Sugababes ‘making up’ for lack of female headline acts at Isle of Wight

By Sarah Ping, PA

Girl band, Sugababes, who performed on the main stage at the Isle of Wight Festival on Friday, said they are “making up” for the lack of female headline acts at this year’s event.

The group – which consists of Mutya Buena, Keisha Buchanan and Siobhan Donaghy – insists their presence will make up for the imbalance as the festival’s all-male line-up includes Robbie Williams, George Ezra, The Chemical Brothers and Pulp.

“It’s always good to have as much equality and representation as possible, but it is going to be normal for it to fluctuate year to year,” Donaghy told the PA news agency.

“We’re here so we’re making up that side and making up the numbers.”

The trio, who took to the main stage on Friday and performed hit singles Push The Button, About You Now and Too Lost In You, spoke of how they got into the spirit of the festival – dubbing it one of their favourite aspects of the job.

“I feel like being at a festival you get to be yourself, express however you’re feeling, see all the fans and other artists, so it’s nice,” Buena said.

Dognahy added: “We’ve woken up to a beautiful day and we’ve been getting ready and hopping out into the sunshine.

“There are bubbles outside helping us get into the festival vibe.”

The members, all of whom are singer-songwriters, also touched on the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) in the music industry, but argued that writing from personal experience “will cut through more”.

“Something tells me that what a human being writes from their experience I do think will cut through more. I hope that’s the case anyway,” said Donaghy.

“I think coming from a person, I think people will feel it and connect more.”

Buchanan added: “I think it gets tricky especially when they use the artist’s voice.”

Before their main stage performance, the band also performed a preview of their set at the “secret” Barclaycard Stage with hits including Freak Like Me and their debut song Overload.

The band will go on to perform their biggest show at the London’s O2 in September, and during the same month will tour Europe performing in the Netherlands and Belgium.

Buchanan said: “It’s good to be back on the road and we’re just so excited to be out there again.”