Red carpet lifestyle: Dizzee Rascal

Dizzee Rascal didn’t allow himself to think how many people were watching him at the Olympics opening ceremony.

The rapper performed his song ‘Bonkers’ at the starting event for the London 2012 games, but concentrated on the people in front of him, rather than thinking about the estimated one billion worldwide TV audience.

He told TV show BBC Breakfast: “I wasn’t thinking about the billion people. To me, I wasn’t even thinking about the people around me in the stadium too much.

“I kind of knew I was performing to the dancers, because they had so much energy, and so much positivity, so I was kind of performing to them. And that just kind of made it easier.”

Dizzee - who was brought up on an estate near where the Olympic stadium is located - has released a new track for the occasion, ‘Scream’, which carries a positive message, but also social commentary.

Lyrics include: “And where I come from is overly rotten /I’m from the east side I aint forgotten / But it’s bigger than that / Worldwide peoples’ living is whack /It’s bigger than grime and bigger than rap / People living in crap.”