Heartbroken Tulisa pulls out of rare performance as famous dad dies
A grieving Tulisa Contostavlos has pulled out of performing at a Pride event following the death of her beloved dad Steve. The N-Dubz star shared the sad news with her fans earlier this week as she paid an emotional tribute.
She shared a childhood picture of her cuddling up to the keyboard player, who went by the name of Plato, and wrote: "Love you pops, rest in peace. Forever my father's daughter." N-Dubz bandmate and cousin Dappy also shared a clip of himself with his uncle alongside a white dove emoji.
Tulisa posted a broken heart emoji on the post, with Dappy responding to her: "I'm so sorry T." The singer was due to perform on Saturday at The Grand Clapham as part of the Pride celebrations.
However, understandably she will now not be taking part in the event as she steps away from work commitments to grieve. The venue gave an update to fans as they said: "Pride update.
"We are sorry to announce that due to a family bereavement, Tulisa will understandably no longer be joining us for our Pride After Party on Saturday."
They added: "We are sending Tulisa & her family all of our love. We'll be announce a new special guest later today, keep an eye out!" Last year, I'm A Celebrity star Tulisa opened up about her 'unconventional relationship' with her dad, Steve.
She said on Paul Brunson's podcast We Need To Talk: 'Me and my dad's relationship has not been a conventional one. I would say me and my dad now we're just more friends that kind of have an understanding of one another."
Steve had his own successful music career as the keyboardist for Mungo Jerry. Mungo Jerry was largely successful in the 70s after landing number one hit In The Summertime, with Plato playing on the keyboard.
Music runs in her family as Steve's brother Byron - who is the father of her cousin and fellow N-Dubz star Dappy - played bass guitar in the group.
Tulisa explained on the Happy Place podcast: "My dad had a little studio in Dollis Hill and he used to bring me there sometimes when he was working. He put me on the mic at the age of five. I was singing Little Mermaid.
"I just knew there was nothing else I felt passionate about." Steve once candidly discussed how he taught Tulisa to stand up for herself after getting relentlessly bullied at school over her mum's mental health.
Her mum, Ann, suffered from schizophrenia, which saw her in and out of hospital, leaving her unable to look after herself, let alone her daughter. Children in her class began to tease Tulisa about her mother's condition.
Steve told the Sunday Mirror in 2012: "My daughter was horribly bullied. It was awful. Children would scream, 'Your mum's a loony'. Tulisa was about five years old when it first started. She would come home crying all the time.
"In the end I had to tell her, 'I can't go and sort this problem out for you. This is the kind of thing you are going to face in life and you have to stand up for yourself'."
He explained: "Then one day when she was about seven, after I had trained her for about six months, she came back from school and said, 'Dad I knocked one of them out. You were right Dad, I did it'. It had to be done, the misery that child went through at school was unbelievable. Every time she went in she was terrified."
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2 hours ago
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