Tulisa Contostavlos has spoken of the excitement she felt while working on her new album, but misses working with her old band members.

Since mentoring Little Mix to victory on her first series of 'The X Factor' last year, the star, 24, has been busily working on her solo career.

Her first single 'Young' stormed the charts in May, while follow-up 'Live It Up' gave her a top 15 hit in September.

She described the experience of being in the studio while working on her debut album The Female boss as “exciting but nerve-wracking at the same time.”

She told Digital Spy: “I’ve been enjoying the freedom to be able to sing what I want, write what I want, and another part of me misses going through the motions whether they be up or down in a team and feeling it with two other people.

“It was a lot easier in the studio without them (N-Dubz) but that’s not to say it wasn’t as creative or fun. I still miss the boys.”

Speaking about the musical style on the album she added: “I just did what music I like and it turned out to be all different sounds and all diff styles. It’s music that I felt was me and what I represented.”

The singer said she was “excited” about releasing the song ‘Visa’ which “might be coming out as the fourth single” from the album.

“I’m excited about releasing Visa. When we released the snippets it was the most popular track,” she said.

Watch Tulisa talk about about this year's US 'X Factor' below: