Woman Alive deputy editor, Jemimah Wright looks at the N-Dubz star’s path from Catholic devotion to spirituality, and shines a light on our culture’s hunger for meaning, and the deeper hope found in a God who calls us by name.
Tula Paulinea Contostavlos, better known as Tulisa, was recently interviewed on Davina McCall’s podcast Begin Again. As I listened, I was struck by how much she mentioned the importance of her spirituality, so I took a look into the faith background of the singer.
Tulisa is the Camden-born singer, songwriter, rapper and television personality who first rose to fame as one-third of the award-winning hip-hop trio N-Dubz, alongside her cousin, Dappy and friend, Fazer. Together, they achieved multiple platinum albums, MOBO victories, and chart-topping hits that defined UK urban pop in the late 2000s.
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She grew up in a Greek-Cypriot and Irish household and was raised Catholic. In a 2014 Daily Telegraph interview, Tulisa described how she still slips into church when it’s empty to pray: “I wait until it is completely empty and light candles. … I always go to Mother Mary, on the left-hand side, and I just sit there for half an hour and pray.”
That same year, while facing a collapsed drug trial, she told The Guardian: “I’m very religious and I kept saying, God won’t forsake me.
That same year, while facing a collapsed drug trial, she told The Guardian: “I’m very religious and I kept saying, God won’t forsake me. I prayed at least three times a day on a good day. On a bad day, all day. … I don’t think anybody’s made the sign of the cross as many times in one year. I said a prayer for him too.”
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In 2011, at the age of 22, Tulisa shattered records by becoming the youngest-ever judge on The X Factor UK. In 2012, she faced a deeply traumatic sex-tape scandal, followed in 2013 by a notorious drug sting operation, of which she spoke of in detail with Davina, orchestrated by the tabloid “fake sheikh” Mazher Mahmood. Tulisa was arrested on suspicion of arranging an £800 cocaine deal, but the charges were later dropped when the judge ruled that Mahmood had lied under oath and manipulated evidence, calling the entire case an entrapment.
Fast-forward to August 2025, now 36, Tulisa spoke with Davina about being a very ‘spiritual’ person,
Fast-forward to August 2025, now 37, Tulisa spoke with Davina about being a very ‘spiritual’ person, describing how she found “strength, purpose, and spirituality to rebuild” after reaching “the edge” through the heartbreak, shame, and betrayal of her arrest. She revisits the shock of becoming an X Factor judge so young and touches on how she consciously manifested that role, envisioning it into reality before it happened.
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In an age where many are wounded by hypocrisy in the Church, Tulisa is not alone is calling herself ‘spiritual’, not religious. At first glance, this feels freeing. It offers comfort without commitment, transcendence without accountability, a sense of the divine without the challenge of meeting him face-to-face.
Vague spirituality is attractive because it’s custom-built. You can pick the parts you like, inner peace, positive energy, a belief that “the universe” is on your side, and leave out the parts that call for repentance, sacrifice, or obedience. It’s like designing a faith buffet: all dessert, no vegetables.
But that very flexibility is also the danger. A nebulous spirituality has no anchor. It can’t tell you who God truly is, only that something “out there” might be listening. It promises comfort but not rescue; guidance but not transformation. The “universe” cannot love you, forgive you, or call you by name, it cannot meet you in your darkest hour the way a personal God can.
Christianity, by contrast, names God as Father, reveals his character in Jesus, and anchors faith in a real relationship rather than shifting feelings. That makes it less convenient, certainly, but infinitely more solid. Where vague spirituality whispers, “You’re fine as you are,” Christ says, “You’re loved as you are, but I will make you new.”
People are drawn to “spirituality” because they sense they are more than flesh and bone. But unless that longing is met by the living God, it drifts endlessly, chasing signs, energy, and manifesting techniques, while missing the One who made the stars they wish upon. True spirituality is not a misty force. It’s a Person, who speaks, forgives, and loves us into life.
Tulisa is very aware of a ‘higher power’, but she is now calling it the ’universe’ and not the God who loved her as a child still loves her now, guiding her through every season of life, let’s pray she finds her way back to Jesus.
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