Cher Lloyd. Considering she was named after one of the most iconic artists of all time, Cher was destined to have big shoes to fill – and for a brief moment in pop music history, she was doing just that! The future chart-topper was a fresh-faced 16-year-old when she joined The X Factor UK in 2010, ultimately coming in fourth place after a tight race with other singers including One Direction. Due to her unique style, outlandish personality and friendship with mentor Cheryl Cole, the teenager unwillingly became the face of pop-rap, an emerging musical genre that blends pop with rap or R&B and is super common today. But what happened when the competitive reality TV show cameras stopped rolling?
Although she did not win The X Factor UK, Cher Lloyd was quickly scooped up and signed by Epic Records and Simon Cowell’s label Syco. Her debut single, ‘Swagger Jagger,’ was released in 2011 and took the #1 spot in the UK despite having a weird melody reminiscent of ‘Oh My Darling, Clementine.’ It certainly amplified her no fucks given attitude and played to the audience that made her famous in the first place. Honestly, it’s not my favorite single from this artist and her follow up, ‘With Ur Love,’ was a completely different sound and direction that started to soften her image. This problem – switching between in-your-face crazy and soft melodies – is probably the biggest hinderance in her career. She was never able to pick an avenue and stay with it.
‘With Ur Love’ began her crossover into the American music market, however, and peaked at #27 on Billboard’s Pop Chart. Balloons, I just remember a lot of fucking balloons for some reason. What followed next was her biggest solo single to date in America – ‘Want U Back.’ ‘Want U Back’ is currently certified 2x Platinum for sales of over 2,000,000 and establishes her as a one hit wonder. At least if her career never rebounds, she can book appearances based on the success of this single alone. All of these tracks were in support of her debut album, Sticks + Stones (#4 UK, #9 USA), which saw Gold certifications in both countries for sales of over 500,000. A third single featuring Becky G, ‘Oath,’ was released in 2012 and peaked at #30 in America. People love to forget about ‘Oath’ for some reason, but now that Becky G is huge, who knows, the song may go viral one day.
Unfortunately, Ms. Lloyd would soon become a victim of the dreaded sophomore slump – where sales dip dramatically between catalogs. Maybe it was also due to her second album containing more mature music and her fans weren’t ready to level up at the time. But I was! The first single from the album, ‘I Wish,’ was released in 2013 – and barely made any waves. I’m just realizing a lot of her singles have W’s, woah. The next single, ‘Sirens,’ did much better in the UK (#41) but performed worse in America (#48 Pop Digital). Due to the singles not doing much to make fans excited for the record, Cher’s second album, ‘Sorry I’m Late,’ came out in 2014 and peaked at #21 in the UK and #12 in the USA. It was frustrating because the ship was ready to blast off but didn’t have the gas.
After being dropped by Epic and Syco, Ms. Lloyd signed a deal with Vixen Records and returned in 2016 with ‘Activated.’ At the time, the singer did promotional interviews stating ‘Activated’ was the first single off her upcoming third album, however, when the song completely flopped hard, the album never materialized. She was dropped by Vixen and signed to another label, Universal, in 2018 and returned with ‘None of My Business’ (#62 UK). While with Universal, she released a number of songs between 2018 and 2020 including ‘MIA’ (#58 Belgium), ‘Lost’ (#89 Scotland) and ‘One Drink Away.’ Her last piece of original music was a feature on Imanbek’s ‘Baddest’ in 2021.
Speaking of features, Cher’s catalog contains a lot of them including Sean Kingston’s ‘Rum and Raybans,’ Demi Lovato’s ‘I Really Don’t Care,’ Ne-Yo’s ‘It’s All Good,’ Joakim Molitor’s ‘4U’ and Quintino & Afsheen’s ‘Don’t Lose You.’
Cher Lloyd, now age 30, is seemingly retired from the entertainment industry, though she did a one-off club performance last year. She’s now a married mother of two and spends her time as a social media influencer. Recently, she made headlines for being the victim of a near fatal car crash. While it’s possible that she may return with new music at some point, I think her mainstream career is very much over. And this is why she’s falling into the category of a pop ghost…
Chart History:
– With Your Love: #4 UK
– Want U Back: #25 UK, #12 USA
– I Wish: #160 UK, #16 Billboard’s Bubbling Under
– Rum and Raybans: #68 Canada, #5 Billboard Dance
– I Really Don’t Care: #92 UK, #26 USA
Pop Ghost 
Leave a comment