All the Ways Ariana Madix Has Said Britney Spears Inspired Her Before DWTS 'I'm a Slave 4 U' Performance

Ariana Madix is drawing inspiration from Britney Spears and how the iconic pop singer has remained resilient through the tough trials in her life.

Ahead of her "I’m a Slave 4 U" performance for Music Video Night on Dancing with the Stars Tuesday, the Bravolebrity, 38, has been open about how Spears and her new memoir, The Woman in Me, have motivated her to keep her head high during hard uncomfortable moments.

During the Vanderpump Rules panel at BravoCon 2023 over the weekend, the cast of the Emmy-nominated reality show spoke about filming the upcoming season following the aftermath of “Scandoval" — which led Madix to make a Spears reference.

"Honestly, going into this season, I was thinking the whole time, if Ariana can do it, I can do it too," James Kennedy said of her strength before Madix replied, "That's how I feel about Britney. If Britney Spears can do it, I can too."

In May, Madix and her longtime partner of nine years, Tom Sandoval, made headlines after news of his affair with her friend and fellow costar Rachel “Raquel” Leviss broke. When it came time to film season 11 of the Bravo show, Sandoval returned to face the rest of the cast while Leviss exited reality television for good. 

Meanwhile, fans know Spears, 41, has been through many highs and lows in her life — from her iconic career to her tumultuous love life, and everything in between. The Woman in Me recounts those experiences in Spears’ life from her perspective.

“Over the past 15 years or even at the start of my career, I sat back while people spoke about me and told my story for me,” Spears told PEOPLE. “After getting out of my conservatorship, I was finally free to tell my story without consequences from the people in charge of my life.”

The Something About Her co-founder also opened up about her admiration for the Grammy Award-winning artist in interviews.

“I love Britney so much,” she told Extra. “And there's an excerpt where she was talking about the head-shaving situation, and I was crying listening to her talk about it. It was so moving. And I can completely relate to everything she was saying about it, just the F-U of it all.”

She added, referencing her upcoming DWTS performance: “I just think she's so strong and so resilient. God, I just have to do her justice next week because that is my girl.”

Acknowledging the challenges she also had to overcome in the past year, Madix noted, “Maybe me and Britney can be friends.”

The reality star has been crushing the competition with her partner Pasha Pashkov on Dancing with the Stars. 

On last week’s show, judge Carrie Ann Inaba told the television personality that she was a front-runner in the competition.

Following the performance, Madix told PEOPLE that Inaba’s comment was “very exciting” but added “a lot of pressure” as she moves forward on the ABC series.

“I don't want her to feel at any point in the coming weeks that she was wrong in saying that,” she said of Inaba’s praise. “I want to make her feel like what she said was true.”

Madix said that she and Pashkov hope to stay at the front of the leaderboard by “working hard, staying focused, keeping our eyes on our own paper and just doing the best version of us that we can do.”

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Dancing with the Stars airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and Disney+.