The Guardian

The Cheeky Girls: how we made Cheeky Song (Touch My Bum)

‘It has been voted the worst song ever. I think that’s just people’s way of saying it’s the best’
‘The line “Touch my bum, this is life” is about being yourself’ … Monica and Gabriela Irimia, AKA the Cheeky Girls, in 2002. Photograph: Tim Roney/Getty Images

Gabriela Irimia, singer

Me and my twin sister Monica had been invited to audition at the Royal Opera House when the show Popstars: The Rivals came along in 2002. If it wasn’t for that we could have ended up as classical ballerinas!

We needed to sing something for our Popstars audition so my mum Margit wrote The Cheeky Song in half an hour. She came up with the idea, sang it to us and said: “Just do it!” We had been cheeky all our lives – stealing things from the fridge, or swapping clothes so my mum did not

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