Reproduced from Scotsman 15 July, 1999

Don't worry - Cousins doesn't take her album title literally. The warning is borne from the fact that she is somewhat accident prone and when she appears, anything could happen.

She's had a run-in with the propeller of an aeroplane - which had German fans believing a bandage on your head was a new fashion craze - and enjoyed a less than glamorous entrance when she was appearing with pop star-turned-DJ Sash!

"I came running out on to the stage to make a big entrance, but I slipped and slid across the floor on my bum! It was so embarrassing," she says.

Hopefully nothing will go wrong tomorrow. But then, despite her accidents, things could hardly be going better for Cousins on the career front.

Since making her major breakthrough when she sang on the Sash! single, Mysterious Times, which reached number two in August last year, she has enjoyed her first major hit in her own right, Pray, which went Top 20 in November. She also contributed to the tribute single Thank Abba For The Music, which she performed at the 1999 Brit Awards with Cleopatra, BWitched, Billie and Steps.

It's not bad going for someone who only started singing by default. Born in a sleepy seaside town, blonde, hazel-eyed Tina was an extrovert child who grew into not a bad looking teenager. She started modelling in her late teens "mostly at fashion shows," and when she was 20, found herself in a Rolling Stones video.

But her modelling career took a radical change at a fashion show where the organisers had booked a singer who never arrived. The woman in charge went backstage in a panic and asked whether any of the models could sing. Cousins was game, and the only one confident enough to step forward. "I can't say I wasn't nervous. There were 1000 people out there!" But she came through and got a rousing reception. Her music career had begun.

After swapping the catwalk for the microphone she never looked back and began earning a living as a singer. Then fate took a hand. The small record label to which Cousins was signed had sent out tapes to various producers including PWL mogul, Pete Waterman.

Along with loads of other tapes, Cousins initially ended up in the bin without being listened to. By chance, someone at the studio saw her photograph sticking out of the bin and rescued the tape. On the strength of one play, Cousins won a vocal test at PWL studios and was snapped up.

"We needed someone who looked great enough to be a fantastic live act, but it was also crucial that she had a killer voice," says Waterman. "Tina was the only one for the job."

That was 1997. Since then, she has worked hard and built up a following with hundreds of live performances across Britain plus loads of TV and radio.

"Some nights, I've sung in four clubs in one night," she says, with no little pride.

But she is reaping the rewards from her hard work. She is just back from filming the Forever video in Tobago, where she spent a tortuous week exploring one of the world's most beautiful islands.

"It was the most wonderful place to make a video," she says. "I'd recommend it to anyone! It was a lot more fun than the Pray video which was shot in a freezing cold disused lighthouse in the North-East of England."