Denise Van Outen grappled with ‘imposter syndrome’ due to her being friends with the Spice Girls
Denise Van Outen grappled with "imposter syndrome" with her singing because she was friends with pop icons like the Spice Girls.
Denise Van Outen suffered with “imposter syndrome” over her singing due to being friends with the Spice Girls.
The 51-year-old singer and actress admitted she had not enjoyed performing as much as she does now because she constantly compared herself to her popstar friends.
Speaking on Giovanna Fletcher’s Happy Mum Happy Baby podcast, she said: “I was friends with the All Saints girls, you know, Emma Bunton, the Spice Girls, Louise. You know, so they were all singers.
“I knew my voice wasn’t like a pop voice. It was very much a musical theatre, classical sort of trained voice. So I would always sing a little bit and then go a little bit quiet because they’d all be riffing and doing all this pop stuff.
“So, I’ve always had a bit of imposter syndrome.”
This comes after Denise reflected on the highs and lows of her career.
Speaking with the Daily Mirror newspaper, she said: “I did the film Run For Your Wife with Danny Dyer and Sarah Harding. It was truly terrible.
“The premiere was in the Odeon [cinema] in Leicester Square. The film finished it was deadly silent, it was so bad.”
The West End star also noted the Channel 4 show Something For The Weekend - which was a late-night programme based on sex - “took her out of the running for a lot of prime-time shows”.
She added: “It wouldn’t have the same shock value today, but then it would have been the equivalent to Naked Attraction.”
Denise explained she “had to almost reinvent [herself] after that”, and so returned to theatre with the 2001 West End production of Chicago, before taking it on the road to Broadway.
The actress said the show was “the biggest distraction” for her, as she had just gone through a public break-up with Jamiroquai’s Jay Kay.
She said: “I’d gone through a very public break-up with Jay. It was a difficult time and it was the biggest distraction. It was great for me, personally and professionally.”
Reflecting on the resilience she has developed across her career, Denise said she wished she did not “wallow in break-ups for too long”.
She added: “In hindsight, all those experiences led to something better. Like Chicago! Something always opens new doors, or introduces me to new friends.”
