Claire Richards was “so nervous” to work with Celine Dion.
The 46-year-old pop star – who is best known as a member of Steps – supported the ‘My Heart Will Go On’ songstress at her BST Hyde Park Show in 2019 and admitted that whilst she “so excited” to be working with one of her idols, she probably would have backed out last minute if she had the chance.
Speaking on ‘The Katie Piper Breakfast Show’, she said: “When she did her tour, I went to see her at the O2 and she did like a 20-minute monologue about sticky toffee pudding and fish and chips just chatting away. I knew I was going to be doing the show and I said I was going to present her with a sticky toffee pudding, but I didn’t. It was amazing, she’s one of my idols. I was so excited, but I was so nervous. If someone had said to be at any point on the lead-up to that show ‘Do you know what, you don’t have to do it, you can just go’, I would have just got in a cab and left. I was so nervous!”
Claire has covered Celine Dion track ‘I Surrender’ as part of her new solo album ‘Euphoria’ – a covers collection inspired by the likes of Karen Carpenter, Donna Summer, and Barbra Streisand – and went on to admit that whilst she often has more “confidence” in her Steps records, she has a “really good feeling” about this record.
She said: “It’s always nerve-wracking releasing any music, even with Steps because even after all these years you just don’t know what is going to happen but with Steps there’s a little bit more confidence because we’ve got such an amazing fanbase, They’re so loyal. It’s all on me now though, I can’t share the burden with anyone! But that’s why we do have these little breaks so we can go off and do bits and bobs on our own so when we do come back it feels refreshed and we’ve got something to talk about. It’s great, and I’m really excited about it. It feels good this one.
The former ‘Masked Singer’ star achieved a run of hit singles like ‘Tragedy’ and ‘Deeper Shade of Blue’ with Faye Tozer, Lee Latchford-Evans, Lisa Scott-Lee and Ian ‘H’ Watkins in the late 1990s and early 2000s but the band got back together in 2017 and have enjoyed further success with four new albums and a string of sellout arena tours.
Claire added: “Sometimes it does [feel that long], and sometimes it doesn’t. I’ve been in Steps longer than I haven’t been. It’s more than half my life.
“When we get together we’re still those idiot 20-year-olds that we were in the ’90s, we’ve got the same jokes and the same silly sayings. But I always know I’m going to be OK. You kind of worry about doing new things but we know each other so well that it is quite easy to just slip into it really quickly.”