2 million singles sold, four Number Ones; 5 million album sales including three triple-platinum discs in the UK. More Top 10 singles than the Spice Girls, All Saints, Destiny’s Child or Bananarama, and more Top 10 hits with original songs than any girl group since The Supremes. The first girlgroup since the 1980s to release more than three hit albums – trouncing Destiny’s Child, The Three Degrees, the Spice Girls and The Bangles. Chart success not just in the UK but across Europe, the Far East, Australia and New Zealand.
More impressive statistics than you’d get from your average pop group - principally because Sugababes have never been your average pop group. Over six years, Sugababes have become synonymous with imaginative, cutting edge, daring and effervescent pop music, turning in several defining moments in the modern pop era along the way. They worked with British pop masterminds like Richard X and Xenomania before others even got a sniff of their hitmaking potential; overseas, their work with Dallas Austin inspired his best work since his mid-90s TLC heyday, and a roll-call of collaborators including William Orbit, Cathy Dennis, Cameron McVey, Sting and Diane Warren have worked their magic along the way.
And now the band have teamed up with Jason Pebworth and George Astasio from chart toppers Orson to co-write write the brand new single “EASY” which will be released on Island Records Group on 6th November, one week upfront of the release of “OVERLOADED: THE SINGLES COLLECTION”, a 15 track album which catalogues the Sugababes’ success to date.
“EASY” already sounds like a Sugababes classic – low-slung, sexy verses, an un-secondguessable blast of pure pop for a chorus, and a brilliantly eccentric scream from Keisha as the song hurtles into the final furlong. It’s at once smart, sexy and danceable, packed with hooks and undeniably fun. “We were trying to think of the right way to launch our greatest hits, and we knew the song had to be something really special,” Keisha explains. “When we started working with the guys from Orson the sound just blew us away – it’s completely fresh sounding but at the same time has the same qualities as the biggest songs of our career, so it’s perfect for this album!” Adds Heidi: “We’re fans of our own music and we hate to repeat ourselves, so as soon as we heard the track we loved it and knew it had to be the single to launch the Singles Collection.”
Unusually in today’s pop climate, the hits strewn across ‘Overloaded’ only tell half the band’s story. As well as turning in contemporary pop classic after contemporary pop classic, the band are a brilliant proposition off record, too – a credible, believable and dependable unit, with a well-earned reputation as one of the country’s best live acts, justified by everything from sets at Live 8 and Glastonbury to support slots with the likes of Take That, as well, of course, as their very own sold out headline tours.
“The album really tells a story,” Keisha explains, “because the band has been our life for so long. In ‘Overload’ one of the lyrics is about skipping school. We were in the band when we were at school! That seems a long time ago now…”
