g3, July 2008 | www.g3mag.co.uk

Sharleen Spiteri on whether she’s snogged a girl and her adoration for her lesbian fans

After 15 platinum discs and 13 top ten hits as Texas frontwoman, Sharleen Spiteri is going it alone. Charlotte Dingle catches up with the gorgeous Glaswegian prior to the release of her debut solo album Melody on 14 July.

Texas first hit the UK charts with jangly rock anthem I Don’t Want A Lover. Now, almost 20 years later, and with a trail of subsequent hits in the band’s wake, lead singer Sharleen Spiteri has decided to go solo. “I’d been asked to do solo stuff several times before by my record company,” she says, “but in the end I decided to do it off my own back, when the time was absolutely right for me.”

With her outspoken ways and sometimes androgynous style, it’s no surprise that the woman who provided the theme tune to Ellen has a large lesbian fanbase. In common with other (more or less) heterosexual lesbian icons such as Madonna, Pink, and Elastica’s Justine Frischmann, Spiteri seems to have bypassed any need for real gay girl credentials, appealing to lesbian audiences on the basis of power, talent, idiosyncrasy and sex appeal alone.

Her outfits span the spectrum from super-femme to real boyish chic. “I’ve kinda played with my look really,” Spiteri says, “you know, one minute you’ll see me in a dress and high heels – and then you’ll see me in a pair of army trousers.” The cover of Texas’s hit album White on Blonde, in which Spiteri’s face is covered and only a hand and her eyes are visible, is apparently inspired by a photograph of James Dean. It doesn’t stop there though. Spiteri seems to have something of a penchant for playing the drag king. She has also been seen sporting a sailor suit, dressing up in Richard Gere’s role from An Officer and a Gentleman, and also, – the one which sticks in everyone’s memory – in the role of Elvis for the video to Inner Smile.

Spiteri is keen to express her appreciation of the women who buy her music: “To me the biggest compliment that you can be paid is one paid to you by another woman. It doesn’t matter if you’re lesbian or not. To be respected by another woman is a big deal to me, because I think they really can see the wood for the trees”.

The singer’s bold attitude is undoubtedly another factor in her earning the gay vote. She’s a strong role model who, in turn, cites a lot of other strong women as being her own inspiration. “I love women like Katherine Hepburn, Anne Bancroft, Anne Margaret, Nancy Sinatra…” she says. “I mean, Nancy Sinatra is a real gay icon. Songs like These Boots Are Made For Walking are really popular with the gay community. I think gay people go for really strong, upfront records because a lot of them have had to live their life in that way.”

As well as playing at London Pride in 1997, Spiteri has also been on stage at G.A.Y a number of times. “My gay audience allows me a lot of freedom” she says, “I always feel a bit braver about expressing myself in front of them. Sometimes I don’t get to show that side, but with my gay audiences, the more outrageous the better”.

Despite her devoted lesbian following, Spiteri doesn’t seem to have dabbled herself. Asked if she’d ever feel compelled to indulge in one of those papbaiting girl-on-girl kisses so popular in celeb-land, she coyly replies: “Well, you wouldn’t get me all over gossip mags snogging anyone, male or female, if I could help it! The only time I’ve ever been caught kissing a woman is when I was kissing myself [dressed as Elvis] in the Inner Smile video!” Frankly, who could blame her for such flagrant narcissism?

So, what does the future hold for her? Spiteri seems excited to discover what kind of reception Melody will receive. “People are really surprised about how different the album sounds to Texas stuff”, she says. “There are influences I’ve been able to explore on this album which never really fitted into Texas. Texas were a guitar-based band, kinda in-your-face, whereas this is more about the intimacy of the vocals. It’s perhaps a more feminine sound… and because I produced the album myself, it was made very differently to how a Texas album was made.”

“I’m hoping that people who weren’t even really Texas fans will listen to Melody, and that I’ll cultivate a whole new fanbase.” It seems Spiteri’s vision of the future is a rosy one – and rightly so.