About A Girl

## **About A Girl**Single by Sugababes

**About A Girl** is the second single and third track taken from the Sugababes' seventh studio album, *Sweet 7*. Released on 8 November 2009, the song was produced by RedOne and written in collaboration with Makeba Riddick. It is an uptempo europop and house song with a dance-inspired middle eight.

"About a Girl" is the first single to feature vocals by band member Jade Ewen, following the departure of Keisha Buchanan, the last remaining original member, in September 2009.

## Background

In April 2009, Sugababes travelled to the United States to work on their seventh studio album, Sweet 7 They signed a contract with Jay Z's record label, Roc Nation, resulting in working with high-profile producers. In late April 2009, the Sugababes revealed that they were working with Nadir Khayat, known by his stage name RedOne, on two songs. "About a Girl" was written and produced by RedOne, who wrote the song in collaboration with Makeba Riddick. The song was recorded at Henson Studios in Los Angeles, California. It was mixed by Robert Orton.

### Release

In August 2009, "About a Girl" was confirmed for release as the second single from Sweet 7. The first version of the song, featuring Buchanan's vocals, premiered on BBC Radio 1 on 6 September 2009. During the single release interval between "Get Sexy" and "About a Girl", Buchanan was kicked out of the Sugababes. As a result of the group line-up change, "About a Girl" was immediately re-recorded to feature the vocals of new member Jade Ewen in replacement of former member Buchanan's. The new version of the song was released as a digital download on 8 November 2009 and a CD single the following day.

### Performance

"About a Girl" debuted on the 21 November 2009 issue of the UK Singles Chart at number eight, becoming the fourth-highest debut during that week. It lasted eight weeks on the chart. The song has sold 125,000 copies in the UK, ranking as the group's thirteenth best-selling UK single. Group member Berrabah commented upon their satisfaction with the song's performance in the UK, saying: "We didn’t do any promotion for the new single and it still came in at number eight. We are over the moon with that and our record label is as well."

The single debuted and peaked at number four on the Scottish Singles Chart, and was the second-highest debut for that week. It reached number 14 on the Irish Singles Chart. The single peaked at number 22 on the Polish Dance Top 50 chart. "About a Girl" charted at number 69 on the Slovakian Singles Chart. The single's performance throughout Europe allowed it to chart on the European Hot 100 Singles chart, where it reached number 28.

## Track listing

CD Single 1
1. About A Girl - 3:31
2. About A Girl (Martin Roth NuStyle Remix - Radio Edit) - 4:08
3. About A Girl (The Sharp Boys Radio Edit) - 3:48
4. About A Girl (K-Gee Remix Radio Edit) - 3:30

Digital release
1. About A Girl - 3:28
2. About A Girl (Martin Roth NuStyle Remix) - 6:26
3. About A Girl (Martin Roth NuStyle Remix - Radio Edit) - 4:08
4. About A Girl (K-Gee Remix Remix) - 4:51
5. About A Girl (K-Gee Remix Radio Edit) - 3:30

## Personnel

* Engineer, Edited By [Vocal Editor] – Johnny Severin, RedOne
* Mixed By – Robert Orton
* Producer [Additional Vocal Production By] – Philip Lawrence
* Producer [Vocal Production By] – Makeba Riddick
* Producer, Instruments [All Instruments Played By], Programmed By [All Instruments Programmed By] – RedOne
* Written-By – M. Riddick, N. Khayat

## Music video

The music video for "About a Girl" was directed by Martin Weisz. Inspired by a Kill Bill theme,the video was filmed at Vasquez Rocks, near Los Angeles, California on 22 September 2009, one day following the announcement that Buchanan was replaced by Ewen. Ewen had not met the remaining members of the Sugababes until two days before the video shoot for "About a Girl". Stunt doubles were used to portray the Sugababes members as they were unsure if the band would be together by the time of the song's release.

## Live performances

The Sugababes premiered "About A Girl" at the Midlands Music Festival on 8 August 2009. The song was performed by Keisha Buchanan and Heidi Range in performance for MSN on 8 September 2009. Following Buchanan's departure from the group, promotion for "About a Girl" was halted when Amelle Berrabah was admitted to a private health clinic in Europe citing "nervous exhaustion"; this led to the cancellation of a scheduled appearance on German TV. The Sugababes were scheduled to headline the Scottish Royal Variety Performance, although this was cancelled due to "a number of legal issues to be finalised".

Following Berrabah's return from the clinic, "About a Girl" was performed live for the first time by the new line-up on GMTV. An acoustic version of the song was performed live on 11 November 2009 on Radio 1 from Maida Vale Studios. Sugababes also performed the song on 21 November 2009 for Children in Need, an annual British charity appeal organised by the BBC.

## Remixes

"About A Girl" has three official remixes released in the single, namely from Martin Roth, The Sharp Boys, and K-Gee remix which featured UK rapper Gracious K.

## Trivia

* In March 2010, the band performed an unreleased "Desi" remix of the song at the 2010 UK Asian Music Awards.
* The Sharp Boys remix of the song uses Jade's vocals while the K-Gee remix uses Keisha's vocals. The Martin Roth remix joins Jade and Keisha's vocals.

## References

1. ↑ About A Girl CD Single. Discogs. https://www.discogs.com/release/2017935-Sugababes-About-A-Girl
2. ↑ About A Girl (Digital content/iTunes). Discogs. https://www.discogs.com/release/11989283-Sugababes-Get-Sexy
3. ↑ Sweet 7. Discogs. https://www.discogs.com/release/2184380-Sugababes-Sweet-7
4. ↑ "Sugababes - Wear My Kiss and About a Girl Live". Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6o6M0Vh9Vos

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