AlunaGeorge star Aluna Francis has claimed she was sexually assaulted by a music collaborator who tried to force her to perform oral sex on him.
The singer, who makes up the dance duo with George Reid, said she had thought she was established enough in the industry that this kind of thing would not happen to her.
Speaking on the BBC podcast The Next Episode, she said: “I feel like I have a radar for pervy guys and I thought I was at the stage of my career where I was untouchable.
“I had been around so many men and done lots of things, worn boys’ clothes, always shake your hand really strong, and I’m always so clear about how musically oriented I am.
“I had never slept with anyone in the whole industry, there are no rumours about me, so I thought I was untouchable.”
Francis said the man, who she did not name, was working with her on a song when she went back to his hotel room to charge her phone.
She added: “It was like I was in a room with a completely different person – his behaviour went from nought to 100 so I didn’t advocate for myself straight away, I didn’t just save myself immediately.”
She continued: “I tried to reason with him, I was like, ‘alright mate, calm down, take your hands out of my pants please’ and he thought it was a game, so everything that I did excited him more.”
Becoming audibly upset, Francis adds: “He crossed a line. The last thing that was happening before I got myself out of there was he pinned me down and he’d taken his trousers down and he was trying to put his dick in my mouth.
“So I wrestled him off, and he was still laughing ’cause he thought it was a game and that I was having a really fun time having a pretend rape situation.
“You would think that I understood how wrong this was straight away and I didn’t.
“And that’s why I think there’s so much shame about these kind of situations. ‘Am I that stupid? What is wrong with me? Why have I compartmentalised all of this just for my career? That’s madness.’ But musicians are crazy ambitious about getting their craft out there.”
Francis said she did not consider going to the police but asked if she talked to anyone about the alleged incident, she said: “I actually spoke to the guy himself and he did all his apologies and talked about how he was so incredibly sorry and: ‘This has never happened before’, and I thought I was OK, and I’m just so not.”