Tulisa Contostavlos has instantly made waves in the I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! jungle, complete with her famous ‘female boss’ tattoo.
The singer, who is best-known for being a part of hip hop trio N-Dubz and the youngest ever judge on The X Factor, was crowned the first leader of camp on the 2024 ITV series with her teammate Alan Halsall.
The 36-year-old star is part of a stacked lineup for the new series alongside the likes of Coleen Rooney, McFly singer Danny Jones and danger Oti Mabuse.
Before the new season began, Tulisa’s fans were hoping she’d recreate her iconic pose from her X Factor days to show off her arm tattoo.
And on their first night in the jungle, she did just that in the show’s opening credits.
So, what’s the story behind the motto on Tulisa’s right arm?
Tulisa’s female boss tattoo and controversy
Tulisa’s tattoo made waves in 2011 when she was accused of illegally promoting her perfume TFB on The X Factor by striking a pose with her forearm on display.
On Sunday’s I’m A Celebrity launch show, she rocked the same pose in the opening credits, and fans were quick to spot the epic throwback.
‘NAH TULISA DOING HER POSE LOL #imacelebrity,’ wrote an X user, while another viewer added: ‘Obsessed with Tulisas iconic “female boss” pose #imacelebrity (sic)’
‘The gasp I let out seeing Tulisa do her signature arm gesture during the opening credits #ImACeleb,’ tweeted a third fan, with someone else saying: ‘tulisa bringing back the female boss. only the 2011 real ones know #ImACeleb.’
After the initial controversy 13 years ago, Tulisa insisted the Female Boss moniker had ‘always been’ her trademark and nickname.
‘The perfume’s not actually called The Female Boss – it’s just TFB,’ she told the Mirror at the time. ‘So someone wouldn’t go into a shop and buy my perfume just because they’d seen my tattoo.’
Tulisa Contostavlos is quitting fame
Ahead of being announced as part of the official I’m A Celebrity line-up, the former X Factor judge agreed with Happy Place podcast host Fearne Cotton that the music industry is ‘wild’ and ‘ridiculous’.
‘I’m through most of it. I’ll be out in two years,’ she explained. ‘I’m going into property… I am actually going to build some themed rentals.
‘So I’m like a super fantasy geek, all things like Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones.
‘And I’ve always wanted to get into the property game. But I was also like, there’s some parts of it that can be a little bit mundane.’
She went on: ‘So yeah, at the minute I’m looking for land, I want it to all be very kind of like a nature reserve, you know, cabins in a forest, Hagrid’s huts and Hobbit houses. So, yeah, that’s my plan for 2024.’
Talking about being an ‘introvert’ and not liking being in the spotlight, she added: ‘The person I’ve become, I’m a public figure that doesn’t really like being in the public eye.’
When did Tulisa Contostavlos join N-Dubz and The X Factor?
Tulisa rose to fame with her cousin Dappy and friend Fazer in N-Dubz, with the hip-hop trio winning five Mobo awards, a Brit Award nomination, and 14 top 40 singles over the years.
Their first album, Uncle B, was released in 2008, though they’d released earlier hits and appeared on the UK charts with Feva Las Vegas in 2007, which peaked at number 57.
They embarked on their first headline tour after Uncle B, and went on to produce some of their most famous hits including their second single Playing With Fire and 2010 hit We Dance On.
The band performed their final gig together in September 2011 – before the end of their decade-long hiatus in 2023 – with Tulisa then embarking on her solo career, which also saw her replace Cheryl Cole as a judge for the eighth series of The X Factor.
At the age of 23, she was and remains the youngest ever judge on the panel, and mentored Little Mix through their win.
Her solo album, The Female Boss, which included her track Young, was released in December 2012.
She also co-wrote Britney Spears and will.i.am’s 2012 single Scream and Shout, which was intended for her debut album. After her vocals were heard on the single, but she was not credited with co-writing it upon its release, stopping her from collecting royalties, Tulisa filed a lawsuit against will.i.am and won in 2018.
As well as her music career, Tulisa has held acting roles in British slasher Demons Never Die and Big Fat Gypsy Gangster.
Tulisa also fronted BBC programme, Tulisa: My Mum and Me, in 2010, which followed young people in Britain caring for a parent with mental health problems, after her own experiences which included seeing her mum forcibly sectioned in psychiatric care when she was five years old.
After being announced as part of the I’m A Celebrity line-up, Tulisa insisted her ITV stint isn’t ‘a career move’, and that she wants to show her ‘real self’.
She said: ‘My number one mission is to be my true authentic self. If me being
my authentic self connects with people in a mass way, then it must mean I’m doing something right in life.
‘But I am not going to go looking for it. This isn’t a career move for me either. I will always go back to N-Dubz and this is a one-off experience.’
What cosmetic surgeries has Tulisa Contostavlos had?
Ahead of entering the jungle, Tulisa revealed a new cosmetic procedure on her Instagram story, showing the results of a lip procedure, after having her eyebrows tended to.
She wrote: ‘I tatted the lips to match the brows, couldn’t help myself, They are swollen but they will go down & the colour will tone down.
‘@cosmetic_tattoo_clinic loving this & brows have held sooooo well.’
On the website for the cosmetic practice that Tulisa tagged, they offer treatments including lip liner tattoo, lip blush and full lip colour, which they state are ‘semi-permanent’.
During a recent podcast interview, the musician opened up about being diagnosed with Bell’s palsy, a condition described by the NHS as resulting in ‘temporary weakness or lack of movement that usually affects 1 side of the face’.
Speaking on Olivia Attwood‘s podcast So Wrong It’s Right, she explained how she had her first Bell’s palsy attack when she was 24 years old, and she had a ‘massive burst of inflammation’ on her cheek, which she said was like having an ‘abscess’.
She was given antibiotics by her doctor and the swelling went down, but then her ‘whole face just dropped’, she recalled.
Tulisa explained that her face remained in that state for seven months, and so she decided to have fillers to try and ‘balance out the symmetry’.
The singer said that this continued up until very recently, and so she was still trying to cope with her symptoms and having filler to balance it out during her 2022 N-Dubz reunion.
Then a doctor carried out an explorative procedure to investigate what was going on, discovering cysts under her skin that were found to be an ‘anomaly’.
Just days ago, Tulisa also spoke about having a ‘fat transfer’ to help with bruising in her face, after years of steroid injections to help control the cysts.
According to The Mirror, she said on her Instagram Story: ‘Hi guys, some of you may know I recently opened up in an Olivia Attwood interview So Wrong It’s Right, talking about my face and the experiences I’ve had with the chronic infection that I was unaware of and Bells Palsy attacks.’
She continued: ‘I’ve just had so many people in my DMs reaching out and asking me about my experiences and what’s going on, which has made me really happy about opening up because it has let a lot of other people know that they’re not alone.
‘I had my first operation a few months back, that was before the Olivia Attwood interview, where they opened up the ear and went in here [pointing to her jaw] and they took about five cysts that I had in the lower part of the face. And then three weeks ago, I had my latest and final operation where they removed the five last cysts.’
She went on: ‘[The surgeon] went in under the mouth, made an incision from here all the way round to here [pointing to her lower cheek] but underneath, so there is absolutely no scaring. I literally only had the stitches out about a week ago, so my face is actually still quite swollen.
‘I have noticed that where I have been having so many steroid injections into this cheek when it would blow up because of the inflammation.
‘As the swelling is going down, I am left with a lot of indentation in this cheek. I’ve covered it with makeup, it does make me really paranoid.
‘I hate it, no one likes having dents in their cheek or discolouration or things wrong with their face.’
Tulisa said she plans on getting a fat transfer in the future, but will also be getting a treatment called porfhilo, which is an injectable hyaluronic acid treatment that boosts skin’s hydration.
The star also previously spoke about cruel trolling she’s received after her diagnosis over her appearance, saying on Loose Women: ‘There’s actually been times when people have criticised me for the way I look and my face, not knowing I’m actually going through a Bell’s palsy attack.
‘I remember it was an ITV appearance a while ago and I saw an online comment like, ”Her face looks like she’s had a stroke”, and that can be the effects of Bell’s palsy.’
She said she’s learned to grow a ‘tough skin’, but feared for other people not able to deal with the same online abuse.
‘It’s easy on social media to put a cap on,’ she argued. ‘It’s hurting people – and I’m not just talking about celebrities.’
Tulisa also told Metro about the importance ‘owning up’ to any cosmetic surgeries, saying she’s undergone skin treatments like collagen waves and muscle-lifting treatments.
She said: ‘So I think people are jumping to conclusions about what I’ve done and what I haven’t, and I’m just over it. I’m going to carry on doing whatever makes me happy. And I advise anyone else out there to do the same because life is short, you only live once and if you spend your life pleasing everyone else, it is going to be a pretty sad life to live.’
Following her first appearance on I’m A Celebrity, Rylan Clark was among those defending her from vicious trolling.
He took to X, writing: ‘Also before people start going for appearance, Tulisa has been through a lot health wise the last few years so let’s not make shit jokes about her on twitter yeah x.’
Is Tulisa single?
Tulisa appears to be single, and last year spoke about her two-year celibacy vow, saying she didn’t want to have sex again until she was in a committed and monogamous relationship.
‘I don’t date, I court,’ she said. ‘So basically you are courting because you like to build friendships before you start dating, you just don’t shag them and you get to know them.’
She added to the Zeze Millz Show: ‘I’ve got friendships that I’m building.’
What is Tulisa’s net worth?
According to celebritynetworth.com, Tulisa’s net worth is thought to be around $4million (£3.1million).
I’m A Celebrity launches on Sunday at 9pm on ITV1.
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