Cher Lloyd reveals Simon Cowell’s SYCO label told her to “get with” Justin Bieber to boost her career

nme.com:

Cher Lloyd has shared that her former label encouraged her to “get with” Justin Bieber to help promote her musical career.Lloyd is best known for participating in the seventh series of TV talent show The X Factor in 2010 – finishing in fourth place.

Despite not winning, she landed a deal with Simon Cowell’s SYCO Music in the UK and Epic Records in the US – both under Sony Music – and went on to release two studio albums: 2011’s ‘Sticks + Stones’ and 2014’s ‘Sorry I’m Late’.In the latest episode of the We Need To Talk podcast, the singer-rapper opened up about her time signed to SYCO and Epic Records, revealing that she was advised to pursue a romance with Justin Bieber as a method to promote one of her albums.“I walked into the record label at the time and they hadn’t given me a promotional budget… We spent millions on this album, but there’s no budget to go get people to hear it?” Lloyd told host Paul Brunson.