Cliff Notes – Sugababes deserve title of UK’s greatest girl band after stellar live return
- The Sugababes showcased their enduring appeal during their first Manchester arena show in over a decade, performing to a sold-out crowd at the new Co-op Live venue.
- Their setlist primarily featured hits from before 2007, highlighting their classic sound and solidifying their status as one of Britain’s best girl groups.
- The trio’s vocal performance has significantly improved over the years, demonstrating their growth as a unit while maintaining their signature cool stage presence.
Sugababes deserve title of UK’s greatest girl band after stellar live return
Sugababes are up there with the best Britain has to offer the world of pop (Picture: David Fisher/REX/Shutterstock)
From the moment Sugababes embrace the Co-op Live Arena stage – their first Manchester arena show in more than a decade – it instantly feels as though no time has passed since their heyday.
The last time the superstar trio – Keisha Buchanan, Mutya Buena, and Siobhan Donaghy – performed in Manchester on a tour of their own, it was October 2022. That night, they played the city’s 3,500-capacity Apollo venue.
Since then, a run of acclaimed festival slots – including a widely celebrated set at Glastonbury 2024 – has catapulted the group’s original line-up back into the spotlight and back onto arena stages. This time, in April 2025, it’s Manchester’s new 20,000-capacity Co-op Live hosting them.
After years of line-up changes – and a protracted legal battle over the Sugababes name – the original girls are finally back together on their first proper UK arena tour. And they’re sounding, performing, and carrying themselves better than ever before.
They’re supposed to be well beyond their ostensible peak, but they rolled back the years with ease, gliding through a stacked back catalogue that puts them in the conversation for being Britain’s best ever girl group. Their longevity cannot be overstated.
Big screen visuals show the girls when they really were just girls. So quickly came their fame that Keisha, Mutya, and Siobhan were still at school when their tune Overload went over the top. But while their baby faces (and a chorus of ‘aww’s from the crowd) show much time has passed, shutting my eyes sent me back to Y2K.
The trio rolled back the years in Manchester (Picture: Andrew Benge/Getty Images for ABA)
That feeling continued until the end of the night – helped considerably by the setlist containing almost nothing from after 2007. Sixth album Catfights & Spotlights was ignored, which of course means that 2010’s Sweet 7 (which, of the original trio, only features Keisha as a backing vocalist) received less than zero representation. Although you’d be hard pressed to find anyone in the crowd lamenting the omission of Get Sexy.
Keisha, Mutya, and Siobhan all say there’s no bad blood between themselves and ex-members Amelle Berrabah and Heidi Range, but they’re not exactly likely to be doing their own Eras Tour as a five-piece any time soon. This means Mutya and/or Siobhan have to occasionally fill in for Amelle and/or Heidi when About You Now and Push the Button come around. But do they miss a note? Of course they don’t.
The rate at which they’ve actually improved as a vocal unit in their time out of the charts and mostly out of the spotlight is exceptional. Watch their Boiler Room set on YouTube if you fancy a sample of what Sugababes audiences are still getting after all this time.
Sugababes are meant to be past their peak but they sound better than ever (Picture: Hayley Madden/Redferns)
I’ve seen jokes about their live show choreography and energy, or lack thereof, but have busy routines and hairbrush anthems ever been in Sugababes remit? Haven’t the trio always played it slightly cooler than that – taking on a bratty teenager stance that makes them look as if they’re about to say ‘talk to the hand cos the face ain’t listening’?
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Polygon Live is a 360 immersive music experience (Picture: Marc de Groot)
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They embodied the ‘Go girl, give us nothing!’ spirit long before that was ever a thing. Their first appearance on Top of the Pops in 2000 saw them sit on stools and glare at the audience, almost with disapproval, like they would rather be literally anywhere else.
Why would they change what sets them apart, especially when a lack of physical action enables them to sound so tight as a vocal unit? Let the crowd do all the jumping for all I care.
I’ve been embracing my inner pop girlie for years and Sugababes justified that feeling in me (Picture: Simone Joyner/Getty)
Occasionally, the atmosphere sags as the group’s more understated and studious material doesn’t quite reach every distant corner of the hall. After flying out the gate with a run of upbeat bops (Overload, Red Dress, Hole in the Head), the show meanders slightly to the halfway point. It turns out their slower tunes are ideal for solo headphone listening but less suited for stadium sing-alongs.
But during one of the quieter stretches, I turn my head right and I see two men holding each other tightly, kissing each other on their cheeks. I turn left and I see a woman who’s come on her own, singing every word and matching the girls exactly. I open Instagram after the show, and I see that someone I went to school with was sitting a block or two away from me – our paths diverged as we grew up, but pop music put us in the same building again. That’s the spiritual power and emotional reach of music. Its ability to flatten time and space, as though the last 15 to 20 years (in Sugababes’ case) never happened, never ceases to amaze me.
I left Co-op Live absolutely assured that very few girl groups from these shores could imprint themselves on my heart as firmly as Keisha, Mutya, and Siobhan have, and I’d be satisfied if we gave them the British girl group crown right now.
