Hello, and welcome to an exclusively female review thread. I came up with doing this idea a year or two ago but never really got around too it and I know there's been a few similar thread before so I hope I'm not treading on anyone's toes. Over the course of this thread, we'll be looking at singles by female solo artists that reached the Top 40 in the UK or had success in the US charts but didn't really translate over to the UK.

 

There are no men allowed here. No featured credits, no duets, no nothing. The only time you will hear a male voice is if his contribution to the track is so minute (and uncredited) that it would be unfair to strip it away from the lead female artist. The female artist has to be the main performer of the song, songs which have only female vocals but where the female artist is billed as 'featured' will not be allowed either. I was tempted to allow female/female duets but decided against it.

 

I'll not be reviewing every single since 2000, there's a lot I don't know that charted at like #36 or something, but I will cover all of the one's I know plus, as I say, 'honourable' mentions to tracks that found success and notability elsewhere.

 

 

8th January 2000 - Macy Gray - "I Try"

 

 

I decided to include the singles by female solo artists that were still knocking about the Top 40 when 1999 turned into 2000. Mainly because for a while, female entries are a little sparce and I wanted to kick start the thread with a few singles that people would be familiar with and I think most people are familiar with Macy Gray's "I Try". Not a record I've ever been overly keen on to be honest, there's something about Macy's delivery that totally puts me off the entire song. She kind of sings like a toddler who is having a bit of trouble getting a new tooth through and it gives the whole song a rather childish feeling, which really shouldn't be happening. I know this is very nit picky and there are no doubt some who find Gray's vocal tick charming but for me, I've just always felt like this song is sung by a three year old.

 

It could work, in the hands of a less...annoying vocalist, but yeah - the appeal of this one is actually pretty lost on me. Particularly towards the end of the song where she ad libs and it's just totally unintelligable. It is a shame because there are very good things about this song and in the same hands of someone else it could've been a classic in my eyes but a duff vocal performance just totally kills the appeal for me

 

Edited August 4, 20159 yr by James Silkstone

8th January 2000 - Celine Dion - "That's The Way It Is"

 

 

Until about three years ago, my opinion on Celine Dion pretty much consisted of me hating her because I'd been conditioned too. I knew she had a good voice, and I knew the odd song of hers, but I always maintained I hated her without ever really going back and assessing if that was true. I actually feel like that's a big issue with my generation, general consensus that built up about an artist before we were even born prevails and we take it on. Anyway, when I was about 18, a girlfriend of mine - a big Celine Dion fan, which initially made me have reservations about going out with her - asked me to tell her why I hated Dion and I honestly couldn't come up with a reason more eloquent than "....I just do"

 

So, I decided to look into her back catalogue, stole my girlfriend's greatest hits CD for a weekend and spent about two hours locked in my room with 'The Essential collection' playing at an almost minute volume. My mind was changed in about five songs. Celine Dion....can be kind of good sometimes. Yes, some of her songs are hella cheesy and her questionable grasp on the English language in her first few records can be unintentionally amusing but I liked quite a bit of what I heard; about 4 songs really stood out to me - 'Where Does My Heart Beat Now?', 'It's All Coming Back To Me Now', a song that will be appearing a bit further down the line on this thread and this.

 

'That's The Way It Is' is a remarkably uplifting track that seems to exist just to inspire happiness and hope in people. It's simply lovely and utterly criminal that it didn't make the top ten in the UK, though I do wonder if we were kind of over the whole 'Celine Dion' thing by late 1999 (maybe 'My Heart Will Go On' wiped us all out) as she does struggle for hits from this point forward. Anyway, I was converted and if you hate Celine Dion for no other reason than hating Celine Dion, give this a listen. It might just change your mind. It's the kind of record that's so genuinely well meaning I don't understand how anyone can really dislike it.

 

 

 

8th January 2000 - Lolly - "Big Boys Don't Cry"/"Rockin' Robin"

 

 

'Big Boys Don't Cry' - an attempt at a well-meaning and sweet ballad no doubt as a Xmas time cash in. It's....sickeningly sweet and I don't want to get into a deep discussion about harmful gender roles and expectations of men on a f***ing Lolly record....but yeah, the whole message of this song is kind of problematic but for whatever reason I can't help but be slightly drawn into it. The melancholy beat mixed with Lolly's soft and emotional voice is kind of endearing and does have a certain festive feeling to it but yeah.....it's Lolly. One of the biggest blips in British pop history so I'm not going to come and say I like it....but it could've been worse

 

'Rockin' Robin' - You know, I did my time as a 5 year old at the change of the Millennium. I've listened to records like this more than anyone should have to so I'm not going back there for the sake of nostalgia. It's Lolly covering 'Rockin' Robin' - how good do you think it is?

Edited August 4, 20159 yr by James Silkstone

8th January 2000 - Christina Aguilera - "Genie In a Bottle"

 

 

Christina's debut was still knocking about as the new Millennium came, meaning that we'll be seeing all of her solo singles thus far in this thread. Considering the artist she became as she went on, 'Genie' is actually the only track from her debut that still seems undoubtedly Christina. We'll be getting to the others and my thoughts on them in due time, but Christina never seemed comfortable as a straight teen pop starlet but she seems much more at ease here. Easily the most mature of the 'Britney-Christina-Jessica-Mandy' crop that got their breaks in the late 90's, 'Genie' sees Christina exploring her sensual and sexy side openly and doing it well and convincingly. What I like most about this record is how well it manages to hide it's meanings behind a catchy hook and pretty much hoodwinked a whole generation of kids who would discover what their childhood idol was actually singing about like ten years down the line and it scarring them

 

I jest, but as a 20 year old, it's remarkable to listen to 'Genie' and realize just how sexual it is and how wrong it was that we were all going around singing these lyrics like they were nothing. Age of innocence my arse. Anyway, 'Genie' still stands as like my third or fourth favourite Aguilera song and sets her off on a good path though she took a few detours before she ended up being the artist she clearly wanted to be.

8th January 2000 - Whitney Houston - "I Learned From The Best"

 

 

Whitney Houston is one of the most reliable artists of all-time. There are lots of her songs that are absolute classics, but she also has a lot of more obscure one's that are just as fantastic and this is certainly one of them. I have to admit, I've never heard a Whitney song I hate - there are some I don't like or find annoying - but she's just too much of a talent and a force of personality for me to ever be able to label any of her records 'bad' (though she does push it sometimes, as we will say). I will also say if you think pissing off Beyonce, Kelly Clarkson or Taylor Swift is a bad thing to do then you've had an easy life, because Whitney will cut a bitch 10x harsher than any of those who came after her. I don't really know if 'I Learned From the Best' is regarded as one of Whitney's better hits - commercially it was a bit of a blip after two highly successful singles preceding it - but it's an utterly fabulous listen and if you've not done so, I'd certainly recommend giving it a spin. Whitney very rarely, if ever, dissapointed.

8th January 2000 - Melanie C - "Northern Star"

 

 

Some Solo Spice for us now, and from arguably the most talented member of the group, though only my second favourite solo wise (after Queen Emma :wub:). 'Northern Star' finds Sporty in one of her more withdrawn and melodic tracks, crooning along nicely to the other worldly beat and the genuinely beautiful chorus just absolutely sores. I wouldn't go as far as to say this is the best Solo Spice single - it's certainly Chisholm's strongest - but it's got to be in the top five and seems pretty underrated and forgotten in comparison to Mel C's next two more succesful singles which is a shame as it knocks both out the water.

 

8th January 2000 - Geri Halliwell - "Lift Me Up"

 

 

Boy, am I glad this ends up following 'Northern Star' here. Not because I like it or anything, but because it just shows how good 'Northern Star' is by being everything that could've gone wrong with the former track. Geri Halliwell is my least favourite of all the Spice Girls in every repsect - I think she has the worst voice (yes, worse than Posh) and the worst solo career (yes, worse than Posh) yet she was somehow the most commercially succesful and whilst I'm no fan of Cheryl's solo career - I am very glad she beat Geri's record of being the British female solo artist with the most number one hits. 'Lift Me Up' is lame, Halliwelll is just not a good singer at all and the whole thing comes across as trying too hard. If I was to give Geri one compliment it would be that she had the most distinct and loud personality save for Mel B, and that was what helped 'Look At Me' and her next single 'Bag It Up' be at least listenable/warrant existing but it's nowhere to be seen here and just highlights how weak Halliwell is in every respect.

Nice little companion piece to my girl group thread this! (I'm planning something similar for boybands once my thread is done under the same criteria).

 

LOVED the Melanie C single, just gorgeous and lush from beginning to end. And even better is to come from her in 2000 :) Macy Gray I quite liked as well, that was a bit of a slow burner chart wise. I don't think she ever topped it TBH.

Nice little companion piece to my girl group thread this! (I'm planning something similar for boybands once my thread is done under the same criteria).

 

LOVED the Melanie C single, just gorgeous and lush from beginning to end. And even better is to come from her in 2000 :) Macy Gray I quite liked as well, that was a bit of a slow burner chart wise. I don't think she ever topped it TBH.

 

I call dibs on male solo artists then :heart:

29th January 2000 - Britney Spears - "Born To Make You Happy"

 

 

Our first entry for Britney now - and get used to her because she'll be popping up more times in this thread than any other artist. Britney has scored a whopping 22 top 40 hits on her todd since January 2000, the first of which being this one which became a bit of a shock number one for Spears in the first month of the new millennium. Fourth singles from already million selling albums don't tend to chart higher than the previous two singles, let alone peak at number one but coupled together with Britney's star power and a quiet January sales market, the song did just that, giving Brit her second UK number one. But is it any good? Well, I've always liked it. This is teenage melodrama at it's best - something at which Britney excelled during her early years - and whilst the tracks lyrics can make her sound desperate and needy, there's something very endearing about Spears' vocal performance here. Never a world class singer, Britney's voice succeeds because it fits very well around good hooks and she always sounds like she's genuine enough of these kinds of songs to give them what they need and ultimately, she makes a success of them. It's not my favourite Britney song - I stan hard for Britney so it's probably not even top ten to be honest - but it's a fine entry to her canon and one of my favourite number one's of 2000.

 

 

I was a massive Britney fan from 'Baby...' up until just after 'Toxic' came out. And I bought 'Born to Make You Happy' when it came out and still have a great affection for it now so I feel like I can't be too harsh on it. It also felt like the first single of hers she came over to properly promote - I remember her performing it on 'Blue Peter' for instance (and now I'm showing my age) because all her other singles before had been hampered by knee injuries or US touring schedules.

05th February 2000 - Gabrielle - "Rise"

 

 

Never really been a massive fan of this one to be honest, though I was surprised when I realized this was actually a bit of a return to form (commercially) for her. Gabrielle's one of those singers that always seemed to be a lot bigger than she maybe actually was this to the extent when I was very surprised to learn that I only recognised about four of her singles, this, obviously being one of them. 'Rise' seems to be a particularly acclaimed record, I've never really been keen on it at all. I get what the intent of the song is, sure, but it goes about it in all the ways that just bores me. She sings it well and the message comes across as genuine enough, but it's just really, really, really boring. Rising up again has never sounded as mundane but I am aware this is probably a very unpopular opinion.

8th January 2000 - Celine Dion - "That's The Way It Is"

 

...about 4 songs really stood out to me - 'Where Does My Heart Beat Now?', 'It's All Coming Back To Me Now', a song that will be appearing a bit further down the line on this thread and this.

 

'That's The Way It Is' is a remarkably uplifting track that seems to exist just to inspire happiness and hope in people. It's simply lovely and utterly criminal that it didn't make the top ten in the UK, though I do wonder if we were kind of over the whole 'Celine Dion' thing by late 1999 (maybe 'My Heart Will Go On' wiped us all out) as she does struggle for hits from this point forward. Anyway, I was converted and if you hate Celine Dion for no other reason than hating Celine Dion, give this a listen. It might just change your mind. It's the kind of record that's so genuinely well meaning I don't understand how anyone can really dislike it.

I'm glad you like this one, it was my favorite of hers at the time! It's a pretty simple melody but it works so well. My favorite Celine song has changed since then and I'm hoping the song you haven't mentioned yet turns out to be that one.

 

26th February 2000 - Christina Aguilera - "What a Girl Wants"

 

 

Following up such a big and memorable debut single is hard, and Christina provided us with this. Like Britney did with 'Sometimes', Christina puts her first foot wrong with this song in my book. As I said in my 'Genie' review, Christina pulled that off and it still seems very her but the rest of the singles from this era really don't because Christina was clearly never really comfortable being a bottle blonde teen pop starlet. She proves that she can do teen pop and do it adequately but her heart has never really seemed into it this first era for me, and it's the most obvious on 'What a Girl Wants'. This is perhaps the least fun and completely soulless teen pop song that I have ever heard; it's not exciting, Christina sounds like she's phoning it in and unlike 'Genie' it's not playfully done with a wink or nod as if to say - 'there's more to come from this girl'. No. This is straight up teen pop played 100% straight and whilst that certainly worked for some of her peers, it's just not Christina and it shows.

 

Posted twice - ooops

Edited August 8, 20159 yr by James Silkstone

Loved Gabrielle...there's another single of hers yet to come from 2000 - and also in 2001 - which were my absolute favourites but this was a good song. Video was a bit rubbish but didn't detract from the song.

 

'What a Girl Wants' was from the period of Christina's career that I could actually tolerate her. 'Genie...' was a stronger single admittedly but taken for what it is this was a good pop track for its time.

26th February 2000 - Shania Twain - "Don't Be Stupid (You Know I Love)"

 

 

Shania wasn't going to let a little thing like the passing of 3 years and sales of 3 million copies stop her from releasing everything she could from 'Come on Over'. My parents, like most people, owned a copy so I was already fairly familiar with this one by the time it came around to a re-listen for the purpose of this thread. By no means the strongest track on the album, the pop remix it recieved for a single release here really doesn't do it any favours and it ends up sounding like a mix of 'Belfast Girls' and 'Cotton Eye Joe'. Ending up becoming the last single from the album, Don't Be Stupid didn't quite match up to the success or legacy of the previous releases from the record and is arguably the most forgotten single from 'Come on Over' which is fair as it's by far the worst in my opinion.

 

Skipping over Rebecca Wheatley's "Stay With Me Baby" as I do not recall it and can find bollocks all information on it. But for the record, it's very dull and I'd skip over the listen.

04th March 2000 - Kelis - "Caught Out There"

 

 

This is marvelous. One of my biggest issues with a lot of man-hating breakup records from the likes of Beyonce and Pink that we'll be getting too in the future, is that they're angry and full of hate, but still try to paint their protagonist as a sympathetic and almost deity like figure. Particularly Beyonce. The issue with those songs is that they're revenge fantasies through and through and seldom deal with the nitty gritty and pure emotion of a traumatic breakup. Kelis's "Caught Out There" therefore succeeds for me because it is pretty much the entire feeling of anger summed up in a three minute record; Kelis goes there in a way that the likes of Beyonce always shy away from. She's not poised or dignified, she's pissed as hell and letting you know it. And that's OK. There's no better record to listen to when you want to punch a wall.