Albums: Change, Three, Taller in More Ways

Sugababes are an Award-winning pop trio from London and Liverpool, United Kingdom. They formed in 1998 and have been named the most successful all-female UK act of the 21st century. Mutya Buena and Siobhan Donaghy were introduced by a music producer before they hit their teens, and started to record together.

However they never released as a duo as they felt they were missing something. So Mutya got her friend, Keisha Buchanan, into the studio to record her vocals with them, and the rest is history. Sugababes are known as much for their frequent line-up changes as they are their music.

Siobhán Donaghy left Sugababes in 2001 while on tour in Japan, and has gone solo. Mutya Buena left the band in 2005 and, like Siobhán, has pursued a solo career. Siobhán's replacement was Heidi Range, an original member of girl group Atomic Kitten, and Mutya's replacement was Amelle Berrabah, formally of Boo2.

There are constant rumours of in-fighting between the girls, which Siobhán cited as her reason for leaving the band. Mutya however cited her reasons for leaving to revolve around her family (she has a daughter, Tahlia), not fighting amongst the members. The Sugababes have since gone on record saying that the only major row in the band occurred at a gig in Dublin, between Heidi and Keisha (the only original Sugababe left in the group).

The girls' debut single was Overload, a top 10 hit, from their album One Touch. Two more hit singles came off this album, New Year and Run For Cover (a fan favourite). However, when Soul Sound barely charted in the top 40, the girls were promptly dropped.

The girls' career only took off properly when Siobhán left and Heidi joined. The lead single from their second album, Angels With Dirty Faces, was Freak Like Me, and this gave the girls their 1st UK number one. Round Round, the next single from the album, became their second number one.

The girls' other number ones are Hole In The Head (from Three), Push The Button (from Taller in More Ways), Walk This Way (a cover of Aerosmith's Walk This Way, performed with Girls Aloud as the official single for the 2007 Comic Relief fundraiser), and About You Now (from Change). Three also produced the hit single Too Lost In You which was featured on the soundtrack of British romantic comedy "Love Actually" in 2003. Mutya Buena left the band after their fourth studio album, Taller in More Ways, was released, and the last Sugababes single to feature her vocals is Ugly.

Amelle's first single where she features on vocals is Red Dress. A re-release of Taller in More Ways surfaced, with Amelle's vocals on 4 of the songs, including Follow Me Home and Gotta Be You. Sugababes are widely credited as being the UK's most credible girl group, and their audience spans a huge demographic.

They are the only pop girl group to have ever graced the stage at Glastonbury, and their cover of Arctic Monkeys' I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor has been praised by critics, fans, and the Monkeys themselves. Sugababes released a collection of the greatest singles, the remixes, the napster live sessions and the video clips compilation album, Overloaded: The Singles Collection, in 2006. Sugababes have released their fifth studio album, Change, in October 2007, which is their first full album with Amelle.

The album has spawned two hit singles, About You Now and Change. Sugababes went back into the studio after their Change Tour to write and work on their sixth studio album, Catfights and Spotlights. The lead single from Catfights and Spotlights is "Girls", and was released in October 2008.

The album reached number eight in the UK Albums Chart and was named the sixth best pop album of 2008 by the website Popjustice; it sold 91,000 copies in its first three months of release. Also the album was voted as the 3rd must have pop album by Amazon UK. "No Can Do", the second and final single, was released in December and peaked at number twenty-three in the UK.

In January 2009, the Publishing Right Society named Sugababes the fourth hardest-working band of 2008 due to the number of arena concerts performed during 2008. The group have stated that there will be no 2009 tour in support of the album so that they may focus on writing material for their next album. In March 2009, the track "Nothing's as Good as You" from Catfights and Spotlights was featured in an advert on the Disney Channel promoting Disney Channel Original Movies such as High School Musical, The Cheetah Girls and Camp Rock.

In July 2009, Amelle dueted with UK hip hop artist Tinchy Stryder on 'Never Leave You' which went to #1 in the Top 40 chart. In the same month, snippets from new material the group has been working on was leaked onto internet sites including YouTube. In August, the music video for 'Get Sexy' premiered on music channels.

The song itself is expected to be released in September and is different to anything the band has produced in the past. Official site: www.sugababes.com

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