Sugababes’ Amelle: ‘I scrapped a whole solo album’
By Will Stroude
Amelle Berrabah has revealed that she scrapped an entire album’s worth of solo material at the end of last year.
Speaking to attitude.co.uk last week (August 1), the former Sugababe explained that she “didn’t even like” the dance-pop tracks she had produced for the record over two years.
“Last year I basically finished it,” she said of the album. “It was my first solo album and there were so many voices going, ‘You should do it like this, you should come back like this’. I listened to all that and I did an album of dancey, ‘sexy in the club’ stuff.”
However, when she listened to the album back, Berrabah realised that the music she had made was not to her taste.
“I listened to it back and I was like, ‘I don’t even like it,” she recalled. “I was like, ‘This is not me, this does not feel like me,’ and I scared the crap out of everyone in the room. I remember their faces and I was like, ‘I’m not releasing this, I’m going to start all over again and do what I want to do.’ From then on I’ve just been writing about stuff I want to write about, with no barriers.”
The singer went on to confirm that her debut solo single, Summertime, will be released on September 7. The track will be her first totally solo offering, after she appeared as a featured artist on Tinchy Stryder’s Number One single Never Leave You in 2009 and last year’s Love (Is All We Need) by DJ Adam.
Of the as-yet-unheard track’s sound, she teased: “It’s just a really feel-good track. The best reference I could give artist-wise is probably Bruno Mars’ Lazy Song; it’s got that soulfulness to it but also a reggae-ness to it.”
“I wrote it about my sister,” Berrabah continued, “and I even kind of say her name in the outro of the chorus as well – ‘La-la-Laila’ – but people will probably think it’s just ‘La-la-la-la!’ She’s someone to me who helped me through a lot and during the last two, three years it’s been quite hard for me. I’ve put my heart and soul into this without selling my soul.”
The singer’s group, Sugababes, have not released any new material since 2011′s promotional single Freedom. While no official break-up announcement has ever been made, fellow member Jade Ewen admitted last year (2013) that the group was “over” and that she didn’t feel “comfortable” lying about their status.
Berrabah told attitude.co.uk last week (August 1) that she would be happy for MKS – the group which features original Sugababes members Mutya Buena, Keisha Buchanan and Siobhan Donaghy – to reclaim the name provided that the group’s more recent lineup doesn’t need it again – click here to find out more.
Meanwhile, 30-year-old Berrabah is set to appear on the BBC’s new gymnastics reality show Tumble, which begins this Saturday (August 9). In the meantime, you can check out a picture of the show’s full celebrity cast here.
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