Atomic Kitten determined to top US charts

Atomic Kitten today said they hope to reverse the “Britflop” image in the US with an aggressive assault on the lucrative American market.

The all-girl trio launch their debut stateside album this week in an attempt to become the first UK band to make it across the Atlantic since the Spice Girls.

They are also planning an American tour this summer and are releasing their cover version of Blondie hit The Tide is High which has already topped the single’s chart in Britain.

Singer Jenny Frost, 25, said the band had held off from performing in the US until they were prepared to give it their all.

“America is a very time consuming market. We wanted to be ready before we tried to break there,” she told the New York Post.

“We didn’t want to give America a half-hearted effort.”

She stressed the Kittens were very different from the Spice Girls.

“They were characters like Scary Spice and Posh Spice. We are just normal girls living our lives. We enjoy ourselves, we’ve got boyfriends.”

The Post described their self-titled album as “pop purrfection“, adding: “If you were to make a wager on this summer’s sweetheart act, Atomic Kitten would be a beauty of a bet.”

But a succession of British performers have struggled to crack the US in recent years.

Most recently, Robbie Williams has found it hard to win over American audiences despite a massive investment from his record company.

The downturn in sales of British artists became most obvious last year when the US Billboard Top 100 singles chart contained no UK act for the first time in nearly 40 years.

The British Council is planning to set up a music “embassy” in New York to help UK acts make it in America.