Sugababes have spoken to NME about ‘Jungle’, their first single since 2023, and revealed that fans won’t have to wait long for more music as they usher in a new era. Listen to the song and read the full interview below.
The iconic pop trio – comprising Mutya Buena, Keisha Buchanan and Siobhán Donaghy – released their 2023 track ‘When The Rain Comes’ on major label BMG, but have confirmed that they’re now an independent act again.
“This is basically how we’ve done it since 2011,” Buchanan told NME, referring to the year in which she and her bandmates – the long-running girl-group’s original line-up – reunited using the name Mutya Keisha Siobhan (MKS).
Two years later, MKS dropped their well-received comeback single ‘Flatline’, written with Dev Hynes aka Blood Orange, during a brief stint on major label Polydor.
“Even when we were signed to a major for about three months, we invested our own money into the project – we put £30,000 into ‘Flatline’ because we had no [label] support,” Buchanan added. “We actually get more out of doing it this way: self-investing and standing behind art that we’re proud of.”
The trio won back the rights to the Sugababes name in 2019. Since then, they’ve re-established themselves as a major live draw both in the UK and internationally. When they played London’s Eventim Apollo in November 2022, NME gave them five stars for supplying a night of “harmony-drenched pop nirvana”.
In April, they’ll embark on their biggest-ever UK and European tour, which includes a headline show at London’s 20,000-capacity The O2. However, they’ve reassured fans that this won’t get in the way of releasing new material, as Sugababes embrace the freedom of going it alone.
“I don’t know how much we’re allowed to say, but there’s not going to be long gaps [between singles] because we have a good body of work waiting,” Buchanan said, prompting Buena to add: “Thank God!”
Sugababes said they’re launching their new album era with ‘Jungle’ – a percolating earworm with a spoken word part that underlines their London roots – because it’s an “unexpected” and “fun” lead single.
The track draws inspiration from the worlds of 2-step, garage and alt-pop, while also showcasing the trio’s trademark vocal harmonies. ‘Jungle’ was produced by Jon Shave – who earned production and co-writing credits on Charli XCX‘s BRIT and Grammy-winning album, 2024’s cultural sensation ‘BRAT’.
“We have another single coming that’s even more of a bop, but it could remind you of another [Sugababes] era, so it couldn’t come first,” Donaghy told NME.
Check out our full interview with Sugababes below, in which they talked about surviving record label knockbacks, past pressure to be more “likeable”, a potential return to Glastonbury after two epic sets, what to expect from their UK arena tour, and more.
NME: Hello, Sugababes! Did it feel gratifying to give JADE her BRIT Award earlier this month? When Little Mix won the British Group prize in 2021, Sugababes were one of the pioneering girlbands they thanked.
Keisha: “It was lovely, and we actually had a writing session with her a couple of weeks ago, which was cool.”
Siobhán: “Have we heard the track [we wrote] back yet?”
Keisha: “Yeah, I heard it back the other day. I mean, it wasn’t completely finished. We just did a verse and chorus but it’s definitely got something.”
Siobhán: “The whole thing was very relaxed: a no pressure situation. You [Keisha] were putting on your makeup to go out and JADE was putting on her makeup to go out, and we were all just writing. It felt exciting.”
You’ve played Glastonbury twice in recent years. In 2022, you drew such a huge crowd that you shut down the Avalon stage. Then last year you shut down West Holts with an even bigger crowd. Surely you have to play the Pyramid stage next?
Siobhán: “It’s definitely on our wish list.”
Keisha: “I’m happy that we haven’t done it so far – we haven’t been asked – because I’d love to do it with new music that’s successful, so it feels fresh and new. We know we’ve got the history behind us, but we also want to be relevant. We hate the word ‘reunion’ and all that kind of stuff because it’s not where we’re at.”
Mutya: “It just doesn’t feel like a reunion for us.”
Keisha: “I think a ‘reunion’ is when you don’t release new music and you’re celebrating everything you’ve done – and we love that [for other artists]. But we’re also keen to establish who we are today and have our shows be a bit of both.”
Would you ever put ‘Soul Sound’ – the fourth and final single from your classic debut album ‘One Touch’ – in the current setlist?
Mutya: “That video was one of my favourites.”
Keisha: “I cannot stand the video, and I’ll tell you why. When we first got signed, we would always be authentically ourselves in interviews and stuff. But then someone sat us down and told us we were ‘too hard’. We were told to be ‘softer’ and more smiley if we wanted to cross over commercially. And so we tried to start smiling when we shot that video and I remember it being very awkward. Especially because I was 16 and just getting my Invisalign [orthodontic] treatment.”
That’s a terrible thing to tell anyone, especially a 16-year-old.
Keisha: “Yeah, we were signed based on who we are – three girls from Northwest London – and then told that wasn’t necessarily good enough. They said other girl groups out there were ‘softer’ and more ‘likeable’ so we had to be more likeable too.”
The song ‘Boys’ from your 2022 album ‘The Lost Tapes’ is also a fan favourite – you wrote it with the multi-talented MNEK. Could that make it into the setlist?
Mutya: “I love that song.”
Siobhán: “When we wrote that song, I remember thinking ‘this is a single’. But when we rehearsed it, it just didn’t work, did it?”
Keisha: “It’s also really hard when you’re playing to a larger audience. If we dig into the archive, it’s like, ‘Will anyone know that song beyond fans in the first four rows?'”
Siobhán: “But that’s because of how that album came out – it didn’t have any push or even any singles.”
You surprise-released ‘The Lost Tapes’ in 2022, but it featured songs you’d recorded a decade earlier but never got to put out. Was it important to give that era an official release so you could wipe the slate clean?
Siobhán: “Definitely. I couldn’t have moved on without doing that.”
Mutya: “There was so much good music from that time, so it would have been annoying to leave it stuck on the shelf.”
Keisha: “People say ‘justice for ‘Flatline”, but justice for everything! If people even knew the timeline of what actually happened… We got signed based on demos we made before we released ‘Flatline’, but then everything got shelved and we were stuck on a label…”
Mutya: “Where we basically got ghosted.”
Keisha: “Ghosted! Back then we had the name MKS – we didn’t have the name Sugababes, and that was blocking us from being able to do live shows. It felt like we were getting blocked from different angles. But then we hired a lawyer from a magic circle firm who sent one email and within 48 hours we were released [from our record contract]. At that point we really had to go back to the drawing board and build everything to where we are now. I’m so proud that we managed to stick together through all that.”
Siobhán: “I think that’s why we’re getting such good feedback from within the music industry now. A lot of people absolutely know what we went through and can’t believe we’ve managed to get back up again.”
Keisha: “And we’ve never named or trashed anyone. Our version of sticking the middle finger up is what we’re doing now. There’s no bad blood and it’s all about moving forward.”
‘Jungle’ by Sugababes is out now. The group’s UK arena tour kicks off next month – find any remaining tickets here, and see the full schedule below.
APRIL
08 – First Direct Arena, Leeds
10 – The O2, London
11 – Co-op Live, Manchester
12 – BP Pulse Live, Birmingham
14 – Utilita Arena, Cardiff
16 – Utilita Arena, Newcastle
17 – OVO Hydro, Glasgow