Misha B

Misha B
Contestant Profile
Birth Date	10 February 1992
Age	33
Hometown	Manchester, England, UK
Occupation	Singer Songwriter Rapper
8
Category	Girls
Mentor	Kelly Rowland
Placement	4/16
Gallery

Misha Amber Bryan (born 10 February 1992), known by her stage name Misha B, is an English singer. She auditioned for Series 8 of The X Factor UK and made it all the way to the semi final as part of the Girls category mentored by Kelly Rowland.

She was eliminated in the semi final, finishing in 4th place.

The X Factor

Misha B's breakthrough into the music industry came in 2011, through her appearance on the eighth series of The X Factor. In her first audition in front of judges Louis Walsh, Gary Barlow, Kelly Rowland and Tulisa, she sang Aretha Franklin's cover of "Respect". The Voice recounted her performance as being "confident" and "show-stopping", and as a promising sign of Misha B's future in the competition. Noted for her "Lauryn Hill-like rap-singing style", she progressed through to bootcamp and then to judges' houses, where she was put through to the live shows by Rowland in her Girls category (individual female contestants aged 16–24) alongside Amelia Lily, Janet Devlin and Sophie Habibis. A variety of sources including The Daily Telegraph, Digital Spy and bluesandsoul.com have regarded Misha B as one of the more gifted and exciting acts ever to have come out of a talent competition. BBC 1xtra noting her "show-stopping performances", considered her to be one of the most credible artists to emerge from the show and a "break from the traditional X Factor contestant". In a review of the series, The Daily Telegraph picked her performance of "Rolling in the Deep" (Adele) as one of the highlights of the series, saying she "oozed star quality from the start... Like a 21st century Grace Jones or an urban Lady Gaga, the teenager seemed like a proper pop star already."

Misha B was in the bottom two in week 4 with Sophie Habibis but was saved by Walsh, Tulisa and Rowland, later Barlow confirmed he would have saved her if he had to vote. However voting statistics revealed that Habibis received more votes than Misha B meaning if the result went to deadlock, Habibis would have been saved. Misha B ended up in the bottom two a second time in week 6, this time with Kitty Brucknell and was saved again. However, Brucknell received more votes from the public than Misha B meaning if the result went to deadlock, Brucknell would have been saved. The following week, Misha B finished second in the public vote, receiving 22.5% which gave her a place in the quarter-final in week 8. Misha B was in the bottom two for the third time in the quarter-final with Janet Devlin but was saved, as Walsh and Tulisa voted to send her through while Rowland abstained from voting between her two acts, and Barlow confirmed he would have voted to send her through if he had to vote. However, voting statistics revealed that Devlin received more votes than Misha B meaning if the result went to deadlock, Devlin would have advanced to the semi-final. After receiving the fewest votes in the semi-final in week 9, Misha B was eliminated from the show and finished in fourth place.

Misha B was involved in a controversy during the third live show when Tulisa accused her of making "mean comments" and Louis Walsh accused her of being a "bully" to other contestants backstage. No evidence was ever provided to support either allegation and both accusers apologised the next day. The other two judges and her fellow contestants defended Misha B during and after the show, and Barlow later said he believed the wrongful allegations had ended Misha B's chances of winning the competition. Misha B was asked about her experience on The X Factor and said "I one hundred percent appreciate the platform it gave me...but it's not for the faint-hearted lol. You have to remember that at the end of the day it's an entertainment show for TV." "Things are said which are out of all of our hands as contestants. I wasn't asked any questions, I was just accused."

Performances

Episode	Theme	Song	Result
Audition	Free choice	"Respect"	Advanced
Bootcamp 1	Group performance		Advanced
Bootcamp 2	Solo performance	"Survivor"	Advanced
Judges' houses	Free choice	"Fly"	Advanced
Week 1	Britain vs. America	"Rolling in the Deep"	Saved
Week 2	Love and heartbreak	"Would I Lie to You?"	Safe (5th)
Week 3	Rock	"Purple Rain"	Safe (3rd)
Week 4	Halloween	"Tainted Love"	Bottom Two (10th)
	Save Me songs	"Use Somebody"	Saved
Week 5	Club classics	"Proud Mary"	Safe (3rd)
Week 6	Lady Gaga vs. Queen	"Born This Way"	Bottom Two (7th)
	Save Me songs	"Who You Are"	Saved
Week 7	Movie week	"I Have Nothing"	Safe (2nd)
Quarter-Final	Guilty pleasures	"Girls Just Want to Have Fun"	Bottom Two (5th)
	Musical heroes	"Killing Me Softly"
	Save Me songs	"Out Here on My Own"	Saved
Semi-Final	Motown	"Dancing in the Street"	Eliminated (4th)
	Songs to get you to the final	"Perfect"

Post The X Factor

Why Hello World

Shortly after Misha B left The X Factor, she performed a live freestyle F64 for SB.TV on 24 December 2011. In February 2012 it was announced that she had signed a record deal with the Relentless Records; Charlene Grant from Modest! Management was responsible for her management. She then began touring as part of The X Factor Top 9 contestants from 25 February to 4 April. Whilst on the tour, Misha B spent time working on her first mixtape, Why Hello World, mixed by DJ Stylus and released for free download on 27 April. The following week it became BBC Radio 1Xtra's mixtape of the week. The mixtape features a collection of original material including samples of original songs – "Big Dreaming", "Last Forever" and "Home Run" (plus covers of "Rolling in the Deep", "Mirror", "Unpretty", "Run the World", "Crew Love" and "Climax"). The mixtape received positive reviews and gained over 16,000 downloads and 25,000 streams.

Her debut single "Home Run", co-written and produced by British songwriter MNEK, was released on 15 July by Relentless Records and charted at number 11 on the UK Singles Chart. The music video for the single which was directed by Rohan Blair-Mangat, premiered on 15 June. An accompanying EP was released, with remixes from artists including Kat Krazy and Zed Bias; and she recorded various performances of "Home Run", including an acoustic version for i-D magazine and for SB.TV on 11 July. Misha B performed "Home Run" at both the nominations and awards ceremony for the MOBO Awards. She also performed "Home Run" at the BBC 1Xtra Live 2012 concert at the Manchester Apollo, singing Adele's "Rolling in the Deep" and a new song "Runway"; duetting with Daley on his single Remember Me covering for Jessie J.

Misha B headlined Manchester Pride on 27 August with crowds of 150,000 to celebrate LGBT culture. 21 October to 7 November 2012, Misha B toured as Nicki Minaj's support act on the United Kingdom leg of the Pink Friday: Reloaded Tour.

Her second single, "Do You Think of Me", co-written by herself, Ayak Thiik and TMS and co-produced by herself and TMS, was released on 4 November, and the music video was released on 8 October. "Do You Think of Me" peaked at number 9 on the UK Singles Chart on 11 November. The Official Charts Company recorded that the single reached numbers 3 and 2 on their 1Xtra Singles Top 40 chart and VH1 Urban Chart Top 20, respectively on 10 November. In October, performed an acoustic version for Trevor Nelson's 1Xtra Live Lounge, plus a cover of Labrinth and Emeli Sande's "Beneath Your Beautiful". Misha B also performed an acoustic cover for MSN, plus a Halloween-themed acoustic cover of Michael Jackson's Thriller.

"Ride or Die", the B-side to Angel's "Time After Time", featured Misha B and was released on 29 November, with a music video published a week later on 6 December. The track was composed by Misha B, Sirach Charles (Angel) and Kassa Alexander. 4music described their joint work as "pretty impressive, pretty soulful and pretty darn emotional too!"

Knock Knock

In January 2013, Misha B headlined the half-time show for the American National Basketball Association (NBA) game between the Detroit Pistons and New York Knicks in London. "Here's to Everything (Ooh La La)" was premiered on The Hits Radio in February. A lyric video and an official video followed in February and March, respectively. On 12 February, she released her second mixtape, Knock Knock, which contained six snippets of original songs (including "Here's To Everything", "Alien Avenue / I Need a Dollar", "Ugly Love" and "Silent Cry") and two covers Otis Redding's "Respect" and an a cappella version of American girl-group SWV's song "Weak".

During 2013, Misha B performed at various locations including Clyde Auditorium, the farewell party for Lord Mayor Gavin Robinson and the JLS Foundation and Cancer Research UK fundraiser in London.^{[citation needed]} She also performed her first non-European gig at the NRJ Music Tour 2013 in Beirut, Lebanon. She continued performing, including at the Yahoo Wireless Festival, V Festival and Manchester Pride Festival. On 10 August, she sang the National Anthem at Wembley Stadium for the annual FA Community Shield fixture.

On 21 August Misha released a free freestyle rap called "MishStyle". that revisited her "fiery" rap roots, while "proudly showcasing her versatility". In September, Misha B joined Krept and Konan in an acoustic session for SBTV of their "disturbingly evocative" autobiographical rap "My Story" from their UK top ten album charting "Young Kingz" mixtape. On 25 July 2013, her second single "Do You Think of Me" was included in The X Factor's "ultimate mash-up" (a video trailer for the show's tenth series) of tracks by 13 former contestants chosen to represent a decade of The X Factor's influence on the UK charts, and her first two singles were included on The X Factor - The Greatest Hits compilation. Autumn 2013 she released a video of a jam session of herself and some of her 'BombSquad' performing "Swimming Pools (Drank)" by Kendrick Lamar, and in an interview with on BBC 1xtra Misha B informed CJ Beatz that intended to release her debut album after her fourth official single release. For the delayed album she has collaborated with Emeli Sandé, MNEK, Mr Hudson, TMS, Cutfather and Naughty Boy.

On 4 March 2014 Misha B announced that she had left her old label and that she had set up her own label and brand, Emboom, under which intends to release her music, and in the future sign other acts and diversify. On 1 April 2014 Misha B released an original track called "Where Did We Go" from her forthcoming EP on SoundCloud. During the summer of 2014 Misha B appeared at Rock Assembly in Wembley arena.

Discography

Mixtapes

Title	Details
Why Hello World	Release date: 27 April 2012 Label: Relentless Formats: digital download
Knock Knock	Release date: 12 February 2013 Label: Relentless Formats: digital download

Singles

Title	Year	Peak chart positions
		UK	UK R&B	IRE	SCO
"Home Run"	2012	11	2	46	13
"Do You Think of Me?"		9	1	57	11
"Here's to Everything (Ooh La La)"	2013	35	7	—	36
"Rosa Parks Flow"	2018	—	—	—	—
"Letter to my Sistars"	2019	—	—	—	—
"—" denotes single that did not chart or were not released.

Promotional singles

List of featured singles

Single	Year
"For Love"	2014
"Herbal Tea"	2019

As featured artist

Single	Year	Peak chart positions			Note
		UK	IRL	SCO
"Wishing on a Star" (as part of The X Factor finalists 2011 featuring JLS and One Direction)	2011	1	1	1	Charity single
"Ride or Die" (Angel featuring Misha B)	2012	—	—	—	Time After Time (Remixes) – EP
"Floodgates (Part 2)" (Charlie Brown featuring Misha B)	2013	—	—	—	Floodgates (Remixes) – EP
The Ultimate X Factor Mash Up (featuring Misha B)	2013	—	—	—	–
"—" denotes single that did not chart or were not released.

Music videos

Song	Year	Director(s)
"Wishing on a Star"	2011
"F64"		Jamal Edwards
"Home Run"	2012	Rohan Blair-Mangat
"Do You Think of Me?"		Ben And Nicole
"Ride or Die" (Angel featuring Misha B)		Adam Deacon & Paul Akinrinlola
"Started From The Bottom (Drake Cover)"	2013	Joshua Reeves
"Here's to Everything (Ooh La La)"		Justin Dickel

Trivia

• In Week 4, Sophie Habibis received more votes than Misha B which meant if the result went to deadlock, Habibis would have been saved.
• In Week 6, Kitty Brucknell received more votes than Misha B which meant if the result went to deadlock, Brucknell would have been saved.
• In the quarter-final, Janet Devlin received more public votes than Misha B. This meant that if the result went to deadlock, Devlin would have advanced to the semi-final and Misha B would have been eliminated.