It has been a long time since Whatmore appeared on Pop Idol (2001, to be exact), and famously refused Simon Cowell's marriage proposal. It's almost as long since she troubled the charts with two Top 20 singles and then saw her debut album shelved.
Rather than joining the ranks of other reality TV failures, Whatmore has spent the intervening years writing music for other artists. Now she is back with a new solo single, Smile, which is built around a sample of Hall And Oates's 70s pop hit Sara Smile.
It would be all too easy to hate Whatmore, with her Pop Idol background, golden good looks, and breathy soul-lite vocals ticking all the right boxes for the kind of vacuous pop that clutters up the charts.
So, it is pleasing to report that this is a cracking little pop song that manages to sugarcoat its melancholic lyric with a summery, upbeat production. True, the tune is carried by the Hall And Oates vocal sample, but the producers are savvy enough to give Whatmore room to showcase her talents in the verses. The end result deserves to at least equal the success of her reality TV generated singles.
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