Episode 156: Cathy Dennis
Spinning Plates with Sophie Ellis-Bextor
Kat Rulach
4.8 • 527 Ratings
🗓️ 2 June 2025
⏱️ 78 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Cathy Dennis is a singer and a songwriter. I have been a huge fan of hers for years both through her solo music career and I’ve been lucky enough to write with her and get to know over the years. She is a true talent and a champion for music and creativity.
She had a successful solo career in the early 90s, and then changed to songwriting in the 2000s, including writing Kylie’s ‘Can’t Get You Out of My Head’, Britney’s ‘Toxic’ and Katy Perry’s ‘I Kissed a Girl’.
Cathy told me how she was bullied at school, from the age of 7-12, and how that may have equipped her to be strong and tenacious enough to be a woman in the music industry.
She became a mum in 2004 (the same year I became a mum!) and found it a challenge to carry on with her career at that point but here she is, still writing and involved in music.
Cathy credits her son Seb with being her solace when she’s found her self on the ’nothing will ever be perfect’ train.
It was so gorgeous to talk to a friend who I admire and whose career is constantly evolving. A lovely conversation! X
Spinning Plates is presented by Sophie Ellis-Bextor, produced by Claire Jones and post-production by Richard Jones.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, I'm Sophia Lyspexter and welcome to Spinning Plates, the podcast where I speak to |
| 0:09.6 | busy working women who also happen to be mothers about how they make it work. |
| 0:14.0 | I'm a singer and I've released seven albums in between having my five sons aged 16 months to 16 years, |
| 0:20.2 | so I spin a few plates myself. |
| 0:22.3 | Being a mother can be the most amazing thing, |
| 0:24.9 | it can also be hard to find time for yourself |
| 0:26.8 | and your own ambitions. |
| 0:28.3 | I want to be a bit nosy and see how other people balance everything. |
| 0:32.0 | Welcome to spinning plates. |
| 0:34.2 | Hello, I'm in my dressing room. |
| 0:36.3 | I'm in Manchester. Where have I found you? I hope everything's right in your world. I am on stage in a couple of hours for... actually, I'm talking to you, I'm going to plug my rollers in. It's time. Yes, I'm on date... uh, eight tonight. Eight of 17, it's been going really well. The tour is really, like, bedded in now, as it always does. And it's really, yeah, found its feet. It's feeling really nice and comfy, which means you can also start to have more fun on stage because you sort of trust in the process. The crowds have been absolutely brilliant. The last one we did was in Liverpool. Oh, the Philharmonic, what a beautiful venue. And it was sold out, and the crowd was awesome.. But yeah, they've all been really fun. |
| 1:29.3 | Tonight I'm at the Apollo. |
| 1:30.3 | It's my first time playing here for a headline show |
| 1:33.3 | and it's a really beautiful inside. |
| 1:36.3 | Manchester is looking good. |
| 1:38.3 | The sun has been shining, sorry, it's me unzipping my roll as well. |
| 1:41.3 | Yeah, it's been really sunny and warm. |
| 1:43.3 | Yesterday we had a day off, |
| 1:45.5 | and actually it's our only day on the road |
| 1:47.7 | where we're all together |
| 1:51.0 | because all the remaining days off, |
| 1:52.9 | I'll be at home. |
... |
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