Sharleen Spiteri thinks female musicians continue to face a "tough fight".

Sharleen Spiteri doesn't differentiate between male and female stars

Sharleen Spiteri doesn't differentiate between male and female stars

The 55-year-old star - who is the lead singer of the rock band Texas - insists she's never differentiated between male and female musicians, including her heroes Joe Strummer and Debbie Harry.

Sharleen told the Guardian newspaper: "I never really differentiated between female and male pop stars … I have never thought: ‘I’m a woman in music’. It is a tough fight, going up against the men, but it isn’t any different than if you’re stacking shelves in Tesco - it’s the way of the world."

Sharleen appreciates her bandmates for "not taking the easy route" by overlooking her in favour of a male singer.

She added: "Had they been a male-fronted band, they probably would have had a lot more recognition."

Meanwhile, Sharleen recently revealed that she never "fitted in" as a child.

The singer recalled feeling like an outsider during her younger years, after her family moved from Glasgow to Loch Lomond in southern Scotland.

She told the Guardian newspaper: "My parents moved to Loch Lomond when I was 11 and we got a slightly bigger house.

"They were hoping that by leaving the city they’d give my sister and me a better life in the countryside. They were right to some extent - I did love the adventures in the national park. I’d be gone all day looking at tadpoles and the waterfalls, skimming stones, swimming in the loch and climbing trees. But that was just a momentary escape from the reality of school.

"I hated it. As we hadn’t grown up in Loch Lomond, we were the new faces in town. The name Spiteri was weird and we had different accents from everyone else. The general attitude in the playground was: 'Who the f*** are you?'"