Girl group Flo: 'British R&B acts struggle to be heard'

Flo (L-R): Reneé Downer, Stella Quaresma and Jorja Douglas

2023 was supposed to be Flo's year.

A few months before the calendar flipped over, the London-based girl band made a huge splash with their debut single, Cardboard Box, a sassy kiss-off to a cheating ex that drew on the girl group sounds of En Vogue, SWV and Destiny's Child.

Selling 205,000 copies, the song helped the trio top the BBC's Sound Of 2023 poll (beating Fred Again into second place) and become the first girl group to win the Brits' Rising Star prize.

Hot on the heels of those accolades, they scored their first Top 40 hit with Fly Girl – featuring a rare guest spot from the elusive Missy Elliot.

Then... silence.

The band's debut album Access All Areas was originally slated to drop last year, but it kept getting pushed back. Usually, that means trouble behind the scenes. Internal squabbles, personnel issues, record label skullduggery.

But Jorja Douglas, Renée Downer and Stella Quaresma dismiss those clichés.

Instead, they say they were laser-focused on making the best album possible, even if it meant keeping fans waiting.

"We can't just release any old piece of music," says Douglas.

"We take it very seriously and, especially for our first album, we want to represent ourselves in the best way with the best message."

In the end, that meant scrapping a huge number of completed tracks half-way through the recording sessions.

They did so on the advice of LVRN (Love Renaissance), the US management company who helped launch the careers of Summer Walker and 6lack.

"They came on board during the recording process and they were like, 'Come on, guys, this ain't gonna cut it'," recalls Downer.

"It was hard to hear because you become biased [towards the songs you have] but they really opened our eyes to the fact that we could do better.

"We're very open to criticism, even if we felt a little emotional at the time.

"But then we quickly realised that, OK, this is for the good."

Reinvigorated, they doubled their efforts, criss-crossing the Atlantic to work with new writers and producers while "filling in the blanks" in their lyrical themes and "honing their sound".

"It was a long process because it was very detailed," explains Downer.

The wait was worth it.

Released last month, Flo's debut album Access All Areas quickly picked up rave reviews.

"If a girl group's main job is to supply harmonies for days and kick out songs that roll around your head like marble, Access All Areas achieves it all," said Pitchfork, awarding the album 8 out of 10.

DIY called it "a definitive debut" while Rolling Stone asked "Are Flo the next great girl group?"

In the UK, the album entered the charts at number three – making Flo the highest-charting British R&B girl group in 23 years (matching the chart position of Mis-Teeq's debut album Lickin' On Both Sides).

"We're grateful everyone's enjoying it," says Douglas. "It feels like our artistry is a bit more real, like we've got a bit more credit to our names and we're moving in the right direction."

Flo's hits include Walk Like This, Check, Cardboard Box and Fly Girl

From a certain perspective, their success seems pre-ordained.

Since the demise of Little Mix, there's been a girl band-shaped hole in the pop charts. And, because pop always travels in 20-year cycles, there's a renewed interest in the harmony-driven hits of the 2000s.

Flo know those songs back-to-front. Although Quaresma "wasn't even born" when Mis-Teeq made the top three, the girls were all raised on the music of Brandy, Faith Evans and Mariah Carey.

That education came at home. All three are only children, and all three were raised by music-loving single mums.

The shared background helped them forge a unique bond – first at stage school, where Renee and Stella met, then during auditions for Flo, where they hooked up with Jorja.

"Being in a girl group is one thing, but finding each other has given it a totally different meaning," says Jorja.

"I wouldn't feel the same if I was with two other girls that kind of came from a different background.

"It's like we're one person that's got some kind of personality disorder!"

'Hardest music to sell'

That strength helped them hold firm when, in the early days, managers tried to change the band's line-up; and it made them fight for Cardboard Box to be their debut single, against record label advice.

Studying R&B taught them more than how to harmonise – it showed them how the music industry, particularly in the UK, can be stacked against black women.

Time after time, promising artists like Jamelia, Sadie Ama and even Raye have been let down by labels that don't know how to promote R&B to a UK audience. Others, like Mahalia and Ella Mai, have focused on breaking the US, where the genre has deeper roots.

"That's the music I love the most, and it's probably the hardest music to sell in this country," Radio 2's Trevor Nelson told The Guardian last year. "It just is. It's always been."

On the album track, I'm Just A Girl, Flo address that situation over a dark, electronic beat.

"How many black girls do you see on centre stage now? / Yet you wonder why they going to the States now."

"I actually think we've been pretty lucky, but we've definitely seen little comments here and there, or people not being accustomed to the music that we make," says Douglas.

"When we go out in the UK, people love R&B, but I think people who make the decisions in the industry in the UK aren't so familiar with it. So I think it can make people feel a little bit unappreciated.

"I think what sets us apart is that we speak about it," says Downer. "We're all thinking it, all the R&B artists in the UK. We're not content with making music and it reaching fewer people.

"We're very happy that we're starting to be seen as the catalyst for change," adds Quaresma, "but it's obviously a problem".

For now, the trio are playing the game. The first single from Access All Areas was the irresistibly catchy Walk Like This, a pop hit in R&B clothing. Then they targeted urban radio with the slinky, serpentine grooves of Caught Up.

"We're constantly doing a push and pull between 'this is a bit more pop-leaning, and this is more R&B'," says Downer.

"We have to be open to putting our pop foot first sometimes, because of the world that we live in. But a few years down the line, it's gonna be different."

The band collaborated with US rapper GloRilla (second left) on their debut album - and hint that more special guests will appear on an upcoming super-deluxe version of the record.

R&B aficionados have already locked on to the band's deliciously seductive grooves.

Wicked star Cynthia Erivo voices the introduction to their album, while the deluxe edition features guest appearances from Chlöe and Halle, GloRilla and Bree Runway.

Last year, they were VIP guests on Beyoncé's Renaissance tour ("Right next to her dad. It was a bit nerve-wracking, to be honest") and they spent autumn on the road with US soul star Kehlani.

"It shows us the trajectory," says Downer. "Obviously, we're not going to be doing anything like Renaissance for years – but it's nice to start envisioning the road map of our live shows."

Which reminds me: The last time we spoke to Flo was in 2022, and they'd just been given treadmills, so they could build up the stamina to sing and run at the same time. How did that work out?

"It didn't last that long," admits Quaresma. "Mine got sold."

The lack of stamina came back to bite them on their US tour - not on stage, but at an afterparty.

"We were in New Orleans and Kehlani insisted we try out a mechanical bull," says Downer.

"We were all very bad," laughs Quaresma. "It's much harder than it looks."

"I thought I had the core strength but, really, I did not," says Douglas.

"It's not just core strength," Downer adds. "It's thighs, it's legs, it's arms."

"Maybe, for the next tour, we should just get mechanical bulls instead of treadmills."

Watch this space.