GETTING a grip on the songs of Rod Stewart for the musical based on his hits was plain sailing for Jade Ewen.

Mind you, she is used to picking things up quickly – in 2009, she found herself being flown to LA and three days later in a music video with her new bandmates the Sugababes.

The 26-year-old said: “It all happened so quickly. Most of the time if you get a record deal, you spend a year recording and developing before you bring out any music and by that point you are prepared for it.

“For me, it went from nothing to everything in a matter of days. It was really strange.”

East Londoner Jade is currently on stage in the Ben Elton-penned Tonight’s the Night, which comes to the Churchill Theatre from April 14 to 19, and said she found it easy to pick up the songs.

She said: “You don’t realise how much you know. You subconsciously absorb them because they are in the background of your life, like in adverts.

“I didn’t even realise how much I knew until we were in rehearsals.”

After she finished with Tonight’s the Night, Jade has another as-yet-under-wraps stage show on the way.

She confesses that the Sugababes – who were plagued with line-up changes in their 13 years – are probably over though she is working on solo material.

She said: “I think, for now, it is the last of the Sugababes – but you can’t say anything for definite.

“It’s not like we can’t stand each other, it has just run its course.

“There was so much drama – the old line-up trying to reform – that the music got lost.”

Both Jade and her fellow Sugababes alumni Heidi Range have taken to the stage post-pop and Jade said she would work with her former bandmate in the unlikely event they were cast together.

She said: “That would be really fun. I can’t imagine what we would do but I’m sure there is something out there.”

Tonight the Night has been touring since January and Jade said she has yet to meet the man behind the music.

She said: “I haven’t met Rod Stewart, but apparently he might be coming down for a show so hopefully we’ll meet him then.

“I think I would rather not know he’s there. I’d prefer to sing and then find out afterwards that he was watching.”

Despite admitting to nerves, they can’t be a patch on when she represented the United Kingdom at the Eurovision song contest in front of a global audience of 123 million in 2009.

She said: “It’s massive pressure but such and adrenaline rush when you have finished. It is the most nervous I have ever been.

“Because that was one of my first experiences, it makes everything else seem pretty easy in comparison.”

Jade Ewen stars in Tonight’s the Night at the Churchill Theatre in Bromley from April 14 to 19. Go to atgtickets.com/Bromley