Demons Never Die_|Amber|
|_Big Fat Gypsy Gangster_|Shaniqua|||

## Infobox (musical artist)

- **embed**: yes
- **background**: solo_singer
- **instrument**: Vocals
- **current member of**: N-Dubz
- **years active**: 2000–present


## Infobox (person)

- **name**: Tulisa
- **image**: Tulisa Contostavlos 2014.jpg
- **caption**: Contostavlos in July 2014
- **birth name**: Tula Paulinea Contostavlos
- **birth place**: London Borough of Camden, Camden Town, London, England
- **relatives**: Dappy (cousin)