Nobody's Angel - Nobody's Angel (2000)

Nobody's Angel (not to be confused with German girl group No Angels) was a group of four teen girls who got together after enduring auditions for various film, television and music projects. They originally consisted of Ali Navarro, Stacey Harper, Amy Sue Hardy and Sarah Smith. They were obviously meant to capitalize on the success of Britney Spears and the Spice Girls. But, as with my previous postee Innosense and dozens of other girl groups, they were too late in the game. The Spice Girls were out of favour and hip hop was beginning to rule the pop charts. To no one but the record label's surprise, the album flopped. The single "If You Wanna Dance" found itself (just barely) on the dance charts, but that would be the end of any chart appearances for the girls. They did appear on television (with a guest appearance on Boy Meets World) and soundtracks (The Parent Trap), but the exposure did little to form a fan base for the group. Stacey and Amy Sue left the group in 2001 and were replaced by actress Jennie Kwan from NBC kiddie-com California Dreams and Tai Amber Hoo. They recorded a second album, but it was shelved, no doubt due to lack of audience interest. Tai Amber ended up briefly in another girl group, Gyrl, and Ali eventually also joined another girl group, the controversial Fem 2 Fem (also on the Isle). The sound of Nobody's Angel is pure Spice Girls, especially "If You Wanna Dance", which sounds like a Spice Girls outtake. Interestingly, the majority of the album was co-produced by Mike More, one half of Or-N-More, whose album is also featured here.

UPDATE:   Ali, aka Alitzah Wiener-Dallas, just wrote me on Facebook and was more than gracious enough to share a detailed account of the group's experiences.  It is a fascinating look into the machinations of the music industry.  I think you'll greatly enjoy her recollections.  Thanks a TON, Ali. I'm sure many Isle devotees and visitors will be thrilled! :)

"Hi! This is Ali from Nobody's Angel.  First I want to take the time to say thank you for including us in your blog, but I also want to mention there are some false facts in the blog. Nobody's Angel first album was solely produced by Andrew Logan and Mike Moore. Our first album, which was released February of 2000, actually sold very well, almost 500,000 units. We actually did have a very awesome fan base - it was our fan base that kept Nobody's Angel alive in a market that was being over-saturated by manufactured bands. The record industry is very political and there are a lot of things that go on behind the scenes that fans don't know about it. Reality TV started around that time so now Nobody's Angel was competing with bands who were auditioning to be a group and having instant promo on TV that reached the masses, unlike us, who were out grinding on the road only living off of per diem . I know on TV they make it look so glamorous but that's not the way it really is. Nobody's Angel actually had a TV holding deal with ABC and were slated to do a TV show.  That is how we were introduced on Boy Meets World.  The producer/creator of Boy Meets World was to be the producer of the Nobody's Angel TV show. Unfortunately, one of our music producers from our first album became greedy and tanked the deal for everyone.  Nobody's Angel had been approached by WB network to do a reality show but we turned it down because we were gung-ho on wanting to be taken serious as vocalists and actresses. Once I found out there was shadiness going on in our camp from management, producers, etc., I knew we needed to clean house. I then brought in my childhood friends Jennie Kwan and Tai Hoo to become the new Nobody's Angel and we got new management, etc.. With the new Nobody's Angel, we recorded two songs for the soundtrack Princess Diaries, which earned us a Gold Record. We then started writing and producing our second record with producers Matthew Gerrard, Access Denied and Schaffer Smith (Ne-Yo). The album was off the charts ."I'd Like To Be " and "Out Of My Life " were not demos, they were songs from the never-released album. While we were recording we were offered another TV deal with ABC Family, which we were super excited about. We couldn't wait to go on the road and show our fan-base a new grown up look and sound.  We were all very hands on and we were taking our career into our own hands. Well, right when our TV show was supposed to go into pre-production, ABC Family got a new president, so Nobody's Angel had to get re-approved from the new president. The new president approved the forward movement of the Nobody's Angel TV Show, BUT then a week later ABC Family decided to take their network in a whole new direction and the Nobody's Angel show was dropped.  So, now being the end of 2002 and music changing and radio not wanting to play girl bands and boy bands, the record company (Hollywood Records) told us girls that without the TV show they were not gonna put big dollars into marketing the 2nd album, which, if you don't know, means bands go on the road and make per diem only, unless they make TV appearances or make money from sponsorships, etc.. Our advance was almost gone (an advance is what an artist gets from the record company, basically a salary so you can record an album and promote it and live off, but it's given at the beginning of the recording process).  Now a year into an advance, since all of us girls lived on our own and clearly had bills to pay, our advance was quickly coming to an end.  So myself , Sarah, Tai, Jennie, our wonderful manager Wil Sharpe and our A&R Steffen Phelps (who signed Nobody's Angel) all met for dinner to decide the fate of Nobody's Angel. It was a very sad day for us all when we came to the conclusion to end Nobody's Angel, not because we wanted to, but we would've all made more money working a basic minimum wage job then to spend months promoting an album and not have the full support financially of the record company. With the start of illegal downloads, record companies were losing money and reality TV was skyrocketing. It was becoming a whole new world for the entertainment business. 

It was a wonderful time for Nobody's Angel.  We loved every moment of it. We thank everyone who supported us and actually still support us in our new ventures. 

Fem 2 Fem was something I did for 1.5 seconds prior to Nobody's Angel. :) I'm very close still to our manager, our A&R Steffen, Sarah, Jennie and Tai. All 4 of us continued acting, singing, etc., and all are wonderfully happy doing what we love to do. The best thing that came out of a Nobody's Angel was that I met my husband Dallas from the group Youngstown . Dallas and I still write and produce music. Our latest venture is a kid show I created called Twinkle Time!"

Download Nobody's Angel

1		If You Wanna Dance
2		I Can't Help Myself
3		Boom Boom
4		Next Stop Heaven
5		Keep Me Away
6		Right There Waiting
7		Ooh La La La
8		Wishing On You
9		Absolutely Maybe
10		Sugardaddy
11		Nobody
12		Cherry Crush
13		We Are Family (Angel's Style)