1st Stop for JADE EWEN and THE SUGABABES News,Photos,Videos, Information and Events Diary.Also Jade Ewen's Favourite blog and is the difinitive record of her music and career.
Fabulous Interview with CJBeatz reading out two of my Tweets, both answered by Amelle. You can listen to the interview by clicking the link below, only up there for 7 days, you can hear Amelle from 1 hour 15 minutes into the show ~ JEF
CJ is back for another RnB packed show!
Former Sugababe Amelle Berrabah is live in the studio to talk about her new solo project, and also gives her honest verdict on the MKS track!
Naughty Boy and Charlie Brown both drop by with hot new exclusives.
And listen back to hear Jamz hold down Xtra Talent for the third week with a Kilo Kish interview.
Amelle Berrabah reveals she's finally over the dark days
Amelle Berrabah feels good about herself now
Amelle Berrabah was replaced by Jade Ewen in the Sugababes
The 4th line-up of the Sugababes is made up of Amelle Berrabah, Heidi Range and Jade Ewen. Siobhán Donaghy, Mutya Buena and Keisha Buchanan now perform as Mutya Keisha Siobhan
Amelle Berrabah insists there are no hard feelings between her and Keisha Buchanan
It's funny how time can change someone's recollections.Back in 2009, at the height of the Sugababes' career, gorgeous Amelle Berrabah had hit rock bottom, troubled by disputes with bandmate KeishaBuchanan.
'I was depressed,' she said at the time.
'You shouldn't have to go to work treading on eggshells.
'I got to the point where I couldn't take any more.'
The result?Keisha left the band unceremoniously and was replaced with Jade Ewen, joining longest remaining member Heidi Range.
Cut to 2013, as Amelle, 29, takes time out from Sugababes to release her solo single Love (Is All We Need) with Adam J and Nightcrashers - and memories of the bad times seem to have disappeared.
In fact, when Now meets the songstress in a restaurant in London's Soho, she appears to be looking back at the Sugababes through rose-tinted glasses, managing to forget about the rows with Keisha and her own much written about depression...
'We were all actually very chilled back then - it was all cups of tea, very calm,' Amelle tells us.
'All the things that were written about us, we just laughed about.
'Before I joined, I believed what I read about the girls and the shit that was going down.
'But it wasn't what I expected.
'I think that reputation sticks to a band and is hard to shrug off.' Keisha and Amelle did clash but the girls met at Wireless a couple of years ago and 'are all good now'.
'I wouldn't say I was depressed. It was more stress,' says Amelle.
'I was drained. We were worked so hard and I had a lot going on in my life.
'People could see it in my eyes, that something was missing.
'My best friends and family knew. I got very skinny, down to about 7st.
'But I was going through a few rough times in the band and in my personal life, so I wasn't really thinking about looking after me.
'I became a shadow. But like any job, there's always a hard period.
'It just makes you stronger.
'I'm happy and in a good place now. I'm healthy and cool.'
Amelle Berrabah is currently preparing for the release of her hotly anticipated new solo single 'Love Is All We Need' but another band hoping to break the charts this summer is the original Sugababes line-up, Mutya Keisha Siobhan, aka MKS, who premiered the music video for their debut single 'Flatlines' today.
However Amelle, who is a member of the current Sugababes line up with Heidi Range and Jade Ewen, admitted to EntertainmentWise that despite initially being unsure over the group's comeback single, she now thinks it's a “beautiful” track.
Sugababes star Amelle Berrabah admits that she wasn't too keen on MKS' new single 'Flatlines' at first (WENN)
The 'About You Now' hitmaker told us that it took a while but she's a big fan of the groups 'Flatlines' telling us:
“I'm not going to lie I had to listen to it a few times but now I really like it. But that happens a lot with me sometimes I have to listen to a track at least three times before get with an album I've bought or whatever. But yeah I really like it."
She continued: "I think they've got really lovely harmonies they're beautiful in each individual way, they blend really well, their harmonies are tight, the melody's really good and I honestly really like it."
When asked if she thought the girls would triumph with their return to music, the 29-year-old insisted that she has every finger crossed for MKS insisting: “Yeah I do, I hope so. I'm always a big fan of any artist that actually has a pure talent rather than something manufactured and told what to think and what to do and I wish them well and all the best so yeah I hope they do really well."
It's nice to see both talented groups put their differences behind them! Amelle also told us about her new feel-good club inspired summer anthem 'Love Is All We Need' scheduled for release August 19 to launch her debut solo album, which she told us isn't a “direct impression” of the rest of the record.
Amelle's debut solo album is scheduled for release early next year. Listen to 'Love Is All We Need' below...
Amelle Berrabah isn’t bitter about the original Sugababes reforming (Picture: David Venni/Chilli Media)
Amelle Berrabah is sitting in a coffee shop in a not very trendy part of east London.
She’s done a photo shoot nearby and is in perky form, helped by her cappuccino, as she begins the promotional onslaught for her new single, Love (Is All We Need), ahead of the release of her debut solo album later this year.Berrabah is keen to point out she’s written every song but one.
‘The label let me do what I want but it has asked me to check in every couple of weeks in case I’ve gone all’ – mimes air guitar – ‘Die! Die! Die! So there’s no heavy metal on there,’ she laughs. Instead, we can expect dancey numbers, a ‘slow-building mid-tempo ballad’ and a song called Wrigley’s Extra, ‘after the chewing gum – I like quirky stuff’.
Songwriting isn’t new to Berrabah. She’s co-written Sugababes tracks and written for girl groups and a solo female singer under an alias. ‘She definitely wouldn’t have recorded it if she knew who’d written it,’ laughs Berrabah. A quick Google search suggests this song may have featured on Mutya Buena’s 2007 album, Real Girl.
If that’s true, it adds another twist in the already labyrinthine Sugababes saga – Berrabah was Buena’s replacement.She joined pop’s most action-packed girl group in 2005 after pursuing a career in the music industry for several years. First she was solo, then in a group with her sister, then solo again.
‘Then I got a deal but the label went into liquidation 24 hours before I was due to sign,’ she says. ‘I was like: “What’s happening with me?”’Berrabah was drafted into Sugababes with next to no notice and called to London for an audition before meeting her bandmates.
‘I had to buy a toothbrush and clothes that night because I didn’t have anything with me,’ she says. ‘There were photo shoots the next day. I had long hair at the time, they cut it off and then put a weave in.’Pop stardom has been ‘an amazing journey’.
Initial highlights include her first appearance on CD:UK. ‘I was like: “Oh my god, there’s Danny Dyer,”’ she laughs. ‘No one can prepare you for the amount of work you have to do. We’d do so much press, we’d glaze over,’ she says, miming slipping into a coma.
‘Your mind goes dead. You form a strong bond. If one of you feels particularly tired, the others take over. It’s not just friendship, Heidi and Jade – and even Keisha – will always be something more, you go through everything together.’
The ‘even Keisha’ comment casts our minds back to the turbulent times of 2009, when Berrabah tried to resign from Sugababes, accompanied by Heidi Range, only for management to dispense with the services of Keisha Buchanan instead, replacing her with Jade Ewen. Keeping up?
Berrabah, who clearly enjoys a chat, pauses when I ask her exactly what that problem was. ‘I’m not allowed to talk about it,’ she says. ‘But being in a girl band is a team effort. If you think you’re bigger than the group, that’s when the problems start.’ It’s not only the membership changes that have been gossip-column fodder.
Berrabah has had her own well-publicised troubles. In 2007, her ex-boyfriend was accused of raping her sister, allegations that were later withdrawn, he was then the victim of a machete attack and, months later, there was a bizarre story claiming Berrabah had gone missing and a police kidnap unit was about to called.
‘I was visiting my mum and suddenly all this mayhem started, who knows how,’ she says. ‘I wasn’t whispering “help me” into my mobile.’ A break from the band due to ‘nervous exhaustion’ followed.‘Some of those stories really got to me, they hurt my heart,’ says Berrabah.
‘I remember feeling I had to explain myself to every single person I met. I felt everyone was judging me. Feeling paranoid all the time isn’t good for your mind.’That’s all in the past now. ‘It’s hard when you feel people are seeing a caricature of how you really are but you have to get over it,’ she says. ‘There’s no point fighting it. Take it, put it in your pocket and get on with being you.’
She’s got her new solo career to focus on which coincides with the single release from Mutya Keisha Siobhan – the original Sugababes line-up. Berrabah has said the current Sugababes were due to come back from hiatus at the end of 2014, although Ewen’s quote that she thought the band was ‘pretty much done’ has called that into question.
‘We haven’t spoken about it for a while,’ says Berrabah, ‘It’s still a long time away. It could all change again. I’ll give you an update when I find out.’
She wishes MKS all the best. ‘I’m a fan of people who can sing live and have something interesting about them, which they do,’ says Berrabah.
‘I really like the song.’Does she think they’ll last any longer together second time around? ‘You get a different perspective on things as you get older,’ she says. ‘This is a great career and you don’t want to lose it until you’re ready to go.’
She’s certainly persevered to get where she is – it’s a long way from singing Mary J Blige covers in school variety shows to finally releasing her first solo record. Berrabah has a list of achievements she ticks off. A big one was performing at the V Festival.
The next one will be winning a Brit. ‘You can dream?’ she says. Most of all, Berrabah would like to write an enduring classic. ‘Something like Lionel Richie’s Hello,’ she says. ‘Something that will come on Magic when I’m 70 and I can say: “That’s me.”’ Will Wrigley’s Extra be the one? Only time will tell.
Amelle’s single with Adam J and the Nightcrashers, Love (Is All We Need), is out now.
The Sugababes' Amelle Berrabah has signed to Insanity Talent Management where she is now managed by Neil Ransome. Amelle became the first Sugababe to have a solo number hit, collaborating with Tinchy Stryder on Never Leave You in 2009. Insanity CEO Andy Varley comments, 'We are looking forward to working with Amelle to build her profile across media, television and entertainment. She is incredibly talented and under the guidance of Neil Ransome and our team, we are looking forward to the opportunities ahead.'
