Sugababes’ Keisha Buchanan reveals she was ‘KIDNAPPED’ from school and missed doing her GCSEs
SUGABABES singer Keisha Buchanan has revealed that she was KIDNAPPED from school – shortly before achieving her first hit with the band.
The 41-year-old singer first joined the group at the tender age of 13 and they signed their first record contract in 1998.
But the singer has now revealed how she was kidnapped in 2000 – shortly before the band’s debut single Overload hit the UK top 10.
Keisha revealed that she was taken by a man from school for several hours before she was returned home.
The scary incident caused her parents to decide it was no longer safe for the star to go to school, resulting in her missing her GCSEs.
Keisha, who won The Masked Singer earlier this year, made the confession on the Live, Laugh, Luke podcast.
The Push The Button hitmaker said: “I had like this incident right before my GCSEs where I was kidnapped.
“So, because it was quite a traumatic experience, my parents were, like, ‘yeah, so we’re going to do a different type of education.’
“So I kind of finished like my education, but I just couldn’t do my GCSEs.”
Keisha had been preparing to debut with the Sugababes at the time and had already left school to focus on music but had briefly returned in order to sit her GCSEs just before they released their first single at the time of the incident.
In the interview, she revealed that she wasn’t able to share more details of the scary incident as she planned to tell the full story in her impending autobiography.
Keisha did add: “I was basically taken after school by someone.
“I think I just sort of blocked it and then had to just get back into, you know, promotion of our first single.”
Keisha revealed how she was held captive for a number of hours – an experience that left her seeking therapy from the age of 16.
The Sugababes – which also comprised of Mutya Buena and Siobhan Donaghy – released their first song Overload in early September 2000 with Keisha having been expected to sit her GCSEs in May and June of the same year.
Elsewhere, she confessed that only Siobhan ultimately ended up being accepted back into school for the exams after all three originally left in order to record their debut album, One Touch, over the course of two years.
Despite at first claiming her parents pulled her out of school as a result of the terrifying kidnapping incident, Keisha then appeared to suggest the school had refused to re-enroll her for examinations anyway.
She said: “We ended up leaving school. Siobhan went back to school to take her GCSEs and they accepted her back.
“When Mutya and I tried to get back, they were so rude.
“They were like, ‘Oh no, no, no, you’re not coming back. Like you guys thought you were going to be these pop stars. Let’s see what’s going to happen.’
“So they wouldn’t accept us back.”
Keisha further stated that she discussed the kidnapping ordeal in very early promotional interviews for their debut single but has since kept it out of public view and intends to tell the lengthy story in her own memoir.
The popstar is the longest serving member of the band and has been involved in nearly all of their musical releases.
She was famously sacked from the group in 2009 amid disagreements between the members at the time.
Original stars Siobhan and Mutya had both previously left in 2001 and 2005.
They were replaced by Heidi Range and Amelle Berrebah who worked with Keisha until September 2009.
Their record label that opted to replace her with Eurovision star Jade Ewen for their 2010 album, Sweet 7.
Jade re-recorded Keisha’s parts for the record but the final line-up formation ended up splitting after their flop 2011 single, Freedom.
Keisha then reunited with Siobhan and Mutya in 2012 and released their first single as a reunited trio in 2013, Flatline.
Amid a legal war, they eventually gained back the rights to using the name Sugababes in 2019 with the original trio having been performing ever since including a sell-out arena tour, countless festival appearances and two well-received Glastonbury sets.
They released three new singles last year – Jungle, Weeds and Shook – amid a rumoured new album expected later this year.