Something For The Weekend

From their sexed-up Rainbow Brite image to the swarm of paparazzi documenting their every move, The Saturdays were never going to pass for a Warpaint tribute act. Now that they’ve finally gotten the formula absolutely spot on with album number three, these chart-topping flirt machines are all set to become an immovable force in cross-channel pop.

Not only are Rochelle, Mollie, Frankie, Vanessa and Una magnetic enough to steal the hearts of any red-blooded human who glances in their direction, but having released two of the most infectious pop singles of the year (‘Notorious’ and ‘All Fired Up’), they’ve got us all precisely where they want us. Girls Aloud may have made it okay to listen to cookie cutter pop tunes again, but The Saturdays have made it okay to know all the words, too.
For this reason (and possibly because the boys in the Art Department put in a special request), Hot Press have selected The Saturdays as our Pop Stars of 2011. It’s a tough job elevating the mood of a budget-battered nation, but hey, someone’s gotta do it, and what better way than with cute outfits and sassy disco pop?
When I catch up with the impossibly green-eyed Una Healy, The Saturdays are just 24 hours away from performing their first ever headline arena show – and excitement is just about at its
tipping point.
“We did two run-throughs yesterday,” Una tells me, “two dress rehearsals today, and that’s it, we’ve got the show tomorrow! It’s quite intense at the moment.”
Irish fans will get their turn to see the girls live on December 19, when they take to the O2 stage in Dublin.
“It’s such a brilliant place to end!” Healy beams. “I’m staying home for Christmas then ‑ and I’m spending all of it at home. We work so hard, we’ve not really breaked all year, so I want to enjoy my time at home because once I fly back, I won’t be flying again.”
Ah, yes. The other reason there might be a hint of elation in Ms. Healy’s voice – she’s due to give birth to her first child with boyfriend Ben Hoden in the new year. But just because she’s five months pregnant, don’t expect the 30 year-old to fall behind on her dance moves.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with me…” she laughs, “or what’s right with me! I’m actually handling it so well, I’m really not having any trouble. I haven’t missed any rehearsals or I haven’t been tired any more than the other girls. I’m really lucky, I’m having a really healthy pregnancy – I’ve never felt better, to be honest.”
For any pop group, an arena tour is a rite of passage, but Healy says it means even more to The Saturdays, who first stepped onto the big stage back in 2007.
“We supported Girls Aloud, that was the first thing we did as a band,” she recalls, “and we were so in awe when we watched them. To see everything they could do in the arena show and to see them sing hit after hit, we thought, ‘We can’t wait ‘til the day comes when we’ve got a collection of songs like that, and when people are singing back all the words’. You earn your right to do a show like that. You could be potentially the best band in the world, and have everything – the greatest singers and all that – but if you don’t have the songs, people aren’t going to enjoy it. Luckily for us, we’ve had a lot of top tens, so people will know at least ten of the songs even if they haven’t bought the album.”
Smart, edgy and bubbling over with on-trend pop gimmicks, the record in question, On Your Radar, is the group’s best by a mile.
“It is a party album,” Healy explains. “It’s an uplifting, happy, fun, pop album, because that’s what we’re about. (Hey, there’s a reason they’re not called The Tuesdays! – Ed) We’re about people having a good time and enjoying themselves and anyone who comes to our show will see that. It’s a very high energy show, especially for this album: it’s definitely the most upbeat. You can’t
get bored.
“‘Notorious’ and ‘All Fired Up’ are definitely dance tracks,” she continues, “especially ‘All Fired Up’. Someone, when they heard it first said, ‘Gosh I thought that was the new Tiesto track!’ It’s quite nice – because we’re pop, we can experiment in different genres. But even indie artists are incorporating dance into their songs, everyone’s sort of jumping on the dance bandwagon, aren’t they? Our music has always been dance, we’ve always had amazing dance remixes of all our songs, and it’s one of my favourite genres since I was a teenager. Unless you’re Adele, I don’t think ballads are in fashion at the moment. She stole that crown!”
Healy’s got one thing right – in 2011, pop trends were more fickle than ever. How does a globetrotting girl band keep up with what’s going on in the charts?
“Our producers are really tuned into what’s happening at the moment with sounds and beats. I’m not a record producer so I wouldn’t know that a certain beat was two years ago, whereas our producer will go, ‘That’s so 2008!’ Our producers handle that end of it, but when it comes to the writing, a good song is always a good song. You just have to modernise it. Writing a song? That art will
never change.”
So, we’ve chosen Healy and company as our Pop Stars of The Year. So who do The Saturdays themselves reckon killed it this year?
“Adele’s performance at the Brits was huge,” Healy responds. “It was just outstanding, so unbelievable, she had the tears in her eyes and everything, she got into it so much. She’s definitely one of the greatest singers in a long, long time. Yeah, Adele would definitely get my vote for the Artist of 2011.”
Any tips for gig of the year?
“When you’re performing you don’t really get to go out and watch other acts, but we did sneak off at a festival to see The Script and they were brilliant, we love them.”
For all the great albums and knockout live shows, Healy agrees that 2011 will probably be remembered best as the year Amy Winehouse passed away.
“We were doing a show when we heard the news,” she remembers, “and it brought everyone down. It was the same when we heard the news about Michael Jackson, we were all together and when you lose a great star like that so young, it’s a massive tragedy. I get really affected when I hear of anyone who’s passed away young. Vanessa was a huge, huge fan of Amy Winehouse. She’d be one of her top three favorite artists of all time, and she got really upset about it. She knows some of Amy’s people, her PA and she’s friends with her godchild, Dionne, so it was very sad. Amy had so much more to give. It’s a real shame, but she’ll never been forgotten, that’s
for sure.”
Meanwhile, The Saturdays are planning an even busier 2012 with a Stateside TV show on the cards.
“We’ve done two TV shows already, What Goes On Tour and The Saturdays 24/7 and people really liked them, so because we’re going to venture to different territories, we thought, ‘Why not have a documentary on that as well’? It would follow us, seeing how we got on breaking into a different country, but we haven’t discussed it much further than that. But we are definitely hoping to break into other territories next year. We’re ready for that now.”
No-one could touch Adele this year, but who does Healy predict The Saturdays will be sharing the charts with over the next 12 months?
“Ed Sheeran,” she says, taking a fraction of a second to make up her mind. “I think he’s very talented, he’s got a gorgeous voice and his songs are very clever. I think he’s one to watch.”
Between creating On Your Radar (the girls wrote seven tracks on the album), flying across the pond to shoot three new music videos and prepping for their biggest live shows to date, there’s plenty to chose from when I ask Healy to pick a highlight, but conquering the festival circuit comes up on top.
“Oxegen was incredible, I was surprised to see the amount of closet fans, as I call them, in the audience. Our typical crowds aren’t guys in their 20s but there were loads of them that day! The girls always seem to know all the songs, but there was quite a lot of lads singing along, knowing all the words as well!”
Presumably thinking that no-one would notice them belting out lines like, ‘I don’t need no
Mr. Right’…
“Nope, I saw them!”
I spotted a few gents aping the girls’ moves
as well…
“They were! They knew them!” she laughs. “But it’s okay. They don’t have to be ashamed...”

The Saturdays play the O2, Dublin on December 19. On Your Radar is out now on Polydor.