Come in and meet the flyest women Nadine, Chanal, Annie, forming one of the most exciting R&B female forms – M.O. After their breakout single ‘Bad Vibe’ featuring Lotto Boyz and Mr Eazi, M.O established themselves as leading R&B female act in the county with over 71 million streams across all platforms.
Last month, M.O released their feature with AJ Tracey ‘Choose Sides’, a banger that confirms M.O’s ability to produce material of high calibre, tropical sound, uplifting hooks, and hypnotizing baseline.
It’s been a while since a strong trio of women dived into our playlists that was more just one hit wonder. Nadine, Chanal, and Annie, each gives us a fun fact to introduce themselves. What’s up girls?
Nadine: What’s going on! I’m Nadine from M.O – A fact about me is that when I was younger, to teach myself how to sing because I wasn’t the best, I wasn’t! I really wasn’t great; I could always sing a tune, but I had a bigger dream! So, I used to sit by a tape recorder, and I would rewind and fast forward a line of a song and keep mimicking it and copying it until I felt like it was good. Yeah, I’d just sit there in my room for hours singing on repeat with my Mum in the background telling me to shut up!
Chanal: Annie is crazy because she’s going to say this isn’t true and that my dog is wild but trust me; this is the most interesting fact about myself. I have trained my dog to walk itself. My dog literally just takes himself off for a walk, comes back half an hour later. My dog is the most well-behaved dog, Ever.
Annie: Off the top of my head, the one thing I would describe my personality as, is Northern. If you don’t know what Northerners are like, we’re great.
Now that we know a little something about the girls from M.O, Annie shares insight into how the three of them came together: “Before forming M.O, Nadine and I knew each other because we were in a teeny bopper’s group, we put ourselves together at the age of 16. We were in a former group, just a young thing, nothing too serious. So, we became friends through that and then when that group went its separate ways me and Nadine stuck together because we always had the same vision of what we wanted to do. We loved the same music and artists, so the vision of what we wanted to do and create was very similar. We then came across Chanal doing her own thing and just thought she was sick. She was doing very similar music to what Nadine and I loved, so we just asked her if she wanted to meet up and get in the studio, the vibe was sick, we gelled straight away, and the rest is history”.
For artistic visionaries, it is easy to clash with other characters, but M.O seems like they have it figured out. Besides their organic formation back in 2012, Nadine reveals the meaning behind their stage name and how simple it was for them to agree on it: “M.O stands for Modus Operandi, which is Latin for Mode of Operation – it means a particular way of doing something to achieve your dreams or goals. It’s a really positive reminder for us as a group. We also always wanted something a bit different, not a normal name. We wanted a letter or a single word, maybe that comes from the fact that we loved TLC and thought they were cool. When we came across it and looked up the meaning, we all said this is perfect, and it just makes sense to us”, Nadine explains.
With every female formation, there is a given responsibility to portray a strong role model for other women. M.O is a prime example. Their music is nothing but good vibes, and that is exactly what they wish to stand for. “I really want the fans to take some positivity, strength, and any happiness that they can from our music. Hopefully, our music is fun and would uplift someone if they were feeling down – especially when we come to writing about deeper stuff, I would genuinely like to think that our music could really help someone to be themselves, have fun and to just go for everything they want. I feel like that’s what we’re trying to do, we’re just three normal girls. So, hopefully, we can inspire people in that way, to go for their dreams and just have a laugh in life”, Nadine addresses their down to earth personalities.
Nadine then goes on by discussing the beginnings compared with their newest work on ‘Bad Vibe’ and ‘Choose Sides’: “Early projects… it’s quite interesting because we were in a completely different place back then. It’s been six years, maybe even a bit more, so from going back to me at a very young age writing ‘Wait Your Turn’ or ‘Ain’t Got Time’ and coming out of it where I would make a fry up – is a bit mad. It’s interesting to see the distance we’ve come”.
She continues: “‘Bad Vibes’ has just gone platinum and ‘Choose Sides with AJ Tracey’ – I think it really shows the journey. If you were a fan from day one, you could see everything about us, even how young we looked! It was a lot rawer back then, we were still finding ourselves, so naturally, the music has changed, the industry has changed. It’s so interesting to look back and see the growth. It’s mad.”
After M.O blessed us with the smash ‘Bad Vibe,’ you really could not avoid their stardom. Now that it is a platinum single, Chanal talks about the impact of its immense success: “It’s a dream come true, it’s amazing to know people hear our voices, and it brings joy to them. The number of times I have been told ‘Bad Vibe’ has made someone’s day is a blessing. We really do try to live by it and encourage our fans and listeners to be positive and not be subjected to negative thoughts or behaviour”.
When it comes to their collaboration with AJ Tracey on ‘Choose Sides,’ M.O wants you to be blunt about your feelings and simply go for it: “The theme behind ‘Choose Sides’ is all about taking risks. If you’re feeling someone then you should just be upfront about it. We’re also playing with the idea that you shouldn’t have to compromise, your way or my way if you like each other you’ve just got to go for”.
Summer brings out the best out of all of us, but Chanal touches upon the drive musicians have during the festival season: “Being a musician is fascinating because of the competition it sparks, good competition! You are always trying to get that number 1 track or top 5, so doing loads of festivals and radio interviews with some of the most popping artists during summer when everyone is most active is extremely exhilarating! We look forward to traveling and being active no matter the season, but summer always gives us that extra ‘YAS BITC H’ feeling!”
Don’t sleep on the women from M.O. Nadine, Chanal, and Annie are at the forefront of UK R&B music scene ready to go international. Later this year, M.O will release an EP with a headline show in November with dates coming soon.
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Words: Karolina Kramplova