Nice one sister

ROWETTA didn't win The X Factor TV talent show, but still achieved her ambition.

"I wanted to be the last woman left, which I was,"

she says. That took some doing because of the strength of the male singers who threatened to overshadow the women. "The boys had a great following. I got a great gay following, but a lot of gay men aren't at home on a Saturday night and didn't vote.

I wasn't disappointed, I think my family and friends were more disappointed with the result," she says.

In her late 30s, she was one of the more mature contestants. "In my eyes I thought I'd won because I was the best woman. That was winning enough for me," she says.

She wasn't exactly a newcomer on the music scene when she entered, having worked as a backing singer. She was a vocalist on Simply Red's album, Stars, and worked extensively as a singer with Manchester band Happy Mondays.

What The X Factor did was raise her profile and make her more recognisable.

"Every time I go out the door, people come up and say you should have won X Factor', or are you that mad one from X Factor?'. I think that will probably go down on my tombstone," says Rowetta.

The exposure has brought her different kinds of work too, like current project The Songs Of Sister Act which teams her with Sheila Ferguson, the former Three Degrees singer and I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here contestant, and the London Community Gospel Choir.

The gospel show, as the title suggests, features songs from the Sister Act films that starred Whoopi Goldberg. It means getting into new habits for Sister Rowetta - and ones to which she's looking forward.

"Sometimes when you have to talk about stuff, you're not really excited. When we were doing The X-Factor tour, I wasn't very excited because the production was very structured and we were promoting the TV show," she says.

The Songs Of Sister Act, on the other hand, is a project with which she's more than happy to be associated. "We're doing the songs from the films with only a small amount of dialogue. There were so many songs that rather than push any of the good ones out, we're keeping talk to a minimum,"

she says.

"I'm really looking forward to it because a lot of the audience will be dressed up as nuns as well."

She's also happy with the choice of songs she's been given, which include I Will Follow Him and the Sister Act version of My Guy called My God. "The producers have chosen the songs they think are good for me," she says.

She adds that she might not only be a singing nun, but also a dancing nun, although she admits that dancing isn't her strong point. "I'm going to give it a go, perhaps hip hop dancing in my nun's habit,"

she laughs. She previously worked for the producers on a Best Of Broadway show with ex-Coronation Street actress Suranne Jones, followed by Christmas On Broadway at the O2 Arena in London with Stephen Gateley, Marti Webb and Maria Friedman.

The Sister Act tour kicks off seven onenight stands in York, a city Rowetta knows from her childhood. Her Aunt married a Yorkshireman and moved to the county, so she recalls spending summers there.

SHE competed in The X Factor in 2004.

Does it seem a long time ago now?, I wonder. "It does and it doesn't. It doesn't seem that long since I was on Top Of The Pops with the Happy Mondays," she replies.

Rowetta has always sung but thinks that her mum wanted bigger things for her than she did herself. "I just enjoyed singing. I'm not against ambition in people, I've just never wanted to take over the world," she says.

"When I was young I wanted to be a punk rock singer. I joined Happy Mondays and didn't want to move away from Manchester.

And I had children very young and all those things affect how ambitious you become."

The fact that her children had grown up - they're 23 and 24 now - was another reason she felt able to enter The X-Factor. Neither of them has opted for a career in music. Her daughter is studying performing arts and politics.

"She loved that I entered X Factor and came every week, but she'd never put herself through the humiliation," she adds.

Her son is more into hip hop than her style of singing.

Her favourite moment of the whole X Factor experience was singing on the live Children In Need programme. "I was honoured to be asked, I just loved it because I've watched Children In Need for years.

That's my proudest and most enjoyable moment, that and performing live at festivals going on after Girls Aloud or before Charlotte Church.

"At my age it's fabulous just to have the chance to do it and I've had a great response. I'm trying to tick off as many boxes as I can," says Rowetta.

She's been offered and turned down other reality shows. "Unless you're really desperate for the money or the fame, you should stay away. Unless, perhaps, it's about singing or something," she says.

She released an album in the wake of The X Factor although you gather it wasn't entirely to her taste. "It was very much the record company choosing the songs, I was allowed to write a few. It wasn't the album I wanted to make, but was good for people who liked me on XFactor," she says.

* The Songs Of Sister Act is at York Grand Opera House on February 1 (Box Office: 0844-8472322) and Sunderland Empire on February 10 (0844-8472499)