Greetings,
I've noticed something about a lot of reality shows, specifically the ones where producers want to create stars and contestants hope to spawn an overwhelmingly successful career, it's that they rarely succeed. I mean, sure, the winners occasionally do well, and even more so that is the case with some non-winners. This is certainly how it has been with American Idol, and no doubt, will also happen with The Voice. It just seems like these shows are there to be more television entertainment as opposed to musical entertainment. That's not always good if your goal is to be a singer. Now as much as those shows have done and are doing that, there were some that came before, and it went even deeper into the world of "Let's make a TV show that happens to be about finding singers". One of those was Making the Band, where we got the likes of O-Town and Danity Kane. But another one is buried in there as well, and it was called Popstars.
The first season of Popstars aired in 2001 and, like American Idol, was based on a show from the UK. Their goal in that first year was to form an all girl group consisting of five singers. They would be picked and taught by some important people in the industry, including David Foster of all people. Let me give you a brief rundown of how this particular show worked. Now for the first few episodes it was a basic cattle call, where girls would step up and sing and, if they were good enough, they got a callback. Then, they would get another callback for singing, then another for dancing, until they were shaved down to twenty-six girls. At that point, they would go to L.A. for a workshop, where six more were cut, then five more, then they performed in groups at The Viper Room (seriously), then they had a final ten. After that, the girls were sent home, and finally were visited by one of the judges to give them either the good news or the bad news. Of course, we need drama, though, so after two girls dropped out, they found a replacement. And, finally, we had our official group, consisting of Ana Maria Lombo, Ivette Sosa, Maile Misajon, Rosanna Tavarez and Nicole Scherzinger. Yes, that Nicole Scherzinger.
But that's wasn't the end of the show. Oh, no. We then had to follow the girls through the recording of their album, shooting of videos, and et cetera on the road to stardom. P.S. That's where we got even more drama. Try putting five girls in a house together and not getting any of that. But, by May of 2001, they managed to put out their album, aptly titled, Popstars. Yeah, that quickly. Now you may be wondering how I know all of these things about the show. Well, because I did, in fact, watch it. So entertaining it was that I also went out and bought said album. What can I say? I was young. And, thus, we are brought to today's review.
I don't think the Popstars album by Eden's Crush was one met with a lot of high expectations. I doubt anyone thought that a CD recorded by a reality show girl group was going to be anything legendary. They would be correct for thinking that. However, I must be honest and say that it's not that bad. I mean, I had spent the duration of this show watching and listening to these songs being recorded, and I was curious to hear the final result. What I heard on the show, I thought was pretty good. This album is good enough for being a basic, but catchy pop CD. So let's discuss some of the songs.
The first, and most known, single was a song called, "Get Over Yourself". This was the one that the show focused mainly on, of course, showing us the recording as well as the video shoot for it. It's a decent song with even a bit of an edge to it. It seemed to me like a great song to introduce the girls. Then, they had a lovely ballad called "Love This Way" which, frankly, I think should be covered by Taylor Swift. Because they refer to wanting to "feel just like Juliet", and that seems like something she'd like . . . a lot! One song I really like is called "No Drama", albeit more for the music than the lyrics, and they also do a cover of "Glamorous Life" by Sheila E. And, while "Get Over Yourself" got most of the show's attention, another song, "You Know I Can", was prominently featured, and it happens to be the closing track on the album. Or is it? No, for some reason, they give us a hidden track called "Promise Me". I do not know why it is hidden, since it is one of the best songs on this thing. Now keep in mind that, due to the schedule of the show's airing times, they had to record the whole album in like two months, while also keeping everything secret until the winners were revealed on the show. That's a lot of pressure, and I have to commend these girls for being able to pull it off.
So, like I said, this album is good, and it is also lone. Yes, this is the only album that Eden's Crush released before breaking up in 2002. The girl's went on to other things, most notably, as I mentioned, Nicole Scherzinger. She was in the Pussy Cat Dolls, and on The X-Factor, where she was not so well received, to say the least. She did win Dancing With the Stars, and I liked her as a judge on The Sing Off. So she has had her ups and downs. And besides her, some of the non-winners did well, too, like I was talking about before. From this show we got Kerrie Roberts, who is now a successful Christian singer, and Camille Guaty, who has done well for herself as an actress. Now the show, Popstars, did not fair much better than its first group. After one more season and forming the group Scene 23, it went off the air. Again, we did get a star from that as well, namely Josh Henderson, now seen on the new Dallas.
Wow, I just realized that this turned into more a review of the Popstars show than the Popstars album, so I better wrap this up by speaking about the music. Okay, if you like fun, catchy pop music, and something that isn't too heavy, then there is a chance you will like this album. The songs were great pop tunes, it was well produced and the girls were really talented and even likable. Again, this probably won't be on any "greatest albums of all time" lists, but sometimes you just want music with which you can have a good time. If that was part of their goal, they succeeded.
Love and full moons,
Becky the Writer
