Call It What You Want

call it what you want

the universe look right place right time

or magic

i call it believing in yourself istanbul

2005

25th of may every liverpool fans dream

got answered that day

three nil down a half time we go on to

win the game in dramatic fashion after

scoring three in the second half

and winning on penalties that game

changed my life

and i wasn’t even there i was 12 sat

crying in a pub

with my family in liverpool after the

first 45 minutes

laying in the definition of a heartbreak

watching my team get destroyed

or praying for a miracle i get asked all

the time you know what’s the defining

time of my life

and when did i know i could go on to

achieve the things that i’ve gone on to

do

right hit records become grammy

nominated present tv shows play football

perform for thousands of people and to

be in the position i am in today and the

truth is

it was that game that game helped me get

here today without me even realizing it

because that’s the moment i believe the

magic the truth is

i guess we all need auto and kind of

magic um to achieve the dreams

that we want to achieve this talk isn’t

about how to get where i’ve got to or to

follow these steps to success

because i’m just as clueless as you i’ve

literally

winged the whole thing but today is

based on belief and having the ability

to believe in yourself

because i believe that 50 percent of

self-belief is the key

to success let’s go back

when i was nine it’s when i started

playing football i grew up with no

brothers or sisters

my mom actually went on to have my baby

sister when she was 40

and i was 16. that was a bit of a shock

what a good one

you know i used to spend a lot of time

playing football kicking a ball against

the wall and then one day

my granddad seen an article in the

newspaper for the ian rush soccer school

i was the only girl

i didn’t know who he and rush was but

everyone kept asking for a picture with

this guy with a mustache so

i followed and it turns out he was a

pretty good player

so um i’m glad that i’ve got that going

on the wall at some point anyway

you know call it what you want the

universe look right place right time

but i got scouted for liverpool that day

the summer camp was being held at the

same place

the liverpool team trained and someone

spotted me i went down the next week

you know i didn’t even own a pair of

football boots but i ended up signing

for liverpool under tens and i remember

it like it was yesterday

walking into the train and pitch and

seeing a sea of girls

all my age i finally felt like i

belonged

and you know i wasn’t strange for being

a girl who played football

fast forward i’m 16 i choose to leave

school

not continue education it wasn’t really

for me

you know i worked hard in school but i

preferred going on playing football

writing music playing piano and that’s

where i felt like my energy was best

spent and it made me feel good inside

school never made me really feel good

and

you know i’m gonna talk about listening

to yourself more in the talk but that

was the first time

i made the decision to listen to myself

when i left school

i had no money i played gigs on the

weekend i played for like 50 quid an

hour

and it was the first time i started in

and from something i loved to do

i started getting a bit of name for

myself in the city and more and more

people would start coming to gigs

you know the next thing that happened

was another one of them moments

call it what you want you know the

universe

look right place right time but i was

put forward from a teammate

at liverpool at the time shanice

williams shout out to you or left back

and it was a competition which if you

won would end up earning your six month

mentorship and studio time with a

liverpool footballer

ryan babel looking back i’m not sure

what reason i’ll wait the other the

chance to meet a liverpool player or get

in six months free studio time

but anyway i went on to win i believe it

was my destiny looking back

who else could the one it was a perfect

fit in my story

and the stars they land you know after

that

ryan went on to leave liverpool and we

kind of lost contact but i haven’t spent

that time laying in the ropes

i knew what a backup vocal was i knew

what a synth pad was

it set me up for the next phase in my

career

and that next phase was my first record

deal you know a sign i was 18

19 i signed a four album four album deal

i can’t even say it it’s crazy and but

for more money

than i’d ever seen i thought i’d made it

but this was the key part and everything

this talk is about believing in the

universe and also believing in yourself

but this was the part in my own story

when i stopped believing in myself and

started to believe in other people

and that was a huge lesson i started

getting told what to wear

how to look i should dance what my piano

was going to look like

how my album was going to sound and i

hated it

you know i spent a year making an album

making music i disliked

and i was put in a room with producers

who had big hits

or sold loads of records but i hated

everything about it

i look back now and it’s funny because

that was my first heartbreak the day i

got dropped

i remember like it was yesterday it was

two days before christmas

i cried for the whole holiday but it was

like looking back at

x and thinking what the hell was it

doing it wasn’t right but it was a huge

learning cure for me personally

and from then on i never relied or

listened to anyone if it didn’t feel

right for me

now i’ll listen to me gut in everything

you know if it goes wrong well

it’s okay but i don’t i can’t blame

anyone else but me and i learned a

valuable lesson

and a huge blessing i heard daryl

stinton say in his ted talk i learned to

use rejection as projection

and that’s what i’ve done a detour

happened then you know

i started writing songs so i got dropped

boohoo

nobody wanted to sign me or even take a

meeting with me i was 21 at this point

and i’d spent the remainder of my

advance and i was down to me last few

pounds my mum said if it didn’t get

another offer in before the end of the

year

i’d have to go and get a proper job this

was around october so i didn’t have long

and about a week before the deadline

i got a call from a manager he’d

scheduled a meeting with a publisher

called peter mcconnelly

and he was one of the best in the

business he had some people like craig

david the spice girls you know roast and

jamie scott

so we got on the train to london and can

you believe it

the train broke down it was the lathe an

hour i remember

running into the meeting out of breath i

looked awful and his first words were

like you’re really late i’ve got to go

i’ve got another meeting and i was like

okay well that’s the universe you know

it’s telling me

this isn’t for me i’m gonna have to

start looking for other jobs

um i think he asked me two questions

something like what do you think’s your

best song and

why do you want to be a songwriter the

truth is i didn’t want to be a

songwriter

i wanted to be my own artist but this

was the only option i had

at the time and i listened to my gut you

know

he left i cried on the phone to me

manager told him about the train story

um and the next day my manager called me

and said pete offered me a deal it was a

small deal

but you know it was the only one i had

on the table so i took it with both fans

it meant i could stay in music a little

bit longer

i sat down spoke to peter once we signed

the deal and i made it clear i was only

wanting to write so i could eventually

go on to release my own music he’s a big

liverpool fan

so he used the great analogy of being

like a youth club player on the subs

bench

or a new sign and i had to wait me turn

you know get the respect from the

producers and the writers again

in the industry because you know i had a

chance and it didn’t work out

which i understood reluctantly anyway

um my first ever session was you know in

copenhagen

and it was for kylie minogue i went on

to write million miles

and it ended up being track two on a

number one album in so many countries

and i thought amazing this is easy

but you know the funniest thing is i

didn’t feel jealous at all that my name

wasn’t

you know on the radio being mentioned i

was happy that i could now say i was a

songwriter

and it’s always funny looking back and i

would become a songwriter because i

really didn’t intend to be

but you know it happened i believed i

didn’t give up

and i took what i had in front of me and

it helped me go on

you know fast forward another year by

now i’ve wrote loads of songs

for a few people and all the record

labels started knocking it

you know knocking on the door again i

was i was hot and it’s crazy because i

ended up signing

back to the original label that dropped

me sony rca

for you know a lot more money and kind

of like paul pogba

and back to man united i was a bit smug

you know

um but i remember really believing in

the universe at this point

because i was like come on what are the

chances 18 19

year old me crying at christmas and edo

was welcome back into the face building

that broke my heart

on fire in demand it felt good you know

i released a few songs

which i loved the next time around

because i was in control

since then i’ve gone on to sign to tap

who managed to do alipa

lana del rey ellie gould and me mate

from soccer a danny kennedy

i’ve signed a sad project with ultra

records on the universal

under the name of vice versa and we’re

currently writing for the next single

that’s with two me best friends i love

that

so then we go into tv i mean before

music was back into a safe spot

this is also where football began to

creep back in for me and do a whole 360.

um when i was in between deals i had a

bit more time on my hands i just watched

the 2015 women’s world cup

in canada majority of the england team

were all my old team mates

from liverpool 11 tram yeah and i missed

football so i thought

you know i’ll do a bit of sunday league

but after the day of sending out the

resume

i had trials for west ham tottenham

fulham

and a few more and they all offered me a

contract and that again

with belief self-belief started kicking

in you know a sign for tottenham

spent a season there before dropping

down to play for fulham

where i was allowed more time to do

music tv

all this kind of stuff um you know i’d

go to the studio

and an artist would ask how did you get

on at the weekend

and then when i’d be playing football

all memes would be like

you know what who are you writing for

this week and i had an idea about a tv

show

so i was i call me mate amy meeveld

she’s at the bbc

she started because she wanted to do a

small piece on my life in music and

football

she thought it was pretty cool so i

called her with this idea

i just had a feeling again a good

feeling that i could work so she

commissioned three episodes and it ran

off football focus

they were no longer than three minutes

but it was amazing you never got to take

me music mates to football matches and

it just worked

that then led on to me becoming a host

for the women’s world cup

in june july 2019 in france which is

just incredible

um you know then i got the match of the

day x job

again crazy a bbc show on prime

time and at the time i remember my

record label hated that they’d say

things like well you can’t do all these

things

people won’t know what you are are you a

singer are you a footballer your tv

presenter

and i just reply why can’t i be them all

you know having a career in so many

things

might make it harder for me to be a huge

success in one field

but i believed i could go on and do all

of them

you know i’ve sold millions of records

as a songwriter i’ve signed many record

deals

many football contracts made successful

tv shows podcast shows radio shows

and i’m hungry for more in life you’re

going to find people who try and put you

in a box and we’ll try to make you

pick one thing but you don’t have to you

can do anything that you want to do

and i hope i can be an example of just

that you know i don’t think i’m gifted

or special

i don’t think i you know have any of

those things but i have a good

sensibility of believing in myself

i believe self-belief and never given up

literally is 50

of success now when i’m in a bar and

someone tries to chat me off when they

ask

you know what to do for the living they

wish they never asked i’m like i’m a

singer i’m a songwriter

footballer tv presenter podcasters the

radio host

take your pick um but this talk was

never about how to get when i’ve got to

like i said

or a step-by-step guide to success

and you know like i said it’s just call

it what you want

the universe look right place right time

all magic

but for me personally to get where i’ve

got to it’s been all about self belief

i hope i’ve inspired a few years good

luck with your journey and thank you so

much for having me