The shocking thing singer-songwriter Missy Higgins was told to do by her record label to ensure her rise to fame

Missy Higgins opens up about the shocking demands her record label made during the height of her music career.

The 41-year-old Australian singer-songwriter revealed that the American label, which she did not name, wanted her to look “prettier” by wearing feminine clothes.

In her interview with Abbie Chatfield on the podcast It’s A Lot, Missy spoke about how her managers wanted her to be “sexy” and have “more sex appeal” by forcing her to wear a dress for her 2007 music video for Where I Stood, her first American single.

“It just got really dirty. They just didn’t see me as who I was anymore,” she told Abbie.

“They were trying to make me into some kind of pop star, I guess. I don’t know, it just didn’t feel authentic.”

“I had to reshoot my Where I Stood video and they wanted me to look prettier and wear a dress,” Missy added. “I really wanted to wear shorts.

‘At the top of the label came the message: ‘No, she’s wearing a dress. She absolutely must not wear shorts.”

Missy said she was “furious” at the time.

“All day I felt like a triangle trying to crawl through a circle,” she sang, referencing the lyrics of her hit Scar.

Last week, Missy spoke openly about the pressure she felt to keep her same-sex relationship a secret as she becomes increasingly popular.

Appears on ABC’s Australian story On Monday, the 40-year-old Sound Of White hitmaker revealed that she had a “secret” relationship with her tour manager Emma Goodland at the start of her career.

“In the beginning, people were very interested in my love life, my sexuality, who I dated, what gender I dated,” Missy revealed.

‘And I found that very difficult at the time, because I was still figuring it out, but also because I was a very private person.’

Emma, ​​who also appeared in the episode, said it was a “difficult time” for the star as she tried to keep the relationship out of the public eye.

“News flash. I was that person,” Emma said, confirming the relationship.

“We went out. Missy and I went out together and we had a great relationship. We had a really great time,” she added.

Missy, who revealed that her relationship with Emma ended during the recording of her second album On A Clear Night, added that she was surprised at how much easier it is for young people today to express their sexuality.

“Kids growing up today are so quick to say, ‘I’m fluid in every way – gender fluid, sexual fluid.’ If I were growing up at that age now, I think I would be the same: no labels,” she said.

“But I came into the industry at a time when it was very taboo. It all felt very scary and I didn’t feel like I could be myself. I just wanted to relax somewhere and not stand out.”

The singer, who topped the charts in 2004 with her hit Scar, first raised eyebrows about her sexuality when she told Rolling Stone magazine in 2005 that “everyone is a little bit bisexual.”

When Missy was a guest on Anh’s Brush With Fame in 2021, she shared that she felt pressured to define herself as gay because she wasn’t sure how to define her own sexuality at the time.

“Everyone was speculating about my sexuality, which was a very personal thing that I struggled with,” she said at the time.

‘All the journalists were trying to get an answer from me. They all wanted me to say that I was gay and to say it loud and proud.’

Missy said the constant pressure caused her to “close off” and eventually disappear from the spotlight.

She said, “Every time I did an interview, I was in shutdown mode because they were scrutinizing me and trying to trip me up. They were trying to get me to say a pronoun, you know? I’d be like, How can I describe what this song is about without saying ‘they’?”

‘It was so traumatic in a way. That became my persona: closing down like that meant I wouldn’t be able to express myself because that would make me way too vulnerable.

Missy recently revealed the devastating impact the end of her marriage to Dan Lee has had since she went public with their split two years ago.

“After I went through a divorce… I felt like the whole story that I had written for myself had gone up in smoke,” she said in an interview with New idea in march.

Missy broke the news of the couple’s split in an emotional Instagram post in January 2022, explaining that they are raising their two children together.

“Six months ago, Dan and I broke up. I became a single parent,” her lengthy post began.

‘Something I never expected and honestly still struggle with.

The Special Two singer then revealed that she had long feared the “shame of a failed marriage” and a “broken home,” and that those things eventually happened.

“I was so determined that this wasn’t going to be my story,” she lamented.

‘We’ve tried in all sorts of ways to keep the story alive, to keep things together, and to keep looking for new avenues of hope, or hope-covered denial, whatever that might be.

“But then life happens, doesn’t it? And once again I’m on my knees, utterly humbled by my inability to control it.”