Tulisa Contostavlos is FHM’s Sexiest Woman of 2012: What Drove Winners to Top of List?

British glamour girl Tulisa Contostavlos has been voted the Sexiest Woman of 2012 by FHM and was presented the award at London's Proud Cabaret club.

"Thank you so much for voting for me. It's a true honour and definitely a lovely confidence boost. I'm proud of me and I am who I am. I know that I'm Marmite and I wouldn't want to be anything less or anything more, I'm just myself. The FHM shoot is without a doubt the sexiest thing I've ever done. I believe in embracing being sexy but I'm not one to agree with stripping off for the cameras, I like to be more subtle than that as these shots show. This is an award that will stay on the mantelpiece probably for the rest of my life," Contostavlos told Mail Online.

The Brit earlier turned down an offer to pose nude for Playboy, who'd offered her £250,000. Incidentally, Contostavlos has never posed naked for any shoot or purpose, except for the leaked sex tape that alleged to have featured her. As it turned out, since the leak of that tape, Contostavlos has remained rather prominently in the headlines (there was also that incident when she was caught with an adult toy in her bag at the airport).

Could it be that the chain of thoughts... the association of "sex" and therefore "sexy" with Contostavlos landed her FHM's prize?

British singer Cheryl Cole came in second and she too had stories of her and "sex", in the popular media, to thank. Cole was earlier mentioned in Simon Cowell's biography as someone Cowell had a physical crush on and much was spoken about their possible relationships.

Meanwhile, the third sexiest woman in the world - American singer Rihanna - also has widely popularised associations of sex to thank. Apparently, the Barbados born singer often takes to Twitter to post nude and semi-nude photographs of herself, to get over her own bodily insecurities.

The association does not stop with the top three.

If you look at the fourth place Rosie Jones's lingerie-modelling stunts and Katy Perry's often dubious choice of wardrobe and the near-inevitable results (the wardrobe malfunction at the ASCON Pop Awards comes to mind), there is a growing argument to be made for the connection between revealing dresses and the notion of "sexy".

Meanwhile, the other names in the top ten were models Keeley Hazell, Georgia Salpa and Emily Attack and actresses Megan Fox and Mila Kunis.

Salpa is a new entry to the list, while Perry and Fox dropped four and three places respectively, to place sixth and seventh. Kunis, meanwhile, jumped seven places to finish ninth and Attack rounded out the top ten.

Click here to see the full list.