Cher Lloyd is a self-confessed loner and says she's lost all her friends since The X Factor.

"(I'm a) Billy no mates," revealed Cher.

"I don't have one single school friend left.

"Of course it's partly my fault, but I think people change around you."

Cher's debut single 'Swagger Jagger' could be headed for the No. 1 spot this weekend after charting in second place last Sunday.

But Cher blames losing her old mates on this new-found success.

"I wanted to be the big famous 'look at me everybody'," the Sun report Cher saying.

"But now that's beginning to happen I don't feel like I've changed but the people around me have."

Music Week's Stephen Jones talks to the X Factor star as she prepares for release of debut album.

AFTER you left X Factor last year how did things unfold in terms of knowing you wanted to get an album out and signing a deal with Syco Music to make this album?

It was a great opportunity for me to get a deal with Syco. I always wanted to get my music out there and I have a label and team that believe in me. I get to have say in the music direction too which I think was really important for me.

There were rumours of you signing with all kinds of other labels at the time, did you have other options to sign with other and what made you want to make a record with Syco?

I don’t really know to be honest. I was seeing all these stories flying about, but I am very happy to be with Syco.

How did you go about making this record?

As soon as I finished the X Factor I flew out to the States and started recording. I told them what I liked and what I didn’t like and they let me be the artist I wanted to be. The producers and writers I worked with were brilliant and totally got...

Cher Lloyd's eyes flash defiance, although a smile plays across her lips. "I didn't listen to Girls Aloud growing up, no way," she says scornfully. "Too cheesy, man! I listened to grime, garage, bashment." Then she bursts out laughing, one of the few times she seems to relax, knowing how ironic her comments sound.

This time last year, Lloyd's name was known only to those residents of her home town who had noticed the teenager with what she describes as the "quirky clothes and ever-changing hairstyle", as well as the producers and judges of The X Factor (including her soon-to-be mentor Cheryl Cole, formerly of Girls Aloud). Lloyd had been abroad just once, for a two-day holiday in the Canary Islands, and lived with her parents and three siblings in a council house in Malvern, Worcestershire. Now, on the brink of her 18th birthday, having spent much of the year in America working with some of the world's most in-demand songwriters and producers, she is preparing to release Swagger Jagger, a debut single that has received more than 5m YouTube views in less than a month.