LOUISE REDKNAPP’s fifth solo album Confessions is just six weeks away – with the brilliant single Borderline out now.
And as I sit down with the singer at her management’s offices in Shoreditch, East London, she can’t stop smiling.
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That’s despite getting stuck in traffic for an hour as she made her way from home in Surrey for our interview.
“Hands down, this is the best album I’ve ever made,” Louise tells me.
“When you’ve been in the industry as long as me, you’re still sort of fighting for people to go, ‘The album’s amazing’.
“To hear other people say it means a lot because you still want to be recognised for being a good artist.
Read more on Louise Redknapp
“You want perception to be, ‘You’re a good songwriter, you’re a good singer, you’re good at what you do’.
“I think, especially as a woman, it’s a fight to be listened to and a fight to be heard. I feel like what’s really nice is we’ve come into this era where authenticity as a woman is kind of allowed.
“You can say what you want to say, you can kind of be sassy, you can be confident, you can be a bit fearless, and you’re always going to get your haters, but actually, you know, people are there for it.”
Confessions is packed with tracks that make you want to dance, including Just Like That, Get Into It and It Ain’t Love.
And from the grin on her face, it is clear Louise had a lot of fun making this record.
“There are no ballads on Confessions,” she says. “The lyrics are really raw, really honest but not in a heartbroken way. It is me literally saying, ‘F**k it!’
Louise Redknapp says she felt ‘the lowest a human could get’ when she split from husband Jamie and ‘almost gave up’
“I just want to go and have fun, and be unapologetic about it.
“Like Borderline — it’s a big song. I can’t wait to get out and perform that live.”
For Confessions, which is out May 23, Louise teamed up with producer Jon Shave, who helped Charli XCX craft her award-winning sixth studio album Brat, and Kylie Minogue’s long-time producer Anya Jones. Their influences are clear to hear.
‘Sexy, cool songs’
“I like Sabrina Carpenter, Doja Cat and Charli too,” Louise says.
“Jon, Anya and I got on so well. We’d open our hearts and just talk.
“On the first day I worked with Jon I told him I wanted to make sexy, cool songs that I wanted to dance to.
“Get Into It was a song we created on our first day of working together. It came about because I love Janet Jackson and I asked Jon if we could sample Throb.
“I came in the next day and he’d made this absolute banger. But we ended up taking it out because both of us said, ‘I don’t think we need this any more’.
“Coming up with that song gave us the energy to write with a bit more sass. It was a bit more tongue in cheek.”
Lyrically, she wears her heart on her sleeve. Don’t Kill My Vibe, I tell Louise, sounds like a diary entry, with lyrics including: “At my lowest, music gave me options and confidence.”
Louise tells me: “That’s the heart one, right? I call that a love letter to myself. It’s more like poetry rather than song lyrics. It’s more of a conversation.
“Making music is my safe space. I’ve realised that by not doing music, I end up feeling a bit lost as to where I fit in.”
She first found fame with Eternal at the age of 16 and the band scored four Top Ten hits before Louise quit to go solo in 1995. That gave her a further nine Top Ten singles.
My biggest frustration is that no one sees the side of the ambition, the talent, the rawness of getting up on stage and what it really all means.
Louise Redknapp
Her debut album Naked was released in 1996 and peaked at No7 in the charts.
Woman In Me followed in 1997, with Elbow Beach in July 2000. But then came an almost two-decade break from the charts for Louise, as she focused on being a mum to her two sons.
She juggled her home life with a career on the box, working as a judge on the BBC’s So You Think You Can Dance? in 2010, appearing as a contestant on Strictly in 2016 and more recently being unmasked as Flamingo on The Masked Singer in 2021.
But Louise says music is where she feels most comfortable.
She explains: “I feel like when you’ve come from being in a pop band years ago and then you’ve come through that whole FHM era, there is a perception of you as a woman, as an artist, as a person. And these people have never met me.
“My biggest frustration is that no one sees the side of the ambition, the talent, the rawness of getting up on stage and what it really all means.
“They sort of just see the face, the stuff around the outside that everybody has a bit of a judgment on.”
She adds: “I’m my most confident when I am on stage performing. I realised that made up such a big part of who I was.
“So when I wasn’t doing that for that time of my life, it took a massive chunk of my confidence away.
Ball-breaker
“I think probably most people have that. They have their thing that gives them their confidence, walking into a room and feeling good about yourself.
“And I think so much of mine comes from that slice of the music world.”
Confessions saw Louise putting herself firmly back in the driving seat.
And after turning 50 last November, she has never looked, or sounded, better.
“I feel that now, we are in a world where people like to try and pigeonhole us but actually, as long as we don’t allow that, we can just keep on going,” Louise says.
“On the way here, I was watching something on Instagram with Dolly Parton.
“She was playing the guitar and I thought, she is every bit of who we knew her to be 30 years ago, but she’s stronger and better now — and she’s 79. She’s a ball-breaker.
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“The industry chewed her up and spat her out so many times but she never let it stop her and she just kept going.”
With Borderline, I think Louise has a nailed-on hit and I can’t wait for you all to hear Confessions in full.
It’s clear this is just the beginning of a new chapter for Louise.
She says with a smile: “I feel like I’m still fighting for a seat at the table. In our industry, as a woman, you just have to. I feel like the rules are different.
“I am going to fight and I mean that in a really good way because I hate it when things are written like, ‘Oh woe is me’, because I’m not that girl. I’m enjoying the fight.
“I’ve always been honest about the early days in the pop industry. It was a very different entity to now. You got songs given to you and you did them.
“This has been a wicked experience of truth, honesty and enjoyment.
“I listen to this album and I’m a bit like, ‘I can’t believe this is mine’.”
Post brims with love
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POST MALONE is having a rootin’-tootin’ good time in Paris with his new girlfriend.
He wore this cowboy hat for a romantic dinner with Christy Lee in the French capital, and was still carrying a large glass of red wine as he left the restaurant.
The Sunflower singer has spent the week on holiday with design student Christy, who he went public with in January.
At 20, she is nine years younger than him, and their relationship started just weeks after his engagement to the mother of his child, who he has never named publicly, came to an end.
Later this month, he will kick off a tour that will stretch through to September, when he plays the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in North London.
Enjoy the time off while you can, Post.
More from Pulp after 24 years
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AS if one huge Britpop reunion thanks to Oasis wasn’t enough, Pulp have announced they are making a comeback with their first album for 24 years.
The band fronted by Jarvis Cocker have revealed they completed an album called More, and yesterday shared the first single, a festival-ready anthem called Spike Island.
The group reunited for a series of shows in 2023, their first since 2012, and hinted they could be back in the studio when they signed a record deal last year.
But Pulp have now revealed they will bring out More on June 6 and have dedicated the project to their late bass player Steve Mackey, who died in 2023.
Jarvis said: “When we started touring again in 2023, we practised a new song called Hymn Of The North during soundchecks and eventually played it at the end of our second night at Sheffield Arena.
“This seemed to open the floodgates. We came up with the rest of the songs on this album during the first half of 2024.
“A couple are revivals of ideas from last century.” He revealed My Sex, Tina, Slow Jam and Farmers Market are among the 11 songs on the record, and said one has been written by Richard Hawley, but didn’t specify which.
The Common People singer, left, added: “The album was recorded over three weeks by James Ford in Walthamstow, London, starting on November 18, 2024.
“This is the shortest amount of time a Pulp album has ever taken to record in the modern era. It was obviously ready to happen.”
And I’m ready to hear it.
Best set the alarm
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YOU are about to hear a lot more of Big Brother host Will Best, as he is joining Hits Radio Breakfast.
He revealed this morning that he will become a co-host alongside Fleur East and James Barr from April 28.
Will who currently has a Sunday morning slot on the digital station, said: “I’ve been wanting to join the 5am club for a while.
“All the influencers are doing it, aren’t they? I think I’ll cope all right with the early mornings. I’ll just go to bed.
“Honestly, I’m unbelievably excited.”
It’s a Dyer warning
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DANNY DYER reckons social media is to blame for a modern-day masculinity crisis.
He said: “It’s a mad time to be alive. There’s lots of anxiety around. I feel that social media has f***ked the planet up.
“As adults we are guilty of becoming avatars and not communicating or engaging with each other and we can’t take it back now so [social media is] definitely the frontrunner for why we’re all struggling with who we are.”
He’s had roles in hit Disney+ show Rivals and Sky’s Mr Bigstuff, for which he has had a Bafta nomination.
The actor said: “Arguably these two jobs were my best work to date.”
TYLA has hinted she may become a rapper after recording a string of new songs.
Asked what a rap by her would sound like, she told Nylon magazine: “I’m not going to lie, it’s hot. I’m excited to show people that I’m more diverse than they think.
“I want to take my time with my artistry and give whatever feels right for that moment. So one day, you’re going to get that Tyla rap song.”
FROM Maggie May to Can’t Stop Me Now, Rod Stewart is reminding fans of his incredible back catalogue with a new greatest hits collection.
Ultimate Hits will be out on June 27, days before he plays in Glastonbury’s Legend slot.
It is being released as part of Rod’s 80th birthday celebrations, which also include a European tour that kicks off in a fortnight.
FANS of rock and pop greats such as John Lennon, Debbie Harry and Keith Moon can now get their hands on T-shirt designs they have appeared in.
Worn Free has reproduced some of the performers’ original tees and are selling them for £35 online.
Tops first worn by Johnny Ramone, Yoko Ono, Liam Gallagher and Aretha Franklin are also up for grabs.
