base talk Sugababes or Girls Aloud ?

[NoAngelus]

On 7/9/2024 at 10:03 PM, ChooseyLover said:

I didn't know Keisha recorded all the songs. Interesting. I wonder if the reception would've been more positive with her. Imo it never sounded like a Sugababes album, the quality of the music went downhill since Mutya left. And I believe Keisha when she says they weren't allowed to work on it. They gave them the songs and asked them to record them and the albums were released shortly after that.

 

I try not to see Heidi and Amelle in a bad light but I still can't help it. Why did they leave the band and leave Keisha alone? They still dumped her and the outcome was going to be bad for her. I can't feel bad for Heidi or Amelle. They weren't the ones caught crying by the paparazzi when **** hit the fan and they weren't the ones expelled from the group. The nerve of everyone involved to make Keisha go through that.

 

i understand veteran fans have a soft spot for Heidi and those eras with all the #1s but the founders are where they were always meant to be.

Only Crash & Burn was recorded with Jade, other 11 tracks were already done with Keisha.

 

While reception to both Get Sexy and AAG at the time went from mixed to positive I'm sure album would've done better critically and commercially with Keisha, at least better than C&S since both GS and AAG were already bigger hits than Girls and NCD.

 

Well for quality blame Keisha.

 

Babes were promised a break in 2006, Keshia rushed for GH to establish Amelle. So  break was moved to 2007.

In 2007 Keisha pushed for studio album because she felt the need to prove themselves artistically. GA were gaining momentum at the time. Album was rushed with most tracks being leftovers (NGDA leftover from TIMW).

So 2206 break was pushed to 2008 but then Klaas contacted them about working and Keshia pressured them into doing that album, it felt more like her solo project with how much passion and heart she poured into it. Love the album. Shame it bombed.

 

So since album bombed label was affraid to let them go and take a break on a such a low so they took the matter into their own hands and forced them to sell out. 

 

At this point Heidi has been in a group for 8 years and had only one break in late 2004. Amelle worked 4 years straight and was in the middle of a mental breakdown. On top of that, rumors started that Keisha was jealous of Amelle for getting #1 single in summer 2009. 

 

[NoAngelus]

22 hours ago, ithinkheknowsoutsold said:

The criticism of the quality of Change and Catfights & Spotlights never made sense to me since the former is on the same level as albums like Three or Taller In More Ways whilst they were going in a different direction with the latter and even its shortcomings were not an outcome of a lack of trying. If you believe Keisha when she says she had no control over the album, shouldn't that absolve both Heidi and Amelle of the blame too? Keisha was the effective leader of the group, and if she couldn't do anything for the album, neither could the other two.

 

Funny how people complain about how the quality dipped Mutya left because Mutya had already stopped creatively contributing to the group by the time TIMW came out. As mentioned in this thread, Mutya was generously given writing credits for the album despite not writing much at all due to her pregnancy. A lot of Change is actually comprised of repurposed tracks from TIMW, such as Never Gonna Dance Again and My Love Is Pink, and other tracks like the title track, Denial, and Backdown could all fit on the former comfortably. Therefore it seems to me the criticisms only come from Mutya's absence and not because of the quality of the album.

 

As for feeling sympathy for Keisha and not Heidi or Amelle, it doesn't really make sense to me. Sure Keisha was the one to get kicked out, but in all the months leading up to that happening everyone assumed Amelle would be the one getting the boot or leaving herself. Mutya fans hated her since day one and Mutya was horrible to her, infamously dissing her in Song 4 Mutya (Out of Control) with Groove Armada, and badmouthing her in the press whilst Amelle remained very courteous. Worse still, Mutya recorded a song for her debut album called Strung Out that was actually co-written by Amelle whilst she was working under a writing camp and Mutya threw a hissy fit about it and forcibly had Amelle's credits removed despite keeping the song intact; Amelle again didn't do much about it. Amelle's personal life was constantly ripped to shreds by the press and belonging to an Arab family her sisters were especially made fun of for their incidents (which Amelle didn't have control over). Things got so bad that one point Amelle was arrested for attacking a car in her hometown despite her not even being in the city at the time!

 

Keisha herself admitted to being strict with Amelle (despite Amelle having impressed Keisha with her audition) and we had video proof of her being controlling in interviews around the release of Get Sexy to the point Heidi and especially Amelle were barely allowed to speak a word. Things got so bad with Amelle at one point she had to check in to a health clinic, having suffered an emotional breakdown. Jade Ewen (Keisha's eventual replacement) actually resembles Amelle the most looks-wise, and she was already being touted as a replacement Babe as early as the summer of 2009, so it's hard not to think it was Amelle who she was initially meant to replace. If all signs were pointed towards her getting kicked out, why shouldn't she have jumped ship earlier? In fact, before Keisha got kicked out, people were turning on her because they thought she was bullying Amelle, only for people to start considering her a saint when she ended up getting the boot (exhibit: https://forum.popjustice.com/threads/sugababes-sweet-7.12948/post-629014).

 

I am not certain what went down with Heidi, but if you heard rumours that Siobhan left due to Keisha (which Siobhan was asserting well into the late 2000s and Keisha was herself tweeting about right until Amelle left; more on Keisha's Twitter later), Mutya left because of the pressure forced on her by her and Keisha, and Amelle wanted to leave because of Keisha, wouldn't you want to leave Keisha too? I have a feeling differences began arising between the two with the Catfights album as Heidi is largely absent from the songwriting credits of the album despite having contributed majorly on all of the girls' albums before. Perhaps creative differences also caused Heidi to stray from Keisha.

 

One last thing about Keisha: there is a big difference between the current, more filtered Keisha and the Keisha of 2009. She had a very active Twitter and was constantly giving negative takes there plus having spats with fans (exhibit: https://forum.popjustice.com/threads/sugababes-sweet-7.12948/post-568158), and whilst what happened to her was unfortunate and unjustifiable, she is not the victim the new fans think she is. 

 

In the end, it's hard to absolve any of them for the blame, except maybe Jade. Keisha and Mutya were not eternal victims, and Heidi and Amelle were not eternal bullies. As the Babes themselves once said, they're all angels with dirty faces.

Omg thank you for this post. You summed it up perfectly.

 

I will never forget the hate Heidi and Amelle received, then with Jade, they were all forced to go on stage and carry on just to keep the name within themselves and not totally new girls. It was so sad watching them do interviews because they were so embarrassed to be there and scared of hatred and constant attacks.