GIRLBANDWATCH 2008

Last year DSTP examined a number of up and coming girlbands from around the world. Now its time to review where they are and whether they've made it to 2008. Naturally there are few more additions...

Red Blooded Women

Wow! What an amazing few months its been for Red Blooded Women. They've been touring, and received a whole lot of love from blogs and messageboards that are usually fiercely loyal to Girls Aloud and Sugababes. The buzz is naturally growing and with songs like Colour Me Dirty its completely understandable. The first single is said to be a "soft release" of You Made Your Bed and in true pop traditional stylee its being back-up with 4 2 Nite. Yes a double a-side! This should pave the way for the song Keep Up The Attraction. Its amazing. It puts the o in glory. It truly does. Released now! Get it here.

LoveShy/Clea

Last time Dontstoppop ran this feature Aimee and Emma were on the verge of revealing their new name. Sadly it wasn't to be. But they gave us some tunes & I don't think it'll be the last we hear from the girls themselves. They outlived an entire family tree of reality tv popstar bands and for this they should incredibly proud of their discography.

Cut

A new addition to the GirlbandWatch and from Germany! And they are amazing. Just check out their myspace. The song What Is Life is amazing. I am saddened that they aint online ANYWHERE. There should be far more buzz about this new girlband! The track When Its Over is equally amazing. Damn them for being soooooooooooooooooo good!

The Saturdays

A new addition to GirlbandWatch! Woohoo! The single, If this is Love, is getting heavy airplay from all the major radio stations. Which is great as the single is a touch of class. Expectations are running high on this band doing well. Indeed, internet forums have fallen deep for this particular band. The band consists of former S Club 8 members Frankie and Rochelle as well as Mollie, Una and Vanessa. They've toured with Girls Aloud and I gotta feeling they won't end up like their "foremothers", the long lost band Cookie. I can't wait to hear the song Up which is slated to be rather amazing. After If This Is Love charted at number 8, DSTP is hoping Up will do better...

Monrose

The new album is in the works and is ready for release after the second single slated to be . With tracks written by Dontstopthepop favourite Jasmine Baird, Alexis Strum and Shelly Poole. Key songs are "Going out Tonight", "Why Not" and "What They Want". They are on the verge of releasing the brilliant track "Hit and Run" which you check out here. Its brilliant!

Caracola

After doing themselves proud at Melodifestivalen, Caracola return to the Swedish charts with their new single Vamos Vamos. Sprayed with summer sun the track was a clear favourite when DSTP reviewed the track in the album review some months ago.

Golden Delicious

Biting at the heels of Caracola are the wonderful Golden Delicious. Golden Delicious released Ride Of Your Life earlier this year & represented Sweden at the Cesme International Song Contest! They've recently uploading brand new songs, albeit demos, on their myspace. I highly recommend you check out the super bitchy track One Step.

Sister Love

One of my favourite girlbands, Sister Love released their album "Three Of A Kind" earlier this year and its loaded with anthem. The girls are currently on a summer tour & should be releasing a single very soon. I'm hoping for Suddenly!

No Angels

In the last Girlbandwatch No Angels had just released the flop double a-side Teardrops/Amaze Me. A lot has happened since but I wont bore you with the details. They are currently on a little promo tour around Germany doing particular summer tv dates which is a testing ground for their new concert tour. They are also currently writing the 5th studio album in LA and girls, steer clear of the covers please. Its due for Spring 2009.

Milk & Honey

All is not looking good on the Milk&Honey front! Despite generally quite good chart positions of their two singles Didi and Habibi the release of their album Elbi hasn't come to fruition. In Germany that is! The girls are pretty big in the middle east & in Slovenia which luckily managed to secure the release. So if your going that way on your holidays you should be able to find it.

Cosmo4

In the last girlbandwatch, their album Around The World was going to be released in Russia. That seems not to have happened. However I was told by their Swedish record company that they are releasing Around The World on Itunes over summer. We shall see...Swedish record companies rarely bail out on pop acts who've released four singles, all relatively big and one which appeared on Melodifestivalen....

Pay-TV

The legends that are Pay-TV have so many things currently lined-up for the next few months. They are touring, promoting their single Fashion Report and will be releasing a very special collection of songs that you'll be able to get when they perform at particular venues throughout the summer. Its not an album. Thats still on its way! But its very close to an album. Its NOT an EP either. Its somewhere in-between. I've heard it. Its good. Key song? A track simply titled 123. Its quite amazing. The hybrid album/EP will be available here as a PayTV competition! On DSTP! Just watch this space...

Electric Dolls

Since the last Girlbandwatch, Electric Dolls have had a slight member change but have gone from strength to strength. The other week they graced the red carpet at the premier of Mamma Mia & performed at the 02 Wireless Festival. They've shot the video and expect it to appear soon! Woohoo!

Soccx

Sad news. After releasing some excellent songs the girls that are Soccx are no more. Well, sort-of. Before the album release in France, Claude and Nicole left the group. Still the remaining three kept on! Yay for Noreen, Caity and Dom! However that wasnt sustainable & the Soccx project has been pretty much shelved. However I wouldn't say its done and dusted. The girls are mates and are still in the music industry so watch this space.

Lucky Twice

Lucky Twice released one of the finest pop albums of last year. Well, they are back! And a new member too! Yes! The song Lucky is being released in Asia where its expected to be huge. So thats the market they'll be concentrating for the meantime. Once thats done Lucky Twice will be recording their new album (well, its a re-recording of the album that only saw its release in Spain).

Raen

The Australian girlband are in the UK! They'll be releasing their single Drama Fanatic in a few weeks backed-up with some grand remixes and live dates. You can still get your free download of Break Me here.

Sugababes

A new album is planned for late 2008 or early 2009. I'm thinking that it'll be released just before the Christmas market. Rumour has it they're working with Timbaland which might make their sixth studio album a bit behind the times seeing as he's working with nearly everyone but my mum! Knowing the Sugababes though they'll bring out something unheard out of the producer. They have that something special. I think its Heidi's amazing vocals. Their new single "Girls" is due October and features a controversial a sample of Ernie K-Does track "Here Come The Girls". Some love it. Some don't. I'm not sure...

Girls Aloud

In my personal opinion, Tangled Up deserved one more single. And that was either Control of The Knife or Fling. What is it with Girls Aloud and their albums tracks which scream to be released? I haven't quite recovered from the failure to release the utterly amazing Wild Horses. Tangled Up, with its three singles, had some amazing girlband moments and yet...they'll never appear on a second volume of their greatest hits whenever thats released whenever that comes out. Anyways, the girls are already recording the follow-up with Cheryl doing X Factor on the side. A very busy time indeed.

Slinkee Minx

I cant quite make out whats happening with the Australian trio. I think they're putting out something in the U.S but I might have got my facts wrong on this one. Its been quite quiet. I hope they are still together.

Wir3

The German trio released their kiddiepop album earlier this summer and it did well for the market it was targeted at. They are currently on a summer tour promoting their new single Omi ist Der Hit which features Sweety. A bird. Ahem. At the end of the month sees the release of a new song called Liebeskapitan. If you like BeFOUR you'll like Liebeskapitan.

Hope

The girlband created through X Factor. A few weeks they posted a new song on their myspace which took a few by surprise as it was actually not bad. A cross between Mr.Gorgeous by LoveShy and Rihanna's S.o.S their song Hot follows in the footsteps of Monrose's Hot Summer by referring to things being a bit on the warmer side. Not totally fond of the Pharrell collaboration though.

Scarlettes

A new girlband! And what a mighty pop song they've already 'released'. Pjanoo Fever, vs Eric Prydz, threatens to be huge this year. Word from their Pride performances is that they completely own the stage. I'd keep an eye out for the Scarlettes. Methinks they could be huge this summer. Check them out here.

Bisou

The rivals to Monrose are back with the wonderful Es Wird Heiss (It Will Be Hot). Its a lot better than the comeback tracks by Monrose. The girls have also offered a free download of a new song Nichts Fur Mich which you can get here.

ElectraCute

The new girlband ElectraCute are putting out stuff thats very close to DSTP's heart. Methinks come 2009 we'll know a lot more about them. Working in the UK and Norway on their album, ElectraCute produce music that is a mixture between beautiful harmonies and rather catchy melodies. With some managerial help from very successful popstars, I expect this band to go far. As with all the new girlbands highlighted above-Electrocute are face an amazing and extraordinary amount of compitition. My list doesn't even include the likes of Electrovamp, Stonefoxx, Pussycat Dolls and Danity Kane. However with tracks like Can You Fix Me and Wicked Kinda Love, the girls clearly have got their USP's sorted and thus have a really good fighting chance.