Lisa Stansfield Quotes

For me, learning how to sing was just like learning how to speak.

Singers like Gladys Knight are mostly responsible for how I learned to sing.

I think that if you hear music young, whatever music you hear influences you. I’m white, but I’ve been influenced by black music.

Having money hasn’t made me any happier. There are some negatives associated with it too, like having to be away from home when you don’t want to be.

You know that something is good but you never really know how good. You always underestimate how much of an impact something is going to have.

A really happy kid. I would go off on my own a lot and live in my imagination. When I got my school report back it always said, ‘Lisa should try a little harder because she always seems to be in a different world from everyone else.’

Falling in love is an absolutely beautiful thing to go through, and why people shouldn’t talk about it is beyond me.

There was a period in music that didn’t suit what I did. I didn’t fit in.

I like to keep everyone happy. I feel like it’s my responsibility to do that.

People get trapped sometimes and they don’t feel they have a voice. And if you can in some way help someone by writing a song, it’s really lovely.

I work out with weights, do yoga and run on the treadmill at the gym.

Because everyone has love or wants love there are always problems. And if you don’t have problems, you’re probably leading a boring life.

I’ve always been political but I don’t like to bring it into my work any more because I think it limits me.

I go through phases with money. I’ll spend it liberally and then I’ll panic and won’t spend anything.

Probably because the first two albums were so successful, we got a little bit smug.

It’s always been the same from a long time ago, it’s people with promises and people dangling carrots and when you’re young and impressionable, and ambitious, you want to believe them. I was always lucky because there was always part of me that didn’t believe these people.

Whenever I’ve collaborated with anyone in the past it’s just happened really, I’ve never actively sought it out.

I like to tinkle at my piano when I’m working out a new song – I just put my fingers down and see what comes out.

It’s like, if someone asks me to do something and it seems like a really exciting project, but I maybe really frightened about it, nine times out of then I’ll say yes imminently because then I can worry after I’ve said yes!

I didn’t want to be famous, I just wanted to sing.

When I make an album I love to spend a long time making it and put my heart and soul into it.

I know I idolise someone like Billie Holiday, but I don’t look at her and think I have to imitate her lifestyle, to try and sing like she did.

You never know what to expect in life, so just roll with the punches and make the most of it. Because you’ve only got one life and you may as well have a really lovely time. And try not to hurt anybody on the way.

I’ve always been very emotional when I sing.

My mum used to listen to Motown. Diana Ross was my first singing teacher, really. I’d just sing along all the time.

I do admire a lot of artists now who are completely multi-faceted – they’re doing seven different jobs all at once and it doesn’t seem to faze them whatsoever. It just astonishes me completely and I have nothing but admiration for them.

You know, Rochdale is a really nice place, but it’s not the most interesting place on the planet.

You can’t have artistic freedom if you have to think about seven different aspects of your own job all the time. It must be very, very exhausting.

I was fortunate enough to meet Aretha Franklin but I was so overwhelmed that I just burst out crying.

I was the first white British woman to reach No 1 on the R&B chart – the American black music chart.

If there’s one thing I wish I’d done differently it would be to have invested money in property.

People come up to me and sing, ‘Been around the world and I-I-I-I… ‘ all the time.

We never want to toe the line.

I’ve never been a twerking kind of girl. I’ve always relied on my talent.

Well, I always leave massive gaps between albums.

I think I popped out of the womb singing Diana Ross.

I used to hate touring, I used to absolutely hate it! I think one of the reasons why was because in between songs I found it difficult to talk to the audience, and now I don’t care, I say what I want!

If you are a soul singer, you are a soul singer. If you are a heavy metal singer, then you are a heavy metal singer. What’s color got to do with it? I don’t go around thinking, ‘I sing soul music and I’m white.’ I just sing the way I feel.

People thought I disappeared, but I never went away. Music has always been a priority.

In terms of the production, the style I use is what I see as the ‘Lisa Stansfield sound’ and I would hope that when anyone puts on one of my songs they don’t even have to listen to my voice to know this is a Lisa Stansfield song, because of the way it sounds.

My bed is my weird little haven. It’s like a deflated tent.

In Europe, I do see a lot of women who were fans years ago bring their daughters and sons to shows and that’s how my music gets passed down, and I love that.

I feel so comfortable and at home in the studio.

Working class people vote Tory because they think it makes them look a bit posh.

That was one thing about my life and everything I’ve done really, it’s like I’ve been on a diving board scared out of my life and someone just keeps pushing me!

It’s good to write about love because it never goes out of fashion. And I’m quite a romantic.

You don’t hear that much about me being a white and singing soul music in England, but I get the feeling that in America it’s really a big thing. It’s like, ‘God, look at the color of her skin.’

People say to me about my music ‘it got me through college, it saved my marriage, it helped me to come out.’ It’s wonderful to be part of someone’s life in a big way.’

You want what you write to be essential.

Let’s face it, I have a fun job at the end of the day.

I gave up everything and nearly became a farmer, walking around in headscarf and wellies for 10 years to find my confidence again.

Honestly, I think if you don’t have happiness and you don’t have love in your life you can have all the money and all the symbols in the world and it won’t make any difference.

The first writers I knew about were Motown’s Holland-Dozier-Holland.

I don’t watch ‘The X Factor,’ I don’t watch ‘The Voice,’ so I wouldn’t want to do them.

To me to singing is like a freedom. It’s a very therapeutic thing. It’s incredible. I can just lose myself. It’s sort of like meditation.

There are lots of artists I respect and admire.

For a sore throat I take arnica, just a tiny pill dissolved under my tongue. And because your throat is like a muscle, I keep mine warm drinking herbal teas, usually camomile.

I love acting, but I’ve always prioritized my music.

The power of music is a wonderful thing. It can make us happy, make us cry. It can make us forget and make us remember.

I did work incredibly hard but I think there’s a certain element of luck.

I’ve got a good imagination, so I can see someone arguing over a parking ticket and imagine they’re getting a divorce or something.

I don’t want to do something just to be on TV. If I did I might as well just go on and put a meat pie on my head! If I go on TV I want to be doing something I want to do.

The fame thing made me run – it got out of hand and I needed to go away.

Fame made me insecure and insular. I wanted to run away from being me.

I was probably about four when I really wanted to start singing.

We were working class, but my mother stopped working at the mill when she married my father and he went on to become an electrical engineer and later a draughtsman. So although we were never rich he was bringing in enough money to be able to splash out occasionally.

I was really skinny and I had greasy hair and I was knock-kneed. There’s something still in me that’s like that, and I catch myself, you know when you’re walking or something, and you think, ‘Oh no, you’re still that drippy person.’

I suppose you have to be careful what you sing, because you might have to do it.

I’ve always said that when people start saying, ‘Oh my God, why doesn’t this woman put down her bagpipes?’ then I will. I just don’t ever want to become like Cliff Richard.

I started to sing professionally when I was about 13 or 14.