In January The Sats got their 6th UK top ten hit with 'Ego', a song that spent 26 weeks in the top 100 and went on to sell over 307K and become one of their biggest selling singes. A break was then took from 'Ego's release up until May, in which fans posted many rumours online about 'Here Standing'/'One Shot' both becoming the 3rd single from Wordshaker, a Wordshaker re-release and/or a new album. Finally 'Missing You' debuted online in late June and was immediately met with alot of negative feedback. Some fans thought it was bland, felt the production was all over the place and that for a lead single it simply wasn't good enough. Fans then discovered a new "album" would be released the week after 'Missing You'. The album, entitled 'Headlines' would contain two singles from Wordshaker, a remixed album track from Wordshaker, a cover, 'Missing You' and three new tracks. Again, some fans complained about being ripped off and accused The Sats management of cashing in on their loyal fanbase due to there only being six new songs and yet a price of around £8.99! The release week of 'Missing You' was incredibly hectic with TV appearances on This Morning, Daybreak, Big Brothers Little Brother, Koko Pop, Alan Carr, Michael Ball Show and T4 On The Beach. Fans were dissapointed with the lack of live vocals and terrible choreography on these performances. The song was released and slowly climbed to a peak of #2 on iTunes, however a second version meant that, combined, the song was #1, only just, ahead of Flo Rida. The midweeks confirmed that The Sats were on course for their first ever #1, yet the song began to slip on iTunes and soon The Sats had to resort to CD signings, last minute promotion and several remix versions of the song to keep them on top. Unfortunatey, the Sunday Chart Show revealed The Saturdays were indeed #3 after slipping behind Flo Rida and Eminem/Rihanna over the weekend. On the bright side, this earned The Saturdays their 7th UK top ten hit and the strongest first week sales of any of their singles (58K). The song spent only 7 weeks in the top 40 but is currently on sales of 187K.

 

Headlines was released the week after and debuted on the Tuesday midweeks at #3 with sales of 6K. Fans feared it would "do a Wordshaker" and plummet to a much lower position by the Sunday however it hung on and earned The Sats their highest charting album with sales of 22K sold in one week. It also marked their first top ten album in Ireland after debuting at #10. 'Higher' was confirmed as the second single from the era and debuted on the top 100 at #62 the week Headlines was released due to the fans reaction to it. It was then reveald that Flo Rida (who beat the girls to #1 twice) would feature on the track. The music video was shot in L.A and upon video release, Higher re-entered the top 100 two weeks later, before finally climbing to #22 on it's third week on the top 100. It spent three non-consecutive weeks at #22 before it's physical release on November 1st boosted them to #10 on the official charts knocking up The Sats 8th top ten single. All their singles have now peaked at #2 (twice), #3, #4, #5, #8, #9 and #10. Higher has sold over 200K and looks set to join Up and Ego as one of the best selling Sats songs

 

The girls also got their own Itv2 series, entitled The Sats 24/7. The show, which ran for four episodes, showed the girls in their personal and work lives as they promoted Missing You, filmed their Higher video, cancelled a gig for the first time and of course, got ear piercings, suprise boyfriend visits and dinner parties. The show was a moderate success with a fairly average audience, and a 2nd series has strongly been rumoured.

 

An autobiography was released, entitled 'Our Story' and 17 weeks after release, Headlines is still clinging on to a top 100 position with sales of 135k, which is a big step up from Wordshaker's sales, but still very poor considering their profile and promotion this year. The girls second headlining tour, The Headlines Tour has been announced, which has sold out completely except for one venue.

 

What do you think, what was your Sats highlight this year?

Edited December 23, 201014 yr by shadow2009

Wow when you put it like that, it looks terrible. When actually they have had a rather successful year.

 

What about the Headlines tour that is one venue away from being a sell-out-tour? What about Missing You being their first UK Airplay #1 for 2 consecutive weeks? What about the collaboration with Flo Rida? What about them being chosen for the face of the 2010 Poppy Appeal? And landing gigs at some of the UK's most high-profile events of the year (Help for Heroes concert, Jingle Bell Ball..) and headlining a handful throughout the Summer too.

 

By all means i'm not trying to "sugar coat" some of the 'moderate successes' they've had this year, but Headlines only sold a small amount because at the time album sales were apauling. Upon release it did a moderate 22k for #3, but compare that to Chasing Lights which debuted at #11 in 2008 with 23k. This shows you just how much album sales in particular since 2008 have nose dived. More recently however you'd need at least 20k to get a Top 40 and at least 60k for a Top 10.

 

In all fairness they've been pretty lucky to have had the success they've had this year. However I fear next year they may need to rely on more than just 'luck'. They do need that killer first single, followed by a seccond single, then the album. I'm sick and tired of their managements 'mistakes' and errors along the way this past year. However I think they have made the most of what could of been a bad situation. They tried to 'glamorise' everything about the Headlines era to the extreme like they haven't done before with any other campaign. Non-stop promo tv tours, filming music videos abroad, grabbing their first featuring artist, and being in the public eye so much. You would have thought that would have been the recipie for #1's all over the shop but it wasn't. And I honestly think it's because they need some better material to release. They're just not connecting with their audience on some of their latest stuff. You can tell when they release good music because the public does actually buy into them; But they're made to look like fools when they don't succeed especially when they are in the public eye so much. I'm not saying that Missing You is a bad song, because actually it's a cracking summer tune, but they've got to stop 'polishing turds' and trying to sell something to their audience that only half is willing to buy.

 

2011 should be a very interesting year for them. And I hope they really do well, because I'll be routing for them all the way.

if you are gonna do one of these don't express some opinions as facts .

if you are gonna do one of these don't express some opinions as facts .

 

And where have I done this? :mellow:

And where have I done this? :mellow:

 

"...was immediately met with alot of negative feedback. Some fans thought it was bland, felt the production was all over the place and that for a lead single it simply wasn't good enough"

 

"Again, some fans complained about being ripped off and accused The Sats management of cashing in on their loyal fanbase due to there only being six new songs and yet a price of around £8.99!"

 

"Fans were dissapointed with the lack of live vocals and terrible choreography on these performances."

 

I liked your post though.

 

As a Saturdays fan, this year has been hell for me as I hoped for every step they made that they wouldn't flop and thankfully they haven't, but they really need to establish themselves or they're done.

Edited December 25, 201014 yr by Marina Hurts

You're forgetting the fact that Headlines! was suppossed to be the re-relase of Wordshaker. Una reported to be recording tracks for a re-release, and a month later they announced the mini album campaign, a move to renew their public image with a new era, instead of extending the last one.

 

Also they reported to be working on songs we haven't heard yet, like the track with Taio Cruz (as producer).