INTERVIEW | Shingai From The Noisettes

How’s Africa?

She sends her love, we’ve just had a monsoon, but the clouds have parted and it’s warm. I just went Bungie jumping with my brother over the Victoria Falls, which was amazing.
What’s the best thing about being a celeb?

The best thing about the job that I do, is that it doesn’t feel like a job, I get to share apart of me with lots of people. As for celebrity, I never know how to really deal with it. I love to get creative with the stage and costumes though. In one of the last shows, my costume was made of something that looked like a plastic table cloth and by the time Health and Safety were done spraying flame retardant on me, I looked like a dinner lady on acid, going to a rave.
What’s the one thing people are surprised to learn about you?

Erm, I’m very outdoorsy, I love getting on my bike and getting out to the country-side. I think it comes from the time when I was 11 I lived with my grandmother from Malawi – and the land was so green and fertile. I can go the glam thing, but I’m just at home putting on some riding boots and getting out there…
Any guilty pleasures?

I can sit on the sofa once in a while and have a TV marathon. I don’t know if any pleasures are guilty, I’m a complete petrol head, so I love Top Gear and Come Dine With Me.

Have you ever been mistaken for somebody else?

When I was in a hotel in Romania this guy thought that I was Whitney Houston – and I was like No No No (Laughs) She’s amazing… I wish… But he was like, ‘yes, yes, I Will Always Love You, my favourite song… and I was like it’s 2009 now so if I am (Whitney Houston) I’m looking really young!
Dead or Alive who would like to collaborate with?

Owwww, it would probably be Jimi Hendrix
That’s something we would love to hear!

Let’s make it happen!
If you were to do a reality show which would it be?

I would love to do Top Gear, I’m a die hard Top Gear fan, that’s if Clarkson wants me!
Getting political – gay marriage – Yay or Nay?

I say, people should be able to marry and join in matrimony to the people they love regardless the sex, the creed, the colour. In a time of a lot of world unrest we should be promoting love.
So tell us about the Ford Fiesta!

I love the way you left it right to the end… Well it came about through the people I’ve collaborated with. What was really exciting about it, like I said – being a petrol head, was driving around in a new car and have my ideal day (which is what the current Fiesta ad focuses on)
I never thought that spending the day in a ford would be so glamorous.

It was so nice to be pampered by the vice creative and team and Ford crew.

When they reunited me with my dear friend Nuwella in the guitar shop and enabled me to perform alongside my sister’s beautifully choreography, it was like a dream come true.

The cosmic golden bass and I instantly became friends. She fitting neatly into the back seat. All I had to do for the adventure to begin was to the turn the key and voice command one of my favourite songs for the ride.

I’m from the generation, where my first boyfriend’s brother had a Ford Capri, so Ford has always been a company I’ve watched with interest and the Fiesta was famous in the 90s, and before we shot the video I had no idea what the new car would look like, I had a vision of the 90’s, chavvy, Ford Fiesta – the kind of thing I’d see around Deptford – a pimped up version of that, but it’s beautiful. It’s great car and I had so much fun doing the video – and I can’t wait to see it!

Check out Shingai’s Mum’s charity http://www.ponayi.org.uk