X Factor legend takes aim after being ‘chewed up and spit out’ at 17

Cher Lloyd has opened up about being ‘chewed up and spit out’ (Picture: Lorne Thomson/Redferns)

Cher Lloyd appears to have taken aim at The X Factor in her newest single.

The 31-year-old singer, who was just 17 when she auditioned for Simon Cowell’s reality show in 2010, has opened up on being ‘sold the dream’ as a teenager in her new track Head Down.

‘It was all I ever wanted, I thought I was flying, I was falling, you know, I never saw it coming,’ she sings in the first verse. ‘Chew me up, spit me out, throw me back on the ground.’

Later, she sings: ‘You said that I’d amount to nothing if I don’t show a little something. You know that everybody does it. You sold me the dream, I was just seventeen.’

Elsewhere in the song, Cher – who has revealed the song is about her struggles in the music industry – reflects on ‘all the tears’.

‘You wasted my time and I still pay the price,’ she adds. ‘I used to play your game and nothing seems to change.’

She was 17 when she auditioned for The X Factor (Picture: Ken McKay/Talkback Thames/REX/Shutterstock)

She previously shared a video on TikTok opening up on the new release and the inspiration behind the powerful lyrics.

‘I wrote this song about when it feels like you’re the only one when it feels like you’ve hit a brick wall,’ she said. ‘The music industry can be dark at times.’

Cher added: ‘Some of the stories may never be told but mine is yours to hear.’

She has forged her own path since leaving Simon Cowell’s Syco label (Picture: Ken McKay/Talkback Thames/REX/Shutterstock)

It’s been 12 years since Cher parted ways with Simon and his Syco record label.

‘I don’t really speak to him anymore. I left his label a year and a half ago and I got my record deal here [America],’ she said at the time. ‘I have a specific thing I am reaching for, so I have my own idea of how I’m going to get it.

‘We all have a specific thing in life that we want to get to and I don’t deal very well with people having [control].

‘I think he found me – I wouldn’t say disobedient – but a little bit [difficult].’

Cher doesn’t hold back on Head Down (Pictures: Joe Okpako/WireImage)

Over her career, Cher has dropped two studio albums, collaborated with Demi Lovato, and performed with Taylor Swift, and she’s glad to be back with new music, with an EP coming later in the year.

Head Down is a completely unrestrained and unfiltered track that, in Cher’s own words, tells the story of ‘what [she’s] been through’ during her rise to fame.

The mum-of-two told Metro: ‘I remember the day I wrote Head Down; I just felt like a massive weight had been lifted off me.

‘I’d wanted to say these things for so long, but I just didn’t know how to say them just by speaking; putting pen to paper instead was therapeutic to me.’

Metro has contacted representatives for X Factor, Simon Cowell and Cher Lloyd for comment.

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