Flo

One Liner:  R&B girl group who sounds just like the other ones I can remember from the 90's

Wikipedia Genre:  R&B, pop

Home: London

Poster Position: 11
Weekend One Only.
Sunday at 1:40.

Miller Lite Stage.

Thoughts:  Unfortunate name, in that Spotify wants me to hear: Florence + The Machine, Flogging Molly, Florida Georgia Line, Flobots, Flo Rida, or Flo Milli.  I found one, styled as FLO, who is playing Lollapalooza per their Spotify, but does not list ACL on their concert listing.  They'll be in Charlotte on 10/2 and then Houston on 10/8, Irving on 10/11, and Rogers, Ark on 10/12, so I guess that leaves them time to be in Austin for weekend one.  Weird.  Why don't they list it if this is the right band?

Also, why can't they be weekend two?  My first impression is their Spotify bio, which reads "where baddies unite" and I automatically wish for the sweet release of death.  But then I play the music and it is some generic mid-90's SWV-style action.  Three singers here, two of whom met at the Sylvia Young Theatre School in London.  Their Wikipedia is odd, in that it lists the jobs that each had prior to joining the group.  Stella was a waitress.  Jorja worked for an accountancy firm.  Renee worked at H&M on Regent Street.  Weird factoids!

They formed in 2019 after the two classmates found their third through singing videos on Instagram.  It sounds like they released music on social media and it did well, so they were signed by a label and then started making the usual rounds.  They won the Brit Rising Star at the Brit Awards in 2022.

This is the kind of music where a generic beat is going and a lady is singing while some other lady is going nuts by moaning scales in the background.  No albums, just a handful of singles and EPs since their 2022 debut single.  That is still their biggest streamer (which always seems like a bad sign to me, to peak with your first tune), and it sounds like TLC tried to steal the vibe of Beyonce's song about "to the left, to the left, everything you own in a box to the left."  "Cardboard Box," with 52.2 million streams.

I will admit that this song has the better beat than any of the other songs in this discography.  But absolutely not my thing.  I was never into SWV or TLC in the first place, so why would I get with the copycats?  Their second-biggest streamer features Missy Elliott, so I'll give you third place (well, the third place that isn't remixes of that hit above), "Summertime" has 19.2 million streams.

That one is a b-side to a 2022 single called The Lead, which also strangely featured "Cardboard Box" and doe snot feature a song called "The Lead," so maybe just mislabeled by the people at Spotify.  Dunno.  And you know, yeah, they all have great voices and can hit nice harmonies and all of that, but that tune itself is just entirely generic.  Absolutely, I am biased by not caring much for R&B, but I'd be curious to know if real R&B heads hear anything of actual interest in that.  I found a reddit thread about "why aren't flo as big as they should be" and there was an entry that nailed it for me - no brand, no distinct identity, Early 2000s tribute band - and that is my feeling too.  Maybe ACL will be their big breakout moment!!!