1. S: I’m Shaa Wasmund one of the things I enjoy is showing young people
how to make the most of their lives. In my career I’ve had many
successes and just as many knock backs and what I’ve learnt is that if you
want to succeed, you can with the right attitude.
S: Today I’m working with a want to be singer from Liverpool. Gemma
and her group Eskimo Blonde thought they were heading for the top, but
saw their dream shatter
G: After I left school I went to Southport College, I did it for 2 years I did
National Diploma in Performing Arts, it’s a great experience coos I learnt
a lot from it and I really didn’t want to leave. It was always on the cards
to do a girl group so it was about 2 years ago when I thought I’m just
gonna to do this on my own, grouped up with a friend, held auditions for
another member who we got and we made Eskimo Blonde
S: Not long after they formed, the group entered a talent show.
G; we saw the advertisement for the x factor and it was a kind of a spur of
the moment thing and we went down, we practiced for 10 mins if that in
the car so when we got the judges we went in we were all a bit
apprehensive and to be honest, I think we all just thought we were going
to get ripped to pieces but at least we’d get some publicity and I was quite
taken back by the fact that the judges all really liked us and every single
one said yes which you very rarely get
S: Initially Eskimo Blonde did well, they got through to the boot camp
stage of the show, and went down to the final 7 under the eye of the re-
knowned Simon Cowell, G: I like this one which was on the front page
of, cos this shows us before we went to Simon Cowell’s villa so we felt
really naughty and we couldn’t tell anybody, I couldn’t even tell my mum
or anybody at all
S: but at the villa they were told they were out the x factor dream over
they did some gigs, but things weren’t the same and Gemma’s friend
Harry left the group.
G:The worst thing of the whole experience was the friendship that we lost
through the pressure that we were under, the knowledge of how hard the

2. business was
S: Harry was replaced and they entered x factor again without success.
The very public rejection affected Gemma deeply and she’s not sure if
she could face the pressures of a music career
G: when we didn’t get through this time, I just felt an emptiness inside
like I had lost something which was a part of me, I didn’t want to sing I
didn’t want to speak to anybody and I just wanted to take time out and
really think things through on what my next plan was and I never thought
it would be this difficult to get to this stage, so God knows what it would
be to get a full deal