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I Took A Lot Of S*** From Keisha”” Sugababes Discuss New Line-Up

• 4th Mar 2010

The Sugababes have come out of the dark and spoken about their feud with former and founding member Keisha Buchanen. Heidi Range and Amelle Berrabah have blamed Keisha’s bad attitude and bullying for her being fired from the group.

The pair have come out about the constant struggle they faced during 2009. Speaking to The Daily Record, Amelle recalls that “I dreaded going in to work even though I had worked so hard to get here. I took a lot of s*** from her as did Heidi and the rest of the team.”

She added that “it was so negative on a daily basis, it upset me. It affected my health. The stress got to me”. This led to Amelle checking into a European rehab facility in October. “I went off to a centre to relax. For the first time in my life I went somewhere for me. I was healing”.

The tensions eventually came to a head when their record company Roc Nation asked Keisha to leave the band. Both girls thought this had left the Sugababes defunct but Heidi explains “I thought the Sugababes were over. It was during that time the label phoned and said they wanted us to carry on with someone else. Even that was a scary thing to think about.”

This led to British Eurovision entrant Jade Ewen being recruited to fill Buchanen’s shoes. The singer was flown to LA immediately to meet the girls and film a music video. Jade quickly recorded over Buchanen’s vocals on new album Sweet 7 and the band included an entirely new single by the new line-up on the record.
Amelle concludes that “now Jade is on board we are really happy and it is nice coming into work. Jade is a breath of fresh air and a nice girl. We are so looking forward to the future. I am the happiest person ever.”

But all is still not well in the land of Suga. The Mirror is reporting that founding members Siobhan Donaghy, Mutya Buena and Keisha Buchanen have grouped together to seek the rights to the name ‘Sugababes’. Donaghy was first to leave in 2001 and Buena followed in 2005 to concentrate on motherhood and a solo career.

The three founded the group in 1998 and since none are active members in the group, papers have been submitted to EU’s trademark office (OHIM). The founders want to take ownership of the name for recordings, merchandise and live performances. The paper is reporting that Buena had initially filed the papers solely in November, but Keisha and Siobhan’s names have now been added.

This leaves the future uncertain for the band, who are due to release their seventh album later this month. Check out their new single 'Wear My Kiss' above.