The Late '90s Flop Girlband's Debut Album Rate | Page 5 | The Popjustice Forum

The Late '90s Flop Girlband's Debut Album Rate

Discussion in 'Charts, rates etc' started by Remorque, Aug 16, 2019.


Which iconic album will come out on top?

  1. Comin' Atcha

  2. All Day Every Day

  3. Precious

  4. Girl Thing

  5. Solid HarmoniE

  6. Wonder No. 8

  1. The versions on The Collection are often different from Wonder No. 8, for some reason. End Of The Line has the same problem.
    Remorque likes this.
  2. One of my friends has a sister that was in N-Tyce but I don't know which one ddd.
  3. This era of pop is LIFE.

    (And they gave you a free CD?! Oh my god, we didn't have anything this good in Canada, life is hard, *cries in igloo*, hug me, etc.)
  4. They really were very good. I wish they had had the opportunity to release another album.

    Not many of the girl groups at that time had a string of singles as strong as On My Knees>Dumb>Teardrops!
    Remorque and Sprockrooster like this.
  5. You can rate whichever version you like, but there are a lot of different versions of all the tracks... (The single versions are the best though, seaux...)

    Get the tea, sis!

    You are not, but please let me know in your commentary why you hate certain songs so much. Poor Vanilla.
  6. Still think we should also be rating the full albums by The 411 and Hepburn... just saying.
  7. What are they up to now?


    Cleo Higgins

    After the girls lost their record contract, the record company wanted to sing Cleo as a solo artist. First with a feature on Russell Watson's The Voice album.

    They collaborated a second time for Watson's third album Reprise in 2003.

    She was also featured on shows such as Songs of Praise after she headlined the Young Voices in Concert Tour and Songs of Bond on ITV in 2002, covering Sheena Easton's For Your Eyes Only.

    Meanwhile, a proper single only followed in 2007, a full five years after they were kinda pushing her into solo stardom... Feelin' Like This didn't really do anything for her though.

    The record company didn't seem to know what she was about as an artist and had no idea how to market her for the general public. As she herself has put it:
    They parted ways soon after.

    For years after that rumours kept going around that she was still recording her debut solo album, but it literally was the definition of #soon. So she kinda stepped away from the spotlight, focussing on family life raising her children.

    But then in 2013 the following happened...

    Cleo got four yeses from the judges on The Voice 2013 and she joined's team. She eventually moved through to the semi-finals before being eliminated after giving her rendition of Don't Let Go (Love).

    Of her time on The Voice she has since said she was extremely happy she got the chance to be on the show with such a successful run, but she also admitted to being heavily trolled on the internet by people that were saying she was a diva.
    Her appearance on The Voice eventually bagged her a role in the West End musical Thriller, based on Michael Jackson's 1982 album.


    Zainam Higgins

    After the girls were dropped from their record label Zainam kept a low profile, keeping out of the public eye for a while. On Instagram she proclaims to be a "Confessed Picaholic", while also presenting herself as a model/actress/presenter and a proud mother of one.

    Media-wise the only thing she's done by herself was an appearance on Never Mind The Buzzcocks in 2007.

    She does, however, have a soundcloud which you should most definitely check out.


    Yonah Higgins

    The youngest member of the group grabbed the chance to go back to school after her time in the spotlight, earning herself a degree in health and social care. She teaches street dance and cheerleading in deprived areas of Manchester.

    They reunited in 2005 for a stint on ITV’s Hit Me Baby One More Time, performing Cleopatra’s Theme and Girls Aloud’s Sound of the Underground and then again in 2008-2009 for a little reunion tour that was shown on satellite channel Living’s Pop Goes the Band. The group had gotten a sexier and edgier image, but looking back they admit to being totally mismanaged. Their team did not know what they were doing and the whole reunion was abandoned.

    These past couple of years the group still performs during Pride events and panto season, with Zainam sometimes taking a step back and their younger sister Terri stepping in.
    Robsolete, Daniel_O, Robert and 8 others like this.
  8. This is fascinating stuff!!! I need you to write a Tell All Book on their behalf!
    Last edited: Aug 28, 2019
  9. I bloody loved Come and Get Me and I remember buying the single. Years later, when I heard the album, I realised it wasn't that great. Actually the songs were fine but it didn't really feel like it was Cleopatra.
    Remorque and Sprockrooster like this.
  10. That was exactly what the problem was though... The girls were known as bubbly, spunky teenagers, but that whole image was abandoned and it backfired majorly.
    Island, londonrain and bonnieetclyde like this.
  11. Mvnl

    Mvnl Moderator

    How random Russell recorded a duet with Cleopatra only to release the single as a duet with Faye Tozer instead.
  12. Homophobic innit.
  13. Mvnl

    Mvnl Moderator

    It's Faye Tozer, not Ed Sheeran
    londonrain likes this.
  14. Oh you want me to participate in a girlbands rate? All I can say right now is that I really like the songs by The 411. I'll give the other girls a listen. If I like them, I'll be in.
    Island, Remorque, babes aloud and 3 others like this.
  15. Oow please do! They have the most urban sound out of all the acts, and we all know how urban acts do in versus rates...

    Remorque, bonnieetclyde and Filippa like this.
  16. I've been diving into all of these bands for literally the first time ever and I am on sensory overload. Being from the states, I had never heard of any of these acts except Cleopatra.

    What is going on with Vanilla? I saw they had the Xenomania connection thinking maybe they were a prototype for Girls Aloud. Then I clicked onto "No Way No Way"

    I'm dying over their cover art:
    Last edited: Sep 2, 2019
    babes aloud, londonrain, Eric and 2 others like this.
  17. N-Tyce completely passed me by at the time, in fact I have no recollection of them at all, some of their tracks are good, others less so!
    londonrain and bonnieetclyde like this.
  18. They’re our next spotlight.
    londonrain likes this.
  19. I present to you...

    Our second artist spotlight!



    N-Tyce were put together in 1996 in the wake of the Spice Girls bursting onto the scene that summer. The group, consisting of Ario Obubore, Chantal Kerzner, Donna Stubbs, and Michelle Robinson, got signed to Telstar and were to be a more R&B-ish and urban answer to the aforementioned group and a British TLC.

    They spent a good year together, singing and practicing, before they eventually got to release their debut single in July 1997, called Hey DJ! (Play That Song). The song was a funky TLC-ish affair with Donna taking the lead on rap-singing duties, with the rest of the ladies serving us backing vocals and... wel, rapping, I guess. I swear Chantal and Michelle trying it during the middle 8 makes me cringe every single fucking time. The song hit no. 20 in the UK charts on its week of release.

    Meanwhile the single dropped to no. 41 the next week, staying in the charts for only a total of two weeks.

    Because of Hey DJ! (Play That Song)’s quick chart demise, the record company let the girls release a follow-up only two months later in August of that same year.

    We Come to Party fused funky R&B-elements with pop sensibilities where the girls could each rap and showcase a bit more of what they were like as individuals, while the video showed them strutting through the streets of New York, showing off an edgier side.

    It reached no. 12, giving the girls their first UK top 15 and stayed in the top 20 for two weeks, due to the girls promoting the hell out of the song.

    We Come to Party was also released promotionally in the US to maybe crack it over there, but there wasn’t really a lot of interest in the girls, so the focus stayed solely on the UK for the near future. Yet, Telstar must have seen some potential in the group, because the group finally got some more money pumped into them for their third single release.

    was a classy, American-sounding affair with Ario and Chantal dddd showcasing her vocals, bringing a more sexy image to the table in the video.

    The song gave the girls their third top 20 single, reaching no. 16 and spent three weeks into the top 20.

    N-Tyce got to record their album in the next three months and All Day Every Day was eventually released in June of 1998.

    It was preceded two weeks earlier by their fourth single release, titled Boom Boom. It was a step back to the lighter feel of their earlier singles and featured Ario on backing vocals with the others serving as backing vocalists. Most definitely ha Jo O'Meara Two in a Million moment. The video featured the girls having fun and dancing around to the song, but compare this to their previous video and, well... Back to basics, I guess.

    I still remember the song being trashed by publications such as Live & Kicking and Smash Hits because it was most definitely a step down from the sophistication of Telefunkin'. Yet it still gave them a fourth top 20 hit, after it reached no. 18 in the UK charts.


    What happened next?

    All Day, Every Day did not match Telstar’s expectations after only reaching no. 44 in its week of release and only staying on the charts for a total of two weeks, making it a flop at the time.​

    In the cut-throat pop world of the late ‘90s this was not enough and the girls were dropped and the girls sadly faded into obscurity.​

    Apparently they decided to reunite in 2011, according to this post from Michelle on a “What Happened to…”-site, but either the post is bullshit or nothing really came of it.

    What are they up to now?

    Sadly, not a lot is known about the girls from N-Tyce, but apparently Chantal is an heiress and works for her father, Sol Kerzner, his company. I don't know either.

    So if any of you has some tea, let me know, ghwerls.