Sugababes’ Keisha Buchanan: Harshness in music industry has been ‘gut-wrenching’

Sugababes star Keisha Buchanan has said the harshness she faced in the music industry, where female artists have a “magnifying glass on their relationships”, has been “gut-wrenching”.

Buchanan, 38, was a teenager when she became one of the original members of the Sugababes with Mutya Buena and Siobhan Donaghy.

The trio spoke to Channel 4 News about what it was like to become pop stars at such a young age and discussed whether the industry is still predominantly run by men.

Sugababes formed in 1998 and Donaghy left the band in 2001 and was replaced by Heidi Range, with Buena replaced by Amelle Berrabah in 2005 and Buchanan, the final original member, replaced by Jade Ewen in 2009.

Speaking on the fallouts and how women are treated in the music industry, Buchanan said: “Women in general – the magnifying glass on their relationships is actually quite odd to me.

“I think it’s especially harsh if you’re a person of colour. God forbid if you make a mistake.

“The harshness, in my experience, has been very gut-wrenching. It’s been really difficult.”

Buchanan also spoke on whether the music industry has had an issue with women being in control of their own careers, and said: “I can’t speak for whether it’s just the women because I feel in general artists are treated like bird brains.

“I remember there was this quote someone said from our past: ‘I hire, and I fire the members of Sugababes’ and that is the way that certain people are looked at – the industry is run by mostly men, though it is getting more diverse and I think as an artist you have to know who you are going into it and surround yourself with the right team.”

Donaghy, 39, talked about what it was like to enter the industry so young and said: “We were from a very working class background – our parents were not in the industry – we all came into it cold, we didn’t know the industry and what we were up against.

“Definitely the vultures came out the more and more successful we got and that’s something we’ve had to all navigate across the different line-ups and it’s always been an issue and I think will always be an issue, but I think the difference now is that honestly we’ve seen it all, and we are well versed in all that so we know how to conduct ourselves and enjoy ourselves in this industry.”

Buena, 38, also reflected on navigating fame as teen stars, and cautioned that she “wouldn’t let her child go into the industry so young” as “there’s a lot of sharks”.

The Sugababes reunited in 2022 to perform at Glastonbury Festival and the group are currently preparing for a performance at The O2 in London, having performed at British Summer Time (BST) Hyde Park festival in July.

The full interview with the Sugababes will air on Channel 4 on 7pm, Friday.