Official Chart Flashback 2000: Sugababes – Overload

It’s 13 years since Mutya, Keisha and Siobhan started out on one of pop’s rockiest roads. We interview them about their very own instant classic

When a brand-new band called Sugababes made their first chart appearance this week back in 2000, few could have dreamed just how dramatic the next 13 years were going to be – including the girls themselves.

We all know how the story goes: Mutya Buena, Keisha Buchanan and Siobhan Donaghy were friends who started singing together and were nicknamed the “Sugar Babies” by their manager.

Pop stardom came a-knocking but at a cost – the girls, mere teenagers at the time, weren't getting on and Siobhan quit the band in 2001 to make her own way. Four years later and it was Mutya’s turn to go suga-free. Another four years after that, Keisha got her marching orders. And a further four years later, the girls reformed as Mutya Keisha Siobhan (most literal band name ever!) and staged a comeback, kicking off with single Flatline. We can't even begin to imagine what'll be happening in another four years from now. Read our first interview with Mutya, Keisha and Siobhan where they relive the 'good old days'.

But it was Overload which started it all. A smart, slick and insanely catchy ‘jam’ (we are so hip, right?) and a critical success, Overload was the ladies’ best-performing single together. It peaked on entry, reaching Number 6 this week 13 years ago. But can the girls remember the five songs that beat them to Number 1? Well, we caught up with them to find out.

Any ideas, MKS?

Siobhan: “Errr, A1?”
Keisha: “Noooo.”
Mutya: ”No they weren’t out. [Thinks] Oh, no, they were out. “
Siobhan: “Was Atomic Kitten one of them?”
This isn’t going as well as we hoped, so we throw them a clue: only one of these acts is still releasing music.
Mutya: “Um, Blue?”

No. OK, at Number 5: Aurora, Ordinary World
The girls all look at each other with blank expressions. We explain it was a dance cover of the Duran Duran hit from 1993. Siobhan hums a little bit of the tune. OK. Let’s move on.

Number 4 that week was Sonique with the follow-up to her massive Number 1 hit It Feels So Good. The track was called Sky.
Siobhan: Ooh, I love a bit of Sonique.
Mutya: Yeah!
(We don''t think they remember it, do you?)

Three places ahead of you at, well, Number 3: S Club 7, Natural. Suddenly the ladies become very animated.
Keisha: “Oh my God. I bought that.”
Siobhan points at Keisha: “You would have LOVED that.”
Mutya guffaws.
Keisha: “I bloody bought it!”
It would be unkind of us to point out that Keisha herself stopped Overload getting to Number 1. But we do anyway. She is horrified.
“I can’t believe it.”
Shame on you!

Next up at Number 2: Kylie, with the follow-up to Spinning Around. It’s On A Night Like This.
All: “Awwwww.”
Siobhan: “I love that one.”
Keisha starts singing the chorus (beautifully, we might add).
Mutya: (looks shocked) “Is it that old, that song?”
Well, it’s as old as Overload. Mutya looks stunned.

Number 1 on the Official Singles Chart that week: Modjo, Lady
The girls all look blank for a second and then start singing it instinctively.
Siobhan: “That is a tune!”

Watch the video for Overload before we find out what Mutya, Keisha and Siobhan really think of the Sugababes' run of hits.

So that was then and this is now. As they look to the future with a UK tour starting in November and a new album coming in January, we can’t help but get them to have a quick mull over their back catalogue of all the Sugababes line-ups. Were there any other line-ups’ songs Siobhan wishes she’d sung on?

“There are songs that I like, for instance Stronger that we’ve been doing live and I like singing it,” she says. Siobhan received a huge cheer from the crowd when she performed it for the first time at MKS's comeback gig at Scala in August.
“Yeah, it was really amazing,” she beams. “I’m not really into remaking anything, but there are obviously songs that I loved when I wasn’t in the band.”

Mutya left in December 2005, just before Red Dress was released as a single. The track was the third to be taken from their Number 1 album Taller In More Ways, and had to be rerecorded with new member Amelle Berrabah for release.
Keisha leans forward conspiratorially. “Mutya HATES that song!”
“Do you know what?” drawls Mutya. “I can’t lie, I hated it with a passion.”
“I think the different songs suited the different line-ups, didn’t they?” suggests Siobhan.
“Yeah,” agrees Mutya. “I mean it’s a good song…”
But just not ‘for you’, Mutya?
Mutya: Hmmm.

As Keisha sang on pretty much all the Sugababes hits, we have to ask if there are any she’d rather have passed the mic on.
“Um, Get Sexy shouldn’t have happened,” she admits, revealing that Bruno Mars, who has since gone on to have a huge solo career, wrote much of Sweet 7, the last Sugababes album, which had to be rerecorded after Keisha’s departure. Get Sexy was its lead single. Keisha explains: “It was amazing working with Bruno, and we’d love to work with him in this line-up, but… I just didn’t feel like that was a representation of who we were as a band but we didn’t, at that point, have a lot of say.”

Overload has, of course been on sale for 13 years and is still selling. We offered the very special prize of an OfficialCharts.com badge to anyone who could guess how much it had sold in 2013.
All: “This year?!”
Siobhan: “I want a badge!”
Mutya looks at the envelope containing the badge. “It’s such a big package!” (starts guffawing uncontrollably before composing herself)”What, this year? People are actually buying it?”
Yep. Well?
Siobhan: “I’m saying 500.”
Keisha: (thinks very carefully) “I’m saying 6,000.”
We point out that might be a little ambitious. Keisha laughs.
Siobhan: “You need to pick somewhere in the middle, Mut.”
Mutya looks unsure what to say. She puts her hand to her mouth. “I’d say… no, because it sounds really bad.”
What? How bad can it be?
She quickly blurts out “250!”
Ah, OK. Have a little faith, Mutya!
All the girls laugh uproariously. We reveal the total is (at the time of the interview) 1,359, so Siobhan wins.
She is, understandably, overcome with emotion and joy.
Siobhan: I win! Yay! Thanks.
All the girls applaud as we reveal that we do, in fact, have a badge for everyone – hence that big package, Mutya.
Siobhan: “Booo!”
Keisha: “Oh that’s the new thing now, that everyone’s a winner.”
It’s likely, in fairness, Keisha has earned every prize for first place she’s ever had.
Siobhan: No one can lose.
Mutya grabs her badge and proudly pins it to her chest. “Yeah, we all get a prize. That’s the law, innit?”