http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/music/news/a205800/buchanan-sues-over-sugababes-name.html

Keisha Buchanan is reportedly suing the current Sugababes in an attempt to stop the band from using its name.

Buchanan was asked to leave the band last year and was replaced by Jade Ewen. The move meant that none of the original Sugababes members were still involved in the band.

According to the Sunday Mirror, Buchanan has now launched a legal bid to claim a stake in the band, which she founded in 1998.

The High Court action reportedly demands that the current Sugababes members - Ewen, Heidi Range and Amelle Berrabah - either change the group's name or pay her a one-off sum, which could amount to millions of pounds.

"This is a landmark case and will send shockwaves through the industry," a source said. "The Sugababes are one of the most successful girlbands of all time, but if they are forced to change their name it would be absolutely disastrous for them.

"It would be very hard for them to maintain any credibility if they had no original band members and were called something else.

"Keisha was an integral member from the very beginning so it is easy to understand why she is acting like this. She even came up with the band's name with fellow founder member Mutya Buena and deserves something for making the Sugababes what they are today."

Range recently claimed that being in the Sugababes was "unbearable" before the lineup change.

Dont know how true it is

I don't believe this, if keisha was going to sue them, she would have done it when she left. Why would she do it nearly 6 months on?  Anyway she did an interview a few weeks ago saying that she forgives Heidi and Amelle and she has cried all her tears and is moving on.  The papers talk rubbish!

I don't think this is true either. Keisha doesn't own the name and neither did Siobhan or Mutya. Had Keisha wanted to sue she would have done so months ago in the hope of stopping the album from getting released, at least under the Sugababes name, not to mention she herself has said she's moved on and is working on solo material. And then you factor in that when she left in September they said she was given a solo recording deal and a 6-figure settlement sum to leave the group (so upwards of £100,000) I doubt she would have a leg to stand on in a court case.

I was having a discussion about this with a friend earlier and she brought up something that a lot of fans who sway more towards Keisha's side of the fence seem to be saying and that is that Keisha was the main song writer for the group and so has a legitimate claim to the name and the songs that the new line-up are now singing so I did a little research into the song writers of the singles that have been released by Sugababes since Heidi joined and there are actually very few songs that may even pose a problem for the new line-up should anything happen since they were either written by someone else or included Heidi on the writing team, here's the list (with Sugababes members highlighted):

I miss the days when you would open up a Sugababes album,look in the inlay card and see their names in the writing credits. What i also find really disappointing is that they hardly write anymore, just look at their last 4 singles.They also said in an intervies that the band 'Orson' wrote 'Easy' so why are their names in the credits for that song. And they also said a couple of years back that Heidi and keisha wrote most of the 'Taller in more ways' album because Mutya was pregnant.

GOOD on keisha!

Sugababes are keeping the name 'Sugababes'. They were just on capital radio at their album launch party and heidi said then. So all the papers were talking S***!

 I love your post.  Actually Keisha explained the writing credits in an interview she did during "Catfights & Spotlights" with Amelle.  She said the way the contracts were drawn up were that each of the girls get writing credits for the songs.  She said that Mutya was not present at all during any of the "Taller In More Ways" era, she said she didn't write anything.  Even during recording, Mutya would come in and do her vocals separate from the other girls.  So in reality Mutya didn't write a thing according to Keisha for "Taller In More Ways", she said it was just her and Heidi.  But that all changed with the "Change" album apparently.  Writing credits went to the people who wrote the songs.

It's weird - I've heard so many conflicting things about the making of Taller In More Ways. I remember the interview where Keisha stated that she and Heidi wrote everything for that album, with Mutya only contributing to Red Dress - however Mutya later stated she hated Red Dress, which would suggest she had nothing to do with it. Also, after leaving, Mutya confessed that she was unhappy with 3.0 releasing Follow Me Home due to the fact that the first verse was written by her as a tribute to her daughter - basically contradicting everything Keisha had stated. As for Catfights, I admit I was very surprised to see that everything on that album had been predominantly written by Keisha alone.

I was just thinking, Keisha must have started being difficult after  'Catfights and spotlights' was cut short because of dissapointing sales because Heidi and Amelle said that over the last year they had been trying to make things work. Also there were stories in the paper this time last year that Sugababes had split up, (does anyone remember?) I think this might have been true but they decided to give it another go,it all adds up.  Also some people have been saying that Heidi,Amelle and jade shouldn't keep the name but i think they should because - 1, Heidi was signed to Universal records with Keisha and Mutya as Sugababes -2, Heidi has been in the group for 90% of the album sales and all of the groups number 1's -3, Amelle was part of their biggest selling single ever 'About you now' and -4, If heidi ever leaves then i don't think they should be Sugababes, i think if someone else leaves they should break up

To be honest I think the divide happened before the Catfights and Spotlights album. Heidi and Keisha were co-writers on all of the albums from Angels With Dirty Faces through Change, Keisha only had one more writing credit than Heidi on those four albums (Whatever Makes You Happy) and yet on Catfights and Spotlights Heidi and Amelle barely appear in the writing credits. Why did Heidi and Keisha not get together to write more songs like they always did before? Granted it could have been to do with the album being thrown out so quickly meaning they just used songs Keisha had already written but it was more likely because they were growing further apart, spending less time with each other.

Then when Girls wasn't received greatly and they were quite widely panned for releasing it as a lead single, followed up by Catfights and Spotlights, which was largely Keisha driven, bombing by Sugababes standards and then No Can Do not even making the top 20, it probably pushed things to the edge. Then it seems as though things really blew up when Amelle and Tinchy got to number one because the following few weeks were quite a rollercoaster resulting in Amelle not showing up for performances and Keisha then being removed from the group by the management and record label.

I was listening to Little Miss Perfect again today and I wonder if it's a coincidence that Heidi sings that first verse "I'm the most responsible girl that I know, never late, always on time for the show, ask anyone around me and they'll tell you just how I am" - Heidi may have been as upset as Amelle as things were kicking off and yet she still soldiered on and continued with the shows, continued with Keisha. Personally I think she deserves a lot of respect for that.

And again with Heidi's contribution if you don't include the two charity singles released, Sugababes have, as of today, released 25 singles, which makes it easy when looking at percentages as relates to each of the six Sugababes and what percentage of singles they have appeared on.

Keisha - 23 - 92% - 6 albums

Heidi - 21 - 84% - 6 albums

Mutya - 14 - 56% - 4 albums

Amelle - 11 - 44 % - 3 albums

Siobhan - 4 - 16% - 1 album

Jade - 2 - 8% - 1 album

With just two more singles Heidi and Jade would tie with Keisha and Siobhan respectively in terms of singles released as a Sugababe and Amelle would be just 1 behind Mutya in terms of singles she has released as a Sugababe, so in terms of contributions to Sugababes, should 4.0 release 2 more singles, they will pretty much technically have the same claim to the group as the original 3 members do in terms of releases, whether they are original members or not.

I was also just thinking that should Keisha release solo material this year as was stated, it would be interesting if all fans of 4.0 who were buying their singles didn't buy Keisha's debut single, even if they wanted to, in its first week of release, waiting until the second week to purchase it if they wanted. The reason I say that is because a lot of people seem to be slating the current line-up of Sugababes, but how many of them will actually then buy Keisha's records?

Also, all of these people claiming 1.0 was the superior line-up and dismissing Heidi's contributions, did they all buy the first album, One Touch that didn't sell more than 50,000 copies in its first year of release resulting in the group being dropped by their label? Only going on to sell another 200,000 copies steadily in the years after Heidi joined the group.

And if there are so many Keisha supporters out there, where were they when Catfights and Spotlights didn't sell well over the past 16 months? They obviously weren't buying her records despite being die-hard fans.

Now don't get me wrong, I have loved all 4 line-ups, I have been a fan since Overload and like all 6 members, or did, having bought every album released by Sugababes, Mutya and Siobhan, but the apparent love of the first line up when it wasn't really there when they were making records or during the original Sugababes solo careers in terms of sales really does baffle me.