Official Charts Pop Gem #62: Sugababes – Push The Button

Mutya, Keisha and Heidi’s joyous Number 1 from 2005 is the latest track to get the Pop Gem honour.

Each week we ask you for your Pop Gems – those overlooked, forgotten or underplayed classics that deserve another spell in the sunshine.

This week, to celebrate streaming counting toward the Official Singles Chart for the very first time, we switched things up. We weren't looking down the back of pop's sofa for once-loved hits, we wanted the big guns – your most-played tunes, those tracks that are stuck on repeat and have a big old play count.

From your fave tracks that dominate your music library, we got it down to 13 contenders.

It was a strong selection, but one catchy track stood out, from a trio as well-known for their catfights as their hits. It’s Push The Button by Sugababes, of course. Check out the video for the tune before we talk you through our thinking. This never happens to us when we get in a lift, but we've never been in a lift with Mutya so there's always time.

Why it had to be Sugababes

Girl groups don’t come much bigger or better than Sugababes. Four line-ups, six members taking three available places, and loads of hits. While the headlines raged about possible fallouts between the girls, the tunes stayed strong. These super-talented, successful pop experts let the music speak for itself. If you asked anybody, they’d be able to name at least one Sugababes song they liked – that’s the kind of band they were.

The song

Push The Button came at the peak of the band’s success. Little did fans know that the current line-up, at this point the band’s second, was about to implode when Mutya left Heidi and Keisha behind just two months after Push The Button hit Number 1.

A departure from the band’s usual style, Push The Button is a dancey, joyous, singalong anthem that everyone could identify with. Produced by the legendary Dallas Austin, and based on Keisha’s personal experience of a guy who just couldn’t being himself to chat her up, Push The Button topped the Official Singles Chart for three weeks, and has sold 465,000 copies – it's their second biggest selling single.

Sugababes’ chart story

Sugababes are practically chart royalty, with 25 Top 40 hits, including 18 Top 10s, of which six reached Number 1: Freak Like Me (2002), Round Round (2002), Hole In The Head (2003), Push The Button (2005), Walk This Way (2007, with Girls Aloud) and About You Now (2007). Their first hit was 2000’s Overload, which peaked at Number 6.

Over the course of a decade, six of the band’s eight albums went Top 10 on the Official Albums Chart, and two made it all the way to Number 1. Their best selling single is 2007’s About You Now, which topped the charts for four weeks for the band’s third line-up of Keisha, Heidi and Amelle.

When Keisha departed in 2009, the band recruited talented Eurovision Song Contest star Jade Ewen, before going on indefinite hiatus the following year.

Former Sugababes Mutya and Keisha regrouped with original member Siobhan to form – yes, you’ve guessed it – Mutya Keisha Siobhan. They released a single Flatline in 2013, which missed the Top 40 but was crowned a Pop Gem for being the unsung hero of that year.

We interviewed the original members last year, where they told us that despite the name change “Sugababes is at the core of who we are”.

Many have their favourite line-ups or loyalties to certain members, but the Sugababes story isn’t complete without all six – Mutya, Keisha, Siobhan, Heidi, Amelle and Jade, we salute you.

Video playlist

Check out all the tracks that Sugababes vanquished on their way to victory.

Pop Gem Hall Of Fame

Today's Pop Gem is the latest in a long line of amazing pop songs that have been inducted into our Pop Gem Hall Of Fame. Take a look at all the tracks who've received the honour so far

Your Pop Gem needs you

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