Top Ten Girl Group Songs of the 2000s

Written by group member Vanessa Petruo as a reaction to the band's media coverage, especially to them being written off as inessential artists not to take seriously due to them having been "manufactured" in the talent search show "Popstars", "Something About Us" became one of the finest pop efforts of the early 2000s. Unlike the light bubblegum pop of their first album, it's a juicy upbeat contemporary R&B jam that has one clear message to everyone who claimed they're just a short lived product stemming from a not very organic hype: "We entered the ring and we're the leading ladies now. Deal with it." "Something About Us" became the group's third number 1 hit in both Germany and Austria and helped cementing the group's now indesputable status as one of the leading figures in German popular music. Not just are all individual members national treasures on their own, their 2021 reunion album featuring re-recorded versions of their hits was a smash all across German speaking Europe. A TV show may have opened the door for them, but it was the quality of their many hits that made them stick around.

The careers of the winning bands of German talent search show "Popstars" were inconsistent beyond belief, sometimes they had a short lived hyped that vanished after one hit, sometimes they went by unnoticed at all - but then there were cases where the groups made a good career after their triumph. Next to the pioneering girl group No Angels and mixed boy/girl vocal group Bro'Sis, who both managed to become associated with 2000s pop music and still have band members being popular celebrities, Monrose were the big deal of the show, and over the span of 4 albums they did release some of the coolest English language pop hits to come from Germany. Known mostly for danceable or at least midtempo material, "What You Don't Know" is Monrose's heaviest, most melodic effort. A dramatic ballad that can rival the biggest divas, it showcases the girls' sheer vocal power, which in this case doesn't mean boastful belting, but giving their most sincere honest emotions into the performance. In combination with the first class composition that knows exactly which chords push the right buttons, "What You Don't Know" is a most exquisite pop ballad.

I will stand by my point that Sugababes was the greatest girl group to have ever surfaced on Earth. While their band name suggests eye candy for gazing men, the group was the exact opposite: strong women who wrote their own song, had the right mix between catchy earworm pop and emotive soulfulness and offered good lyrics that never went for cheap no-brainers. "Ugly", an uplifting guitar pop song about bullying, envy and finding self-confidence, remains not only one of their strongest works but also one of the greatest girl group songs ever made.

For reasons unknown, "Why Not Us" may not have been their biggest success commercially and was actually among their lesser charting singles, but no one can deny the infectiousness of the mix of radio ready electro pop, spicy R&B and blissfully intense melodrama, all peppered with a "Careless Whisper" reminiscent chorus.

Released posthumously after Left Eye's death, "Turntable" never reached the same status as TLC's classic songs from their first three albums. However, no one can deny the soft, delicate guitar sound colliding with these glorious turn of the millennium drum patterns doesn't give off an irresistible human warmth, especially when the girls' vocals airily soar over it.

Armed with a ridiculously catchy sing along melody in both choruses and verses and undeniable urban production (including a rap verse), "One Night Stand" manages a balancing act between catchy European pop and American R&B that gets the best of both worlds. It flows freely, thanks to the girls' smooth vocals including harmonies, the punchy drums and crunchy synth bass and last but not least, the instantly memorable string synth motif.

At least in Europe, "Whole Again" is one of the most essential girl group songs - and by a girl group that still gets quite a lot of airplay with their hit singles. The punchy and uplifting but still relatively slow paced production and vocal harmonies of their signature sound simply combine combine the best elements of the turn of the millennium music landscape. And while many of their classics were covers, "Whole Again" was their biggest original track, and remains their signature song for a reason.

Queensberry may never had the same status or catalog that No Angels and Monrose had, but that's not to say their material wouldn't please a pop lover. Their debut single "No Smoke" departed from the then-modern pop sounds of their peers and was a closer resemblance to the 60s/70s throwback Amy Winehouse or Duffy conquered the charts with - it however was grander an lusher in sound.

The Pussycat Dolls were less a genuine girl group than a stage for Nicole Scherzinger to shine while profiting of the craze around girl group formations in the 2000s. There have been disputes in other girl groups that they felt one member received more attention, but no one went as far as the Pussycat Dolls who had Nicole set as the lead singer, with the others providing backing vocals and very occassionally a short part - but it was the era of MTV, and a great dancing group was worth gold. Nevertheless, the music that was released under the moniker was simply good and they received heavy rotation for a reason. "I Don't Need A Man" is catchy as catchy can. Every part of the song burns itself into your ear, there's a great dynamic between verses, pre-chorus and chorus, so that they build up on each other by continuously raising and then resolving tension. Plus it has about the fullest sounding instrumental of any song of its era.

Shanadoo was a Japanese girl group founded by David Brandes, a songwriter an producer who worked for artists as diverse as eurodance icons E-Rotic, rock group Vanilla Ninja and schlager queen Andrea Berg. Their debut album "Welcome To Tokyo" aged horribly to say the least, as it was solely built around showcasing Asian stereotypes to dance music ("Ninja Tattoo", "My Samurai", "King Kong" and "It's Like An Anime" were some of the song titles), but their second album "The Symbol" allowed them to show a lot more thematic range. And so we get a song like "Think About", which lyrically may be inspired by Magic Affair's eurodance classic "Omen III", but has enough energy on its own: it's one of those cool songs that combine an intensely cinematic, almost sacral sounding mood with stomping techno beats, and thereby makes for an experience that stands out among radio pop but still works on the same engine.