Sorry to any 00s boybands out there but apparently you weren’t actually that hot, according to All Saints legend Melanie Blatt.
In 1997, girl group All Saints released their debut self-titled album and were an instant success with everyone wanting to be just like them.
Melanie, along with Shaznay Lewis and sisters Nicole and Natalie Appleton, became not only huge musical successes but fashion icons too.
Even Steps star Claire Richards once revealed that the Tragedy hitmakers used to wish they were ‘cool’ like the Pure Shores legends.
While Melanie disagrees with this perception of All Saints, she declared she wouldn’t want to be part of any other group — unless there were fit guys involved.
‘No offence but All Saints was the best, I was happy to be in it,’ the 49-year-old star told after affectionately calling her bandmates ‘nerds’.
‘I’m trying to think where there were some fit boys or something,’ Melanie joked. ‘Then I’ll go to their band, but the boys … I don’t think there were.
‘Boybands back in the day, were not actually very attractive. If you look at them on their own, each of them … well, you know what young eyes are like — blind eyes.
‘They were shuffling around, doing a little dance routine and suddenly they’re hot. Not personally for me.’
While Mel might not have been swooning over Blue and Boyzone, everyone was falling for All Saints, but the star dismissed being in the public eye as a ‘weird’ experience.
‘You don’t really think about it, definitely not back then’ she continued. ‘But even now, if you think about how other people are seeing you, you’re going to think in a negative way.
‘You’re never going to think somebody thinks I’m really amazing. I don’t think we really thought about it.
‘We definitely didn’t feel cool; we always thought we were just nerds.’
All Saints were more than music icons, although they certainly made a chart impact and have one of the best-selling girl group albums of all time.
Melanie and the group became fashion icons too, influencing British fashion with their signature cargo trousers in every performance and photoshoot.
Suddenly, baggy trousers were everywhere and became a style staple of the 90s and 00s.
The Y2K movement has meant those clothes are now back in fashion and Melanie’s daughter, Lilyella, is diving into her now vintage wardrobe.
She is also working with Whatnot, an online selling platform after the brand discovered a quarter of Brits want to bring 00s fashion into their daily style.
Two in five Gen Z even declared the post-millennium decade as one of their favourites, culturally.
‘I’m really happy with what they’ve picked up on, thank you Gen Z. I’m loving it,’ laughed the Never Ever hitmaker. ‘I mean baggy trousers are my life because I hate my legs.
‘I just love that aesthetic like you know sexy tight on top but it’s a wash on the bottom. You can poop your pants nobody would know.’
She emphasises this is the most important thing clothing should do for you – hide any unfortunate accidents.
While her signature style is back in fashion Mel confessed she feels a lot of pressure to maintain the persona and look she cultivated as a teen.
The Heaven singer shared: ‘When people remember you from a certain time and you get older and you don’t look the same anymore, you don’t act the same anymore. I do feel the pressure to just look like that still.
‘But I have words with myself often to be like “Let it go. You are getting older. It’s okay.” So I do try to talk myself off the ledge when it comes to beauty standards these days.
‘I’m just trying to tell myself that I’m fine as I am and everybody should be doing that.’
Now, Mel takes life at a much ‘chiller’ pace.
Long gone is the ‘mouthy’ teenager and instead she quite frankly doesn’t want to do anything arduous – tours and new All Saints music included.
She joked: ‘I’m a very lazy person. So I don’t want to do anything. I just want to be rich, thanks. Rich and doing nothing, that’s the plan.
‘I might want to fall in love as well but I’d take rich and doing nothing first.’