Tulisa: profile - Telegraph The band, which also starred her cousin Dappy and their friend Fazer, formed in 2000 and released three studio albums before announcing their split in 2011. Tulisa went on to take up a role as a judge on The X Factor, alongside Louis Walsh, Kelly Rowland and Gary Barlow. She mentored the "Groups" category of the competition where her bands included Little Mix. The singers went on to become the most successful girl band in The X Factor history. Tulisa was born in Camden Town in 1988 and the songwriter endured a difficult childhood in part because her Irish mother, Anne, suffers from mental health problems. At the age of 14, with support from her uncle, N-Dubz's former manager, Byron Contostavlos, she enrolled at Haverstock Secondary School, Chalk Farm, and later attended Quintin Kynaston School in St John's Wood. Last year, the star featured in a documentary on mental illness entitled "Tulisa: My Mum and Me." In 2011 she confirmed she had started work on a solo album that will be released in May this year. The first single to be released from the album is expected to be called 'Young'. The promo video for the track was filmed in Miami and was produced by Richard 'Fazer' Rawson and written by Peter Ibsen, Ali Tennant and Fazer.