Official Charts Pop Gem #37: Mutya Keisha Siobhan – Flatline

The former Sugababes reformed in 2013, and while it missed the Top 40, comeback single Flatline was a true Pop Gem.

It’s that time of the year when everyone looks back at the last 12 months in music and picks their best of 2013. Everybody’s got their own lists of the big hits, the year’s huge successes, but what about those overlooked tracks that may have had you humming all through 2013, but are a mystery to others? This week, we’re bringing the Pop Gem right up-to-date. We asked for your favourite tracks released in 2013 which, for whatever reason, wasn’t as big as it should have been.

It seems there were a lot of potential Pop Gems from 2013 that you thought deserved a little more love. Frontrunners included Melanie C and Matt Cardle’s collaboration Loving You (Number 14 in August), The Saturdays' Gentleman (also Number 14, back in July), Kylie’s Skirt and Pet Shop Boys’ Love Is A Bourgeois Construct. But one stood out from the rest and got our Twitter followers talking. Step forward Mutya Keisha Siobhan, with their comeback single Flatline.

Watch the video for Flatline before we tell the story of 2013’s overlooked Pop Gem. Never has three ladies sitting on a rusty old bicycle seemed so glamorous:

The original line-up of Sugababes – Mutya Buena, Keisha Buchanan and Siobhan Donaghy – had been on the cusp of a reunion ever since Keisha left the third line-up of the band in 2009. After a couple of years of rumours and crossed fingers, fans got what they wanted and Mutya, Keisha and Siobhan were back! Back! BACK! While hey admitted in an interview with OfficialCharts.com that “Sugababes is at the core of who we are”, they decided to leave the old name behind. They decided to call themselves Mutya Keisha Siobhan – we can’t imagine where they got the idea for that name, but it works quite well – or MKS if you prefer.

Mutya Keisha Siobhan performed a comeback gig at London’s Scala to debut new material and also celebrated the 13th anniversary of debut single Overload charting in 2000. Hopes were high for Flatline, but despite MKS’ best efforts, Flatline didn’t quite make it into the Top 40 of the Official Singles Chart – it peaked at Number 50. But you can’t keep a good Pop Gem down. Fans were still absolutely delighted to see them back together and their support was enough to send the band on their first UK tour in late 2013.

So why is Flatline a Pop Gem? Well, there are lots of reasons, but here are a few: it was a thrill to hear those three voices back where they belonged – together; there's a marching band in the video; the chorus is pretty epic; the voices (again). And the main reason, of course: absolutely loads of you voted for it.

So what’s next for MKS? The ladies are planning a new single with an album to follow in early 2014, their first as a trio for 13 years.

If you can’t wait that long for those silky smooth voices, check out this video of them performing an acoustic version of one of 2013’s biggest hits, Lorde’s Royals. It is certainly majestic.