thank you to the 28 participants who voted over the past few weeks... last place coming tonight

tatu to win!

Feel this is likely to be Sophie vs Tatu.

Hoping for strong showings from Avril, Emma and Stacie.

23 Atomic Kitten - Ladies Night

avg: 5.34

👑 Pop Royalty: 10 (JosephStyles), 9 (gooddelta, lewistgreen)

❌ Pop Flop: 0 (Dobbo), 1 (blacksquare)

A large portion of BuzzJackers chose to swiftly exit the Kitten Club on their roller skates so 'Ladies Night' has finished rock bottom of the first Pop Princesses rate.

British girl-group Atomic Kitten - at the time comprising of Jenny Frost, Natasha Hamilton and Liz McClarnon - were approached by Kool & The Gang to cover 'Ladies Night' for a tribute album named The Hits: Reloaded, which also featured other y2k pop peers such as Blue, Liberty X and Jamelia. It served as the lead single from this project, as well as single #2 from the girls' then untitled third studio album, later named Ladies Night once they had the green light for the title track's inclusion. Lead single 'If You Come To Me' had reached #3 earlier in Q4 of 2003 and 'Ladies Night' rounded off the year with a #8 peak, out-charting the original Kool & The Gang version, which had peaked at #9 back in 1979. This U.K. chart placement was an 11th top 10 single for the girls but brought a run of 7 consecutive top 5s to an end. 'Ladies Night' would have the last laugh, as in 2021 it was revealed by the OCC that it had outsold 'If You Come To Me', thus taking the crown of top-selling Ladies Night single in the long run - plus it is their seventh biggest hit overall.

I scoured the Wikipedia page of this song for any potentially fun trivia and instead the wording of "...they primarily dance in a row, with two rows of men behind them, though occasionally they are straddling the fellows" from the music video synopsis paragraph gave me a good chuckle.

'Ladies Night' is track 6 on Pop Princesses but its average fell short of this figure - with a 5.34 score, the only sub-6 result of the rate. Joseph was particularly ready to step out on this ladies night, with a generous score of 10, while Dobbo did not think the feeling was right, therefore assigning it 0.

I used to be obsessed with this cover, it topped my personal chart 😂 I know it's naff but it's very fun for me. It peaked so low only because it was a busy Christmas chart I guess, sales were good.

I have not looked at everyone's rate but my gosh at 'Ladies Night' being the lowest by far. Can't help but somewhat enjoy it myself.

And yeah, t.A.T.u. to place very high I think.

Edited March 9Mar 9 by AllStarBySmashMouth

Rubbish cover that one

Love the MSN/PicsArt style graphics

As a big Atomic Kitten fan, 'Ladies Night' is not a favourite, however, it's from my favourite album of theirs!

I decided nothing was worthy of less than 2 in this but “Ladies Night” was nonetheless my bottom placing. Absolute nothing of a cover - what an insult that it entered ahead of the fabulous “Too Lost In You” that week as well!

I do like atomic kitten but the ladies night cover wasnt needed as it added nothing to what was already a very dreary song for me.

Sorry to have missed the rate but I'll try to follow the results!

I guess it shouldn't be too surprising to see 'Ladies Night' bottom place given it's a cover and the standard of songs were so high, but I have a lot of love for Atomic Kitten's version and I'd probably rate it a 9/10! Perhaps nostalgia has a lot to play because I remember it from the music channels as a kid, but I think I genuinely think it's such a bop! I've always been a fan of girl-pop covers of older hits tbf, it just plays to my interests so much.

Atomic Kitten did not deserve last place

That's a fair last placer. I don't mind it but also don't particularly rate it much either hence the 5 score.

Honestly thought Kiss Kiss would be lowest with the -1s and all. But I don't begrudge this result - never really liked that Kittens cover. If You Come To Me is so much better imo.

22 Hilary Duff - So Yesterday

avg: 6.23

👑 Pop Royalty: 11 (Billy.), 10 (...ready for it)

❌ Pop Flop: 2 (Jessie Where, lewistgreen), 3 (Julian_, Brer)

BuzzJack has given 'So Yesterday' a pretty duff placement but it still quite comfortably avoided the wooden spoon, with an average now increasing to 6.23.

Hilary Duff became a star of the screen and tabloids in the 2000s after appearing as the titular character in Disney Channel show Lizzie McGuire. She'd dabbled in music prior to 'So Yesterday', such as releasing a Christmas album and singing 'What Dreams Are Made Of' in the Lizzie McGuire Movie, which she performed live for the first time since that 2003 film just last month. However, this material was very much tailored to Radio Disney audiences. Moving forward, a slightly more mature Avril Lavigne-esque direction was on the moodboard for 'So Yesterday' and accompanying album Metamorphosis. This seemed to work for her, as break-up anthem 'So Yesterday' became Duff's first top 10 single in the U.K., reaching #9 here. It was included as track 17 on Pop Princesses the following year.

I once again must spotlight the "if the light is off, then it isn't on" lyric. Move over Lisa Scott-Lee, Hilary is the ultimate electrical chanteuse.

Anyway...

"You could say you're torn" indeed as this track received scores as low as 2 (from Jessie Where and lewistgreen) but also attracted an 11; unfortunately Billy. has the lowest placing favourite in the rate. I'm sure Hilary wouldn't mind too much, as she's otherwise having an excellent year, with her highest charting album ever in the U.K. and a popular comeback tour.

A pretty naff track.

I understand the reason for the low scores for

Holly but “Kiss Kiss” is much better than these duds so glad it’s beaten them.

Never loved So Yesterday tbh. I must've liked her a lot at one point though as I remember requesting my dad buy me her Most Wanted hits collection. This one was always more my thing:

So yesterday isnt bad but its more not memorable.

21 Holly Valance - Kiss Kiss

avg: 6.66

👑 Pop Royalty: 10 (Mango, Nina West), 9 (leww, ...ready for it, Roba., Dobbo, JosephStyles, Brer)

❌ Pop Flop: -1 (Billy., Tafty), 0 (lewistgreen)

Holly Valance finds herself lumbered with two rather unfortunate stats as 'Kiss Kiss' just misses out on the top 20, with a devilish 6.66 average at that.

Valance got her big break on Australian soap Neighbours at just 16 years of age. She left after a few years to pursue a singing career, which had already worked out for other alumni of the show such as Kylie Minogue and Natalie Imbruglia, so made sense as a launch pad once more. 'Kiss Kiss' was chosen as her debut single - alongside a memorable, racy music video that featured two bars of light strategically placed over her chest and hips. The origins of this smash hit lie with Tarkan's Turkish language song 'Şımarık', released in 1997. Greek-American singer Stella Soleil then brought out an English reworking later on in 2001. Holly covered this version the following year and sent it all the way to #1 in the U.K. singles chart, with sales of over 143k in its first week. It would later place at #14 in the EOY chart for 2002, two spots lower than its position on the Pop Princesses track list.

This was evidently a divisive song to rank! It's no secret that Holly has come out as a supporter of MAGA and Reform, plus even brought out an anti-trans version of 'Kiss Kiss' in recent times, which unfortunately pollutes the Wikipedia page of the original now. So this song, on a largely progressive forum, was bound to attract art vs. artist discourse. Billy. and Tafty sunk the average of 'Kiss Kiss' the most by giving it their -1 score. Interestingly the former has lost his 11 and -1 picks back-to-back. On the flip side, Mango and Nina West pulled this song up the most, with scores of 10.

Ha at the average...

A great song from a horrible person. Glad Delta won the battle of the early 00s Neighbours stars (even if there was some deliberate marking down at play here).