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.

Helen Of Troy Does Audience Participation

After a recent conversation with fellow blogging chum Adem – check out Adem With An E - about the greatest female pop acts of all time, we thought it only right that we pose the pertinent question to you lovely people and ask for your insightful thoughts on the matter, while starting a wee debate in the process… hopefully! Over the next few weeks we’ll be releasing our top three favourite female rock, hip hop, punk, electro and leftfield acts, and in return we’d like to know yours.

Anyhoo, after a few conversations with our friends and a little time for mulling over our choices, we both came to the conclusion that our top three female pop acts of all time are:

1. Madonna – needs no explanation.

2. Girls Aloud – we get a lot of stick for liking the might GA, but Biology is, quite simply, one of the best pop songs of all time. They’re the hardest-working girl group of the last decade; releasing five albums in as many years, not to mention the countless Arena tours and side projects, and have put out consistently good singles for longer than we can remember. They’re also extremely likeable, which is more than can be said for the super-surly Sugababes.

3. Janet Jackson – she may not be everyone’s cup of tea, what with the Nipplegate fiasco and her sometimes-sickly singing style, but songs such as Rhythm Nation, Nasty, What Have You Done For Me Lately and Black Cat, amongst others, are undeniably worthy of a listen to this very day.

So ladies and gentlemen, it's over to you...