The original Sugababes return to music and TV, and snatch my wig back into the year 2000

The original Sugababes return to music and TV, and snatch my wig back into the year 2000 | Random J Pop

The Sugababes are back. Not those Sweet 7 masquerading hoes. The original trio. No more MKS or Mutya Keisha Siobhan. They are officially the Sugababes again. Us fans always called them the Sugababes anyway. But it's great to know that music they release now will be under the name they rightly deserve.

The Sugababes appeared on The Graham Norton show for their first televised performance in 6 years. And if we really wanna go there, this is the first time that the original trio have performed on TV officially as the Sugababes in almost 20 years! So their resurface was a huge deal and one that fans have been looking forward to ever since "Flatline" flat-lined on the charts, and all hopes of an album died with the song.


"Flowers" is a well known song here in the UK and a bit of a Garage national treasure. The song was a huge hit (the only hit) for female duo Sweet Female Attitude in 2000, during a time when Garage was making its way from the clubs and white labels to breaking into the Pop charts.

The Sugababes cover is part of Garage classical, a project led by DJ Spoony, a well known figurehead on the Garage scene. Garage classical is an album which features well known Garage classics re-arranged with a live orchestra. It's a bit of a weird concept. But I'll take it because it meant we got a Sugababes song. Plus, it's work for an orchestra.

When I first heard that the Sugababes were covering "Flowers", I knew it'd be good, because the song is perfect for them. It was actually released the same year that they debuted. And even though the Sugababes sound has always been Pop and Dance, Mutya and Keisha were always avid Garage fans. So again, "Flowers" is a perfect fit.

My only gripe with the song is that it's arranged weirdly. The vocals? Great. The music? Not so much. The strings don't really work or add anything to the song. But this is an issue I have with the Garage classical album as a whole. Most of the arrangements are odd, because they're slower than the originals, the sounds of the orchestra don't do much for the songs and the beats don't hit as hard. So both the classical and the Garage elements feel watered down. It's a bit bizarre. So, I'd really like to hear the Sugababes vocals over the original instrumental. But "Flowers" is still hands down the best song on the album and that's not because I'm biased towards the Sugababes.

There is no word on if we'll get a new album or anything. Siobhan did mention that next year marks the 20th anniversary of the Sugababes and their debut album One touch, which was the only Sugababes album to release with Mutya, Meisha and Siobhan in the lineup. So maybe we'll get a re-release? Who knows.

I'd love a new Sugababes album. It was such a shame that we didn't get one back in 2013, especially when (what we can presume was) the MKS album leaked and fans got to hear how good the songs were. But I'd also be really cool with an album of the Sugababes re-doing their old songs. I can imagine record labels wanting to cash in on the nostalgia and go this safer route first to test the waters of a Sugababes comeback with original material, and I get that. Their voices are so much more mature now and the babes' harmonies sound so much tighter that they ever did. So hearing them take on some of their One touch material, and hearing them work their harmonies and Siobhan into the material they recorded during Heidi's tenure in the group would be phenomenal. We'd already gotten a taste of this with their live performances of "Stronger" and "Caught in a moment".

The Sugababes' management and label (if they even have one) had better not fuck this up. The Sugababes are one of the best girl groups to come out of the UK and they deserve their comeback moment.

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