Sugababes sign to Jay-Z

The story here.

Oh dear! Let's hope he doesn't do to them what he did to Beyonce.

Stronger - Sugababes evolution!

I remember watching, even studying, the Sugababes performing Stronger on Top of the Pops, back in 2002. The question on my mind back then was "are these girls for real?" How could they be achieving the harmonies and lilting melodies of this song? The BBC programme TOTP was notorious for its requirement that acts mime their music.

There's another notable feature of Stronger - for it was the first time Keisha's powerful gospel vocals were let loose. And over the years, the song has evolved - in some recent performances Keisha has utterly freaked out, gospel style.

In fact it evolved in November 2002 - as these two recordings from the beginning and end of November show. Whatever the second performance was, it wasn't the recorded version:

The height of cool

The brilliant Angels with Dirty Faces album pushed the Sugababes to the height of cool. Invitations to the Glastonbury Festival and the Mobo awards followed.

First of all here's two of the performances:
a hip-hop remix of Round Round at the Mobo awards:


And here's Round Round at Glastonbury:


More notable was the band's performance of Breathin' Easy. That's not on YouTube yet.

About You Now...

I think this is becoming my all time favourite Sugababes' song. It is a great song performed by a great band with great arrangements. Here's the video before I witter on any more:



There's already signs it's becoming the most covered Sugababes song. US teen actress Miranda Cosgrove seems to have adopted it as her theme song. What's interesting, when you look at Cosgrove's version is how like the 'Babes' original it is. Although this version did not chart especially well in the States it has spawned a million YouTube tributes. (The figures appear to be about 1.2m views for the Cosgrove version and 14m for the Sugababes).

Let's look at the song itself - it has great lyrics and a great tune and if you want to hear it in full simplicity you have to listen to the acoustic version at the end of Catfights and Spotlights.

In fact like many Sugababes' songs it is unbelievably melodious. For me it was an instant hit. And in fact my reaction was the same as when I first heard Overload, Round Round and quite a few other of their songs: How can they get away with it?

Those lyrics: you probably have to be familiar with the Sugababes oeuvre to get them in full. For the phrase "I know how I feel about you now" cuts several ways and so do the lyrics. Now undoubtedly the most musicall inventive Sugababes album is Angels with Dirty Faces. But I happen to think the Change album deserved its number one place, partly because the lyrics are stronger and more poetic than we had seen previously. Listening to this song your first thought might be that it's another Hole in the Head - a song of hatred. For how does the singer feel? We are never actually told until we get to the chorus and it's hard to make out until you see the full lyrics. It could also be a song of reunion or a song of loss.

The best line for lyric inventiveness: "Can we bring yesterday back around?" And in the five lines of that catchy chorus there are three half-rhymes: around/now/down/now.

It's a song whose tune and lyrics give it meaning that touches most people. And yet - can you imagine an X-factor contestant attempting it?

That brings us to the production. For from the first the driving dance rhythm belies the meaning, making you think it's more Hole in the Head than say ballad like Breathing Easy. For the Babes and their team have done something they should do more of - take a great song and adapt it to their dance roots - and then, only later, let us hear an equally beautiful acoustic version.

Finally never forget the contribution that the girls' voices make to a song like this. Yes any good singer could carry off the song but you need the combination of voices to make it special. Look at the way Keisha's gospel voice is brought in to do the bridge line, just before the chorus - "And I know how I feel about you". The word now is not added until the chorus.

In short out of 10:
lyrics: 9
tune: 10
arrangement: 10
performance: 10

Justice!

Here's a good analysis of the present situation on popjustice.

Overload - live

And here's a recent live performance with Keisha, Heidi and Amelle:

Overload - the original live performance

Here's the original Sugababes live performance of Overload at Top of the Pops, October 22nd 2000 with Siobhan, Keisha and Mutya, all very young at the time: