00s pop music legend recalls ‘ego crushing’ record label axe before big hit

Heather Small thought her singing career was over before it even began, but now she has one ultimate goal she’d still like to achieve.

Over the years, Heather has achieved so much including being awarded an MBE on the King’s Birthday Honours list for her charity work, and the release of Proud, which has great popular culture significance, but there’s another thing on her list – performing at Glastonbury again.

Heather hopes she can one day answer her own question: ‘What have you done today to make you feel proud?’ with ‘Performed at Glastonbury again’.

‘Next year it will be like 30 years since I played Glastonbury so I’d like to play Glastonbury again,’ she stated.

Heather performed at the popular festival in 1994 with her band M People, and is keen to repeat the memory.

She continued: ‘I think the whole thing where they’ve got the women coming and doing their thing, I think that I would slot quite easily into that kind of mould. Maybe do a duet.’

It’s been quite a journey for Heather to reach this point in her journey – at 21, the high-achiever had already earned a publishing deal with her group Hot House, but things quickly spiralled.

The musician recalled that before they could release a second album, they were let go and claimed that the company even paid them off.

‘They said it was cheaper to pay us off than to release the album. That can crush any ego.

‘There was me at 21 thinking the world will know my name. But it made me realise just how much singing meant to me,’ she told the Mirror.

With the fear inside her that she may have to wave goodbye to stardom, Heather only became more determined and soon she joined the 90s band M People.

After replying to an ad in a music paper, Heather, now 59, became the group’s vocalist.

‘I got the opportunity again with M People and we just gave it our all,’ she explained.

‘People think that it’s a hit machine and that you count on it. There’s no such thing, not for us. We just wrote and sung songs that we enjoyed and believed in and put them out there. Sometimes you’re on a roll, and you try just to keep up the momentum.’

Heather’s solo hit Proud has been used on the Orpah Winfrey show, during the Olympics 2000, and throughout the UK’s successful bid for hosting in 2012, as well as most recently on Miranda due to the titular character’s best friend Stevie Sutton (played by Sarah Hadland) obsession with performing the catchy chorus as a motivational tool.

Speaking of the song’s impact, the Masked Singer star told Metro.co.uk: ‘Kids aged eight come to our shows knowing Proud because they’ve either been force-fed by their grandparents or parents or they’ve been singing it in assembly.

‘People say, “We used to sing hymns in assembly and now we sing Proud”. My work here is done!’

Heather was part of M People with Mick Pickering, Paul Heard and Shovell. The band have sold over 11 million records worldwide, and have hits including One Night in Heaven, Search for the Hero, and Moving On Up.

After leaving the band in 1988, Heather persued a solo career, although she has reunited with the band for some special performances.

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