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CHEEKY COMEBACK
OH, the cheek of it. They are pop’s great survivors, after flying by the seat of their famous hotpants.
The Cheeky Girls were panned on a TV talent show as teen wannabes in 2002, only to storm the charts.
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And now are back for MORE — although also wearing a little more.
Refusing to slip quietly into middle age, they are taking a break from their new life in car sales to release single Let’s Have Fun and album PartyTime 20 — two decades after finding unlikely fame as rejects of ITV’s Popstars: The Rivals.
While their original fans have now grown up, Romanian twins Monica and Gaby Irimia, 39, have a new army of Gen Z followers on TikTok who have warmed to their music.
One post about the daring duo’s 2003 Christmas song Cheeky Holiday has been watched more than 160,000 times.
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Chatting together with her sister to The Sun, Monica says: “If people will say to us they don’t want to see us any more, then we will probably stop.”
But for now, it is game on.
Rewind to 2004, though, and the girls tell how their career was nearly wiped out just two years after it had begun — thanks to Victoria Beckham.
They were label mates with Posh Spice on now-defunct Telstar Records and believe her ill-fated solo career saw the company go bust.
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BOOB JOBS
Monica says: “They spent our money — spent everybody’s money — on Victoria Beckham and she flopped.
“She’s a lovely person and everything, and she really tried to have a go at her solo career. But we suffered the consequences.”
The twins’ overnight fame after 2002 debut single The Cheeky Song (Touch My Bum) was to prove short-lived as their label went under — something they only found out about from newspaper reports.
Other acts on the label included Phats & Small, Basement Jaxx and Mis-Teeq.
The label had coined it in with The Cheeky Girls, with The Cheeky Song going gold — ringing up 1.2million sales in its first year.
Despite this, the firm folded, and left the girls with a £65,000 hotel bill plus charges for a rented flat and recording sessions.
But before crashing, Telstar Records had moved the rights to the girls’ back catalogue to sister firm Telstar Music for just £1.
It meant the girls missed out on what they now estimate to be millions in royalties.
Gaby says: “As soon as we did gigs, as soon as we would earn some money, that would not go in our pockets, as you have so many people knocking on your door.”
But she adds: “The hotel room was under our name, not Telstar’s, and so many other things including the bill for recording the first time.”
Monica and Gaby were law students in Romania in 2002 when their UK-based mum entered them into Popstars: The Rivals after seeing an advert for acts on TV.
They spent our money — spent everybody’s money — on Victoria Beckham and she flopped. She’s a lovely person and everything, and she really tried to have a go at her solo career. But we suffered the consequences.
Margit Semal, who is now in her sixties and remarried following a divorce, wrote The Cheeky Song in a day after producers for the show got in touch.
Monica says: “She started to sing the song to us, and I was like, ‘No way!’ But the more I listened — the tune and everything — we started to relate to the song and it was like, ‘Yeah, this was made for us’.”
Their audition for judges Pete Waterman, Louis Walsh and Geri Horner had viewers laughing in disbelief.
The girls, then 19, gingerly entered the room wearing short skirts and strappy tops to perform The Cheeky Song.
As they took to the stage, Louis even wondered if the girls were transgender, asking them: “You’re definitely girls, yeah?”
Monica recalls: “He definitely thought we are transsexuals, because we had short hair . . . literally no boobs.
“I really didn’t like my hair, to be fair, back then. I didn’t like looking back at the pictures. It was awful for me.
“But that’s what made us have a very different look than anybody else, and just be totally unique.
“The fact our trends got picked up made us even more famous.”
Yet while reality TV is still a major draw, the girls reckon today’s talent shows are not the same as the one they went on. Monica says: “I don’t think shows like this will be popular again, to be honest.
“It’s a different attitude. The whole attitude was a lot more naive back then.
“Now, people are just so unbelievably careful of every little thing they say because it could be interpreted as racist, or it could be interpreted as, God knows, an attack to somebody.
He definitely thought we are transsexuals, because we had short hair . . . literally no boobs. I really didn’t like my hair, to be fair, back then. I didn’t like looking back at the pictures. It was awful for me.
“People sometimes prefer to stay schtum just so they are not judged. A lot of the time you don’t really have the freedom of speech.”
Gaby feels people are also now too image-obsessed. She says: “I do it too because it’s fun — but selfies, Instagram etc doesn’t really help, especially with girls. They are very, very, very self-conscious about the way they look.
“They want to look like the filters. But you will never look like the filters.”
While Monica admits to having had “a bit” of Botox around her eyes, Gaby says she has had none on hers.
The girls did turn to boob jobs after their record label hired a body double for the video of their 2003 single Take Your Shoes Off.
But because of their skinny frames, their bodies rejected the implants and both needed multiple surgeries to fix them.
Monica says: “We looked OK dressed up, but if I would have taken my clothes off, you’ll be like, ‘What the heck . . . why are they facing in different directions?’ ”
But despite the girls forking out £100,000 between them for the surgery, they have never regretted it.
Monica says: “I’m glad I had the boob job. Honestly, if you didn’t see me before, what you saw in front, was what was in the back as well.”
Certainly, the girls left Boris Johnson flustered when he met them at a charity event in 2011, while the now Prime Minister was Mayor of London.
Gaby says: “He was right between us and didn’t know where to put his hand. So it’s like, touch or not touch? He ended up with his hands in the pockets and that’s when the picture was taken. Lucky him.”
But meeting Boris was not their only brush with politics. Gaby’s 2006 romance with then Liberal Democrat MP Lembit Opik, now 57, made headlines when it went public.
He was right between us and didn’t know where to put his hand. So it’s like, touch or not touch? He ended up with his hands in the pockets and that’s when the picture was taken. Lucky him.
The odd couple dated for two years, and even got engaged, but it became strained when Lib Dem party bosses began interfering with the relationship.
Gaby says: “It was the big reason why the relationship ended. Lembit was torn.
“He wanted the relationship, he wanted to do everything together with the Press. But the Lib Dems wanted to control not only him but the relationship, and ended up wanting to control us as an act.”
Gaby tells how party bigwigs demanded she dress conservatively, and forced the couple to turn down a £8,000 appearance on Terry Wogan.
She recalls: “They were in a very, very, very, very controlling position. I remember that one time they said for me to not wear the short skirts and wanted me to wear knee-length. That’s not very Cheeky Girls.”
GARAGE FORECOURT
Margit says party bosses even hired a PR consultant to watch over the situation. But the no-nonsense manager told her to jog on, and says: “Putin could take lessons from the Lib Dems about totalitarian control.”
In 2006, Gaby instructed her dad Doru to return her engagement ring to Lembit after the stress became too much.
Monica says: “Lembit always loved Gaby and always will love Gaby. If you were to say, ‘Who is the love of your life?’, he will say Gaby, definitely.”
But Gaby interrupted: “Oh, Monica, stop it!” And a Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez-style reunion is unlikely as Lembit has been with his new partner, Bulgarian lawyer Sabina Vankova, since 2015.
Meanwhile, Gaby has found love with a car sales executive and amateur bodybuilder called Adam. Monica wed building contractor Shaun Taylor in 2016.
Six years ago Monica retrained as a car saleswoman after a pal told her of a vacancy. She now works at a BMW showroom in Lincolnshire.
Gaby, who trained as a make-up artist and lash technician, worked for Boots No 7 until six months ago when she followed Monica into car sales. She said: “I’m doing really well.”
The odd fan does still spot them on the garage forecourt. But Gaby says: “I just say, ‘No, I’m a lookalike’ and they are like, ‘Oh God, you really look like her’.”
Monica adds: “My only worry in the showroom is making sure customers are happy and my lipstick is in place.”
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More fans may stop by for a cheeky chat with the girls, now they are back in the spotlight.
Let's Have Fun is available now on all streaming platforms.
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