Conquering the business of pop music one step at a time

Scott-Lee has been a business owner in her own right since forming the successful Dubai Performing Arts Academy (DPA) in 2014 with her husband Johnny, a former dancer with Steps and singer with pop group Hear’Say, who went on to star in London’s West End as one of the lead roles in Footloose as well as other musicals.

But it was coming to terms with the behemoth that is the music industry, which has arguably been one of her greatest lessons in a career with Steps which began back in the late 1990s and remains as strong as ever today.

She told Arabian Business: “Other bands around us like Five and shortly afterwards Westlife, people like that and the Spice Girls, they were signed by album deals. Steps was only signed by a one-single deal which meant we really had to prove ourselves.

“The single ‘5, 6, 7, 8’ spent 14 weeks in the top 20, which was a record then, so I think quickly the record company saw there was a lot of potential in Steps and then we renegotiated a fantastic three-album deal.

“It was really interesting to see the change because we had our record company, we had management, we had a whole team. There’s no manual for being a pop star. I went to stage school, I trained and became a qualified teacher of dance, which is why I can do what I’m doing now with DPA, but back then you entered the industry not knowing, you’re blind really, and you learn quickly. “It’s a tough industry, it’s cut-throat. You wonder who you can trust. It really isn’t easy, we were all 19 or 20 and we had to learn quickly.”

Lisa Scott-Lee

After 27 singles, six studio albums, seven video albums and well over 20 million records sold, the group has released their latest single, Heartbreak in the City, for which Scott-Lee filmed her parts amid the stunning backdrop of Dubai Marina.

But it’s a far cry from the beginnings of pop superstardom as Scott-Lee explained: “In the early days we’d be on a club tour and we’d perform for 50 pounds-a-show and you’re splitting that five ways and there’s the management cut as well. We toured the whole country up and down. It was tiring but we were so passionate, we were so enthusiastic and we believed that we had something special and we were going to do some great things within the music industry.

“I remember going up to Scotland. We were doing radio tours at the same time, so we’d be hitting all these stations doing interview after interview and clubs in the evening. It was a gruelling schedule and we’d literally be having to brush our teeth in the petrol stations on the way. That was the glamour.”

And yet people often falsely perceive the image of a pop star leading a rock-and-roll lifestyle, flying on private jets to glamorous destinations and rubbing shoulders with celebrity royalty.

Scott-Lee had been singing and dancing since the age of three, and performing on stage from aged five and she is a graduate of the prestigious Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts.

However, she confessed that learning about the business of the pop music industry was a different animal altogether.

She said: “When you’re in a pop group, you’re not just a singer, you’re not just a performer, you quickly realise that it’s a business as well. Even though you might have all these creative teams, the producers, the record company, the management company, there’s so many people. What we realised was Steps was the five of us and we needed to protect Steps and also we needed to understand the business side of it.

“We were thrown into the deep end, having all these elaborate conversations about Steps’ future, signing record deals, having accountant meetings. There was so much that we had to understand, which in hindsight has helped me greatly with owning my own business.”

Steps split on Boxing Day in 2001 but were reunited in May 2011. And despite the years of success behind them, Scott-Lee compared the relaunch to bringing a new start-up to market, where they were urging record labels to ‘take a chance’ on them.

She said: “The support was not there and it was very strange for us having been signed to record labels all our lives. They weren’t interested. They didn’t know if Steps had a future in the industry, which was really tough and made us question what we were doing.

“But we believed in it so much, we believed in the Steps fan base and the back catalogue that we had, so we formed our own record label called Steps Music and it felt really good when we were back at the top of the charts.

“It was a massive turning point, to the point that when we were talking about doing the next album, the one we’ve just recorded, companies were knocking on our doors.

“The doors were very much closed in our faces back in 2012, but they very much opened up again in our favour.”

And as Steps prepares to return to the stage for a UK tour in November, that experience has stood her in good stead with her own business, which was launched with just one class on a Saturday, but has since grown to operate over 100 classes-a-week from their base at Dubai British School Jumeirah Park (DBSJP), thanks to a partnership with UAE education provider Taaleem.

Last year they launched a music department, along with a centre of musical arts (CMA), where they offer instrumental lessons, alongside what was at the time, the first BTEC Level 3 in Performing Arts in the region.

Scott-Lee said: “I think I would say perseverance is everything in any business and you definitely experience highs and lows. You have your successes and then you have really tough times when you question if you can do it.

“Don’t give up. I know it’s easier said than done, particularly during the pandemic which has impacted everybody globally, but for me, if we had listened to labels at that time, when they didn’t want to offer us a record deal, we wouldn’t have gone on to achieve what we’re doing now.”