What a difference a babe makes

While Sugababes Mark 1 were pretty, polished, and undoubtedly led by the hand by record company execs, there was a genuine feeling that Keisha, Mutya and Siobhan were three girls brought together by a shared love of music, given the chance to make records at a young age because of genuine talent. They were fresh-faced, fresh sounding and made brilliant pop records.

When Heidi 'dead behind the eyes' Range was brought in to replace titian beauty Siobhan, it was clear the Sugababes' MO had changed, but Keisha and Mutya's fierce attitude and classic tracks like Hole In The Head, Round Round, Freak Like Me and Push The Button, ensured the 'babes were still a pop force to be reckoned with. They wrote their own songs, performed with passion, and managed to rise above myriad storms and fashions to become the biggest selling British girl band of all time.

Now, with Mutya replaced by Amelle and, most recently (and cattily), Keisha replaced by newbabe Jade Ewen, Sugababes Mark 4 seem more like sex-selling singers than seriously talented songwriters.

Regardless of line-up changes, the girls' growth form surly teens to surly women was always going to result in changes, but Helen Of Troy... can't help but think that the current line-up is more likely to produce vacuously sexy sub standard Pussycat Dolls tracks than stone-cold survivors' classics like Sugababes of old.

Maybe Amelle, Heidi and Jade will prove us wrong, or maybe we'll see Keisha, Mutya and Siobhan form The Real Sugababes©. Our money's on the latter.