My '90s Girl Group | The Loop With Donna Ruko

Hello, I'm Donna Ruko, and this is The Loop. Today, we are talking: Nineties girl bands.
So, nineties girl bands -- why we talking nineties girl bands? Well, because yours truly
was in one. What can I say? Yep, that complete craze that took over the nineties of girl
bands and boy bands, yep. Yep, I was in amongst it all. I was in a girl band called N-Tyce.
I say, girl band -- I should actually say, girl group. Because when you think of girl
band, you think of someone who plays instruments. But that's not the case, we were vocalists.
We were signed with Telstar Records from 1996 to '99, and we were licensed to Sony-Colombia
Worldwide. We went on the road. We went on tour with people like Boyzone, Backstreet
Boys, 'N Sync, and had an absolutely amazing time, as you can imagine. We had four singles.
We had "Hey DJ", "We Come to Party", "Telefunkin", and "Boom Boom". And then we released one
album called "All Day Every Day" We were obviously compared to the Spice Girls a lot. I think
any girl group who had come out at that time was, you know, getting compared to them. I
was asked frequently, "Are you the next Spice Girls?" Say, "Oh you look like this one" or
"You could be Sporty Tyce", "You could be Scary Tyce" -- because we were N-Tyce. So
we were just like "okay". Still to this day, I get compared to Mel B all the time. And
now that I'm here in America, even more so because I think they just see curly hair,
brown skin, and hear and accent, and they're like: "Oh my god! Scary Spice!" I do remember
one thing when it came to shooting the "Telefunkin" video: They'd applied a lot of make-up, we
were moaning about that. We were like, "Do we have to wear all this make-up?" And then
they wanted us to wear these push-up bras. And they were putting us in, like, double
bras, like a bra on top of a bra, to give us more boob. And I remember saying: "Do you
know what? No. My parents, my grandmother, my grandfather is not gonna approve of this."
I was like, I'm not having my boobs touch my chin. I said, I'm taking one of the bras
off. So that's what I did. I stuck by my guns! Do not ask me what the big hair was all about
in the "Telefunkin" video. I have no idea. I think one of my favorite videos that we
shot was the "We Come to Party" video because that was shot in the middle of Time Square,
most of it. They actually cornered off the whole area of Time Square. So, if you see
the video and look in the background of when we're, like, walking through Time Square,
you'll see everyone kind of like behind barriers just standing there, like, watching the whole
thing going on. I got my first taste of hosting when I was in the group. We were called in
-- there was a couple of us who were called into host MTV. I had no idea what I was doing.
It was just like… They gave us an ear prompter. And in the ear prompter, you know, in the
control room, they tell you when to kind of wrap it up because we're coming up to a break
or, you know, you need to mention this, or don't forget that. Because it was a two hour
live show called MTV Select. And I'm there live on camera with the ear piece, just talking
away, like, just so unprofessional -- I had no idea what I was doing. So they're talking
to me in the ear piece, and most professionals would be able to continue talking and just,
yeah, get the information and move through it, but there's me, like: "Yeah, yeah, okay.
Right, then." Oh my god, it'd be funny to see that. Oh boy. Once I moved to America,
we stayed in touch for like a, you know, a year or so, and then just things fizzled out,
you know? It's really bad, isn't it? You let life kind of -- I don't wanna say get in they
way -- but, you know, your priorities change, and things change. And, yeah, you start realizing:
Oh my god, I mean, I've been in America now for like seven and a half years. And time
flies. I'm like, my goodness, it's just… Where does it all go? So, I think at this
point, it would be rude not to give a shout out to some of the past, present and future
girl groups out there. Let's start with En Vogue, Pointer Sisters, SWV, Pussycat Dolls,
3LW, B*Witched, Eternal, Supremes, Bananarama, Spice Girls, Girls Aloud, Destiny's Child,
TLC, Sugababes, Sister Sledge, Total. The list goes on. I could go on all day. But a
big shout out to you ladies. You're all Livestrong Women. Well, that's all for me this week.
Thank you for watching The Loop right here on Livestrong Woman. Have a fabulous, fun,
fit and healthy week. I'll see you soon.