Jessica Simpson has spent a lot of time talking about the past over the last few weeks as she promotes her new memoir, Open Book . However, during an interview with Entertainment Tonight , she spoke about the present. The singer, actress, and entrepreneur shared her thoughts about where she and her big pop star rivals from the early 2000s, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, are today.
Jessica, 39, was attending the 2020 Create & Cultivate conference in Los Angeles when she was asked about the two women who she used to compete with for spots on MTV’s TRL countdown. ET correspondent Katie Krause asked the billionaire businesswoman if she was “surprised” about where their careers have taken them.
Jessica said that she wasn’t surprised, and she stated that she’s happy that she and her former rivals all own who they are. She also spoke about the “competitive environment” that she, Britney, 38, and Christina, 39, found themselves trying to navigate when they were just teenagers. According to Jessica, she and the other two singers were “pushed to do things that were unnecessary for success.”
An E! News flashback interview from 1999 with Jessica that touched on the way she and Britney were being compared at the time. She explained that she was releasing a ballad, “I Wanna Love You Forever,” as a way to set herself apart from Britney. She said that she wanted people to focus on her vocal talent and “respect her as a singer.”
“Yeah, we both have long blond hair and we’re young, but I think that that’s where it stops,” Jessica said.
According to Buzzfeed , Jessica revealed that Columbia Records music executive Tommy Mottola later pushed her to be more like Britney by showing more skin and dancing.
Fast forward to 2020, and Jessica is no longer feeling pressured to stand out from Britney and Christina or to be more like them. Instead, the fashion mogul is happy that they’ve all been successful in different ways, and she’d rather share the space at the top with them than compete against them for it.
“Everybody has found their own way, in such a beautiful, inspiring way. I just love it that everybody has remained authentically who they are,” Jessica said.
“There’s so much room at the top! I mean, think about how many people are in heaven! Come on.”
While Jessica’s main focus now is her fashion empire, she suggested that she’d love to get back on the stage in a big way. She was asked whether she’d consider a Las Vegas residency like Britney or Christina, but she admitted that she doesn’t have a large enough music library for that type of gig. Instead, she had another idea: a Broadway show.
“Of course, I’m like a power ballad singer. And I like to move people and give them chills and take them through the emotion of the story,” she said of why she’d be perfect for Broadway.
Jessica has done some acting over the years, with one of her most notable roles being that of Daisy Duke in The Dukes of Hazzard . As previously reported by The Inquisitr , she revealed that she turned down the opportunity to appear alongside Ryan Gosling in the beloved tearjerker The Notebook because she wasn’t comfortable filming one of the movie’s intimate scenes.