Flowers (Sweet Female Attitude song)


"Flowers" is the debut single by UK garage duo Sweet Female Attitude, released in April 2000. The song uses the same chord sequence as Erik Satie's Trois Gymnopédies, and the actual piece can be heard in the version by The House & Garage Orchestra, from the 2018 album Garage Classics.
The song peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart. It went on to become the United Kingdom's 37th biggest-selling single of 2000 and received a Platinum certification from the British Phonographic Industry for sales and streams of at least 600,000.

Impact and legacy

The Guardian listed the song at number six on their list of "The best UK garage tracks – ranked!" in 2019.
Mixmag included "Flowers" in their list of "40 of the best UK garage tracks released from 1995 to 2005".
In September 2019, NME included the song in their "25 essential UK garage anthems" list.

Music video

The music video for "Flowers" was directed by Pete Nilsen and Ryan Davids.

Track listing

UK CD maxi-single
  1. "Flowers" – 3:49
  2. "Flowers" – 3:36
  3. "Flowers" – 5:00
  4. "Flowers" – 7:05
UK cassette single
  1. "Flowers" – 3:49
  2. "Flowers" – 3:36
  3. "Flowers" – 5:56
  4. "Flowers" – 6:22
Australia CD maxi-single
  1. "Flowers" – 3:59
  2. "Flowers" – 3:36
  3. "Flowers" – 3:50
  4. "Flowers" – 3:46
  5. "Flowers" – 5:02
  6. "Flowers" – 7:06
  7. "Flowers" – 5:57
  8. "Flowers" – 6:24

    Charts and certifications

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Nathan Dawe version

English DJ and producer Nathan Dawe released a cover version of the song as a single on 25 October 2019 through Atlantic UK. The single gives a featuring credit to rapper Jaykae for his verse, but Dawe chose not to give a featuring credit to Malika Ferguson for her vocals, nor to Sweet Female Attitude. It peaked at number 12 on the UK Singles Chart.

Background

Talking to the Official Charts Company about the success of the song, Dawe said, "It's a surreal feeling. I've been pretty much working my whole music career/life for this achievement, so now that it's happened, it feels a bit weird. It's not the best time for everyone right now, but it's equally bad for all of us. Although I suppose it's a decent situation for myself!". He also said, "The writers of the original 'Flowers' have 100% of all the publishing ." Although Dawe re-worked some of the lyrics and added a verse by Jaykae, he insisted that "It's still their song, isn't it? I've seen the odd couple of tweets saying I've just used a cover for my financial gain. I'm not actually making money from the song."

Charts

Certifications

Other versions

In 2018, a cover version was released by Bastille along with Rationale and James Arthur for the mixtape album Other People's Heartache Pt. 4. In 2019, the original members of the Sugababes reformed and recorded "Flowers" for DJ Spoony's Garage Classical album.