TEXAS STAR HITS OUT AT LIP SERVICE ON MUSIC ‘LEVELLING UP’ Sharleen’s spitting mad over equality
Frontwoman recalls record bosses telling her she’d only make it solo
TEXAS frontwoman Sharleen Spiteri has slammed talk of the music industry levelling up and equality for women as “bulls***” revealing she was told to ditch her band and go solo if she ever wanted recognition from an awards ceremony.
The Scot, who has penned hits including I Don’t Want A Lover and Say What You Want, has been in the business for 30 years and sold more than 40million records across 10 albums.
Texas’ latest album Hi has hit No 3 in the Official Charts and Sharleen said: “I don’t think things are more equal for women in any industry – it’s all bulls*** – everyone’s talking a good talk.
“Ninety-five per cent of men are absolutely brilliant and they speak out when someone is being wrongly bullied or whatever the situation is but that five per cent are still lurking in the background, only further back because they have to watch their p’s and q’s.”
Powerhouse Sharleen is an ambassador for tomorrow’s National Album Day, which this year is celebrating Women in Music.
“It’s very hard to blow your own trumpet because you sound like an a ****** but I absolutely don’t get the same respect,” said Sharleen. “I sometimes look at my band and think, ‘I’m sorry you’re in a female-fronted band.’
“When your record company has said to you – and the words were, ‘You’ll never win an award as a band but you could win it as female vocalist’ – I’m like, ‘Why?’
“Johnny (McElhone) and I formed Texas because I wanted to be in a band.
“The general public are those that matter. I have a great lifestyle and am very lucky to do the job that I do but I still fight day in and out.” As Adele gears up to release her fourth album, Sharleen, 53, praises her for admitting it’s inspired by her divorce and says women should not be judged by their body image or painted as “angry women” for unleashing their truth.
She said: “Adele is an incredible songwriter. She’ll have written about getting her head into a place that made her think, ‘I’m going to lose weight and live a different life’.
“As women we make those choices – that’s what she’s got to write about, that’s her life. Some of the greatest records ever made are break-up albums, look at Fleetwood Mac.
Women say it how it is and some men will hide and be too embarrassed to say, ‘I wrote a break-up record.’”
Praising Glastonbury for giving Bond theme song singer Billie Eilish a headline slot at next year’s festival, Sharleen hopes more festivals will follow suit and make their line-ups more diverse.
She added: “Billie Eilish will pull a giant crowd and sell s***loads of tickets – she’s rightfully there.
“I don’t think they booked her because they thought, ‘We need to put a woman on.’ That’s not what Emily A Eavis is about.” fter research found the pandemic adversely affected women more than men, when the majority took on the roles of home schooling along with their paid jobs, Sharleen believes it proved mums aren’t a disadvantage in the workplace but rather assets due to their multi-tasking skills.
She said: “Sometimes I think I’m a f ****** genius because I go on tour and my mind still manages to put things in place to run the whole house when I’m not there. I’m not watering everything down because I’ve got so much to think about, I’m actually magnificent because I’m making it all happen. As women it’s in our DNA.”
And in light of the murder of marketing executive Sarah Everard,
Sharleen wants to see more done to protect women. She said: “We have to be careful about young men as well because there’s so much violence against them but I have a 19-year-old daughter and there needs to be massive change within the law. There’s a lot of bad people out there.”
“(Harvey) Weinstein being put in prison is a fantastic result but it’s an absolute disgrace that these things happened in the first place.
“Round of applause because you put a rapist in prison.
“Shame it took so many years when many people spoke about it and were silenced and buried.”
SHARLEEN Spiteri is an ambassador for this year’s National Album Day tomorrow celebrating Women in Music. See nationalalbumday. co.uk for information. Tickets on sale at gigsandtours.com for the Texas 2022 UK tour. Their new album Hi is out now featuring single Unbelievable.