Bardot's third single, "Love will find a way," from the group's second album, is out now!

Often credited with being the first Popstars group, Bardot was actually the second group to be created, after New Zealand's True Bliss. However, as True Bliss faded into obscurity relatively quickly, it's no surprise that everyone has forgotten about them. Bardot was created in the first Australian series of Popstars. Australia is, to my knowledge, the most prolific Popstar band producer, and auditions for the third set of Popstars in the country (the latest series is looking for a solo artist) are currently taking place.

Bardot are four girls; Belinda, Sally, Sophie and Tiffany, and their line-up has changed twice. The group originally consisted of all of the current members minus Tiffany, plus two girls called Katie and Chantelle. Chantelle didn't last in the group for long at all, so most people wouldn't consider her to have ever really been part of the band. There were allegations that she had been stealing from the other girls, and at the time there were a lot of rumours going around about why she left the group, although I don't know what the real reason was. After Chantelle's departure, another finalist from the show was chosen to replace her. Tiffany is not a bad singer, but I think she was partly chosen because of the colour of her hair (after all, each member has to look different!)! The other member, Katie, was with the group for a long time, but left a few months ago to pursue a career on the stage. She was to star in a musical which was unfortunately cancelled at the last minute, and so I don't really know what she's doing now.

The Popstars series was hugely popular when it first began in Australia. I remember seeing the ads for it months in advance, and I think everyone was prepared to watch it when it finally came along. Reality shows had just started to become popular, and so it was really the perfect time to have a show like this. Millions of people tuned in every week, and I think it was one of the most watched shows ever in Australia. When the final group was chosen, they decided to call themselves Bardot. It's a pretty silly sounding name, in my opinion! And interestingly enough, they are still refered to as Popstars at record stores like HMV! The first series of Popstars didn't just result in the creation of one band. Some of those who didn't make it into the final group formed their own bands. For example, the Poptarts, consisting of five Popstars finalists, performed on the TV show Good News Week, as well as the Logies awards ceremony. They didn't release any singles, however. Another three girls formed the group Tatu. They released a single, but unfortunately didn't achieve any success with it.

I think it's fair to say that all of the girls have a bit of talent, although some have more than others. But Bardot is not one of those groups like Destiny's Child, where one person sings all the time... It's more like the Spice Girls, where there are a couple of members who probably sing more than others, but everyone gets a go. You don't hear Belinda sing often, and I don't think she has the greatest voice. Sally has a pretty good voice, and Tiffany isn't a bad singer either, I guess, although I don't particularly like her voice. There isn't much to say about Sophie; she's okay. She used to work at Warner Brothers' Movie World on the Gold Coast, like a lot of singers have done, performing as Marilyn Monroe. **g**

Bardot's music isn't bad. It's good to see more pop bands in Australia! We have a small music industry here here, and few pop singers, although that is now starting to change. For a long time, grunge and alternative was popular here, but recently we've seen the rise of pop music. Bardot's first single 'Poison' was an instant number one hit, due to the popularity of the show more than anything else. Bardot is unfortunately one of several Popstars bands whose mediocre music obscures any great talent the band might otherwise have. It's not hard to see that their first album was hastily put together. 'Poison' is a typical sort of pop song, and was fairly catchy. The second single, 'I should've never let you go', is a bit repetitive but it's a pretty good song. About the time that the third single was released, it all started to go downhill for Bardot. 'These days' was a pretty ordinary song. Their music wasn't bad, but wasn't really anything special either, and they weren't doing enough to keep the public interested.

After several months, it seemed that the group might have disappeared for good. Katie left the group around this time, and no one really heard much of Bardot for quite a while. However, the group came back with a new image and a new sound in 2001. Their latest plan to get attention to their music seems to be 'wear as little as possible!', but it seems to be working well enough for them! Their comeback single was 'A.S.A.P', which was again a repetitive, kind of annoying but catchy pop song. But it followed the upbeat, edgy, created pop music style that seems to be popular right now, and it comes out sounding okay, if you like that sort of thing. However, it has a stupid story with even stupider lyrics about some guy's mum interfering in a relationship. Bardot. Just when I thought it couldn't get much worse, they released a second single from their new album, called 'I need somebody'. This was a failed attempt at dance music, I think! I don't like this trashy, tuneless dance music, but it appears that there are a lot of people who do! Having been released in late October/early November, the song has reached the top 10 on the Australian charts and is still climbing, for reasons unknown. All I can say is that I hope their new album contains some better material than what we've seen so far! Otherwise, I think it may be their last! The group's latest single is 'Love will find a way', and it's not a bad song, although it's not particularly good either.