Episode 89: Siobhán Donaghy
Spinning Plates with Sophie Ellis-Bextor
Kat Rulach
4.8 • 527 Ratings
🗓️ 6 March 2023
⏱️ 65 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Siobhán Donaghy is a singer songwriter best known as one of the Sugababes. The Sugababes have now reformed in their original line-up and last year wowed Glastonbury to the extent they had to close the field they were performing to, because so many people wanted to get to see them - shows just how delighted people are to have the band back together.
Siobhán signed her first record deal at the incredibly young age of 14, and told me how her mum and dad agreed to put their house on the line for her career. They had huge success as the Sugababes, but also some very turbulent times.
Siobhán shared with me that she suffered absolutely crippling stage fright and panic attacks back then, and up until the point she became a mum. Having children has made her much less anxious on stage. To the extent that it was only half way through our chat that Siobhan casually mentioned they'd been performing at Wembley stadium the night before!
Siobhán has a little boy aged 5 and a little girl born just after the first lockdown, aged 2. We talked about the pros and cons of taking your own children to your gigs when you are performing. Let's say she's had a better reaction from her little boy's first gig recently, than I have had over quite a few years with mine!
We agreed that performing on stage now can feel way less stressful than being at home with the kids... and as if to test that theory out, the Sugababes will be performing at the O2 on 15th September 2023!
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 Lysbexter and welcome to Spinning Plates, the podcast where I speak to |
| 0:09.6 | to busy working women who also happen to be mothers about how they make it work. |
| 0:14.1 | 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. |
| 0:22.6 | Being a mother can be the most amazing thing, |
| 0:24.6 | it can also be hard to find time for yourself and your own ambitions. |
| 0:28.6 | I want to be a bit nosy and see how other people balance everything. |
| 0:31.6 | Welcome to spinning plates. |
| 0:36.6 | Hello, my darlings and greetings from Hamburg. |
| 0:40.3 | You've found me on tour. I'm on my European tour. |
| 0:45.3 | I'm on the second of my three German dates today. |
| 0:49.3 | So yesterday I was in Cologne. |
| 0:51.3 | Tomorrow I'm in Berlin. |
| 0:52.3 | I've been to Hamburg, I've been to Brussels, I've been to |
| 0:55.5 | Paris, it's been really fun. And I did record you a message actually yesterday from Cologne, |
| 1:01.5 | but I sounded so awful that I thought I'd re-record it here in Hamburg. You can probably still |
| 1:07.3 | hear, I'm struggling a little bit,'ve got um one of those really nasty cough |
| 1:11.7 | colds proper kind of everything coughing sore throat fever sinus pain like the works real doozy |
| 1:22.8 | ever cold um but you know what they say the show must go on and it started after amsterdam so I took it very |
| 1:31.9 | very easy on my day off in Cologne and then I did the gig yesterday and I spoke to my mum during the |
| 1:37.6 | day and she gave me lots of advice and one of the things she always talks about is something called |
| 1:43.4 | doctor theatre so doctor theatre is basically the adrenaline of the things she always talks about is something called Dr. Theatre. |
... |
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