"Untouchable" is a song performed by British all-female pop group

Girls Aloud Girls Aloud were an pop girl group that was created through the ITV talent show '' Popstars: The Rivals'' in 2002. The group comprised singers Cheryl, Nadine Coyle, Sarah Harding, Nicola Roberts and Kimberley Walsh. The group achieved a ...

, taken from their fifth studio album '' Out of Control'' (2008). The song was written by

Miranda Cooper Miranda Eleanor De Fonbrune Cooper (born 1975) is an English singer, songwriter, record producer, dancer and television presenter. Miranda Cooper has worked in the music industry since 1996 when she gained her first recording contract. She wor ...

Brian Higgins Brian Michael Higgins (born October 6, 1959) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for , serving since 2005. The district, numbered as the 27th district from 2005 to 2013 but as the 26th since 2013, includes Buffalo and N ...

and his production team

Xenomania Xenomania is an English songwriting and production team founded by Brian Higgins and based in Kent, England. Formed by Higgins with his Creative Director Miranda Cooper and Business Director Sarah Stennett of First Access Entertainment, Xenom ...

, and produced by Higgins and Xenomania. Influenced by

trance music Trance is a genre of electronic dance music that emerged from the British new-age music scene and the early 1990s German techno and hardcore (electronic dance music genre), hardcore scenes. Trance music is characterized by a tempo generally ly ...

and

Balearic beat Balearic beat, also known as Balearic house, Balearic, Ibiza house or Ibizan chillout, is an eclectic blend of DJ-led dance music that emerged in the mid-1980s. It later became the name of a more specific style of electronic dance music that wa ...

, the album version of "Untouchable" is almost seven minutes long. Remixed for single release in April 2009, "Untouchable" memorably became Girls Aloud's first of only two singles to miss the top ten on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

, breaking a run of 20 top ten hits. The song received generally favorable reviews from most contemporary music critics, who praised its ambition. "Untouchable" would be the final release by the group before their hiatus. In the accompanying

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing devi ...

, inspired by

Stanley Kubrick Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, his films, almost all of which are adaptations of nove ...

's film '' 2001: Space Odyssey'', the group members travel through space and approaches Earth in illuminated glass spheres, resembling

meteorite A meteorite is a solid piece of debris from an object, such as a comet, asteroid, or meteoroid, that originates in outer space and survives its passage through the atmosphere to reach the surface of a planet or moon. When the original object en ...

s. "Untouchable" was promoted through an appearance on ''

Dancing on Ice ''Dancing on Ice'' is a British television series presented by Phillip Schofield alongside Holly Willoughby from 2006 to 2011, who then returned in 2018, and Christine Bleakley from 2012 to 2014. The series features celebrities and their pr ...

'', and was later performed on the group's

Out of Control Tour The Out of Control Tour was the fifth concert tour by British-Irish girl group Girls Aloud. It supported their fifth studio album '' Out of Control''. Initially, just ten dates in bigger arenas were announced in November 2008. Due to demand, mo ...

(2009) and Ten: The Hits Tour (2013).

Background and composition

"Untouchable" is a trance-inspired "rave ballad," which marries " Balearic guitar lines with a pulsating techno throb." The song is Girls Aloud's longest yet, at a full runtime of 6:45. "Untouchable" follows the common verse-chorus form, but includes a number of

instrumental An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to instr ...

solos.

Nadine Coyle Nadine Elizabeth Louise Coyle (born 15 June 1985) is an Irish singer, actress and model. In 2002, Coyle was selected as a member of the girl group Girls Aloud, with whom she has been successful in achieving a string of 20 consecutive UK top ten ...

sings a

middle 8 The 32-bar form, also known as the AABA song form, American popular song form and the ballad form, is a song structure commonly found in Tin Pan Alley songs and other American popular music, especially in the first half of the 20th century. A ...

("Without any meaning, we're just skin and bone...") as the music drops out. The song builds back up and concludes with a final chorus. The "emotional twangy guitar noise" heard in the song was the result of Xenomania musician Jason Resch responding to Higgins' request for something "special". Higgins left the song at its full length, knowing that " The Promise" and "

The Loving Kind "The Loving Kind" is a song by English-Irish girl group Girls Aloud, taken from their fifth studio album '' Out of Control'' (2008). The song was written by Pet Shop Boys, Miranda Cooper, Brian Higgins and his production team Xenomania, and prod ...

" would be the first two singles and he could remix "Untouchable" for single release at a later point. The song was "chopped and changed for its single release", with Girls Aloud's vocals being

vocoder A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''voice'' and ''encoder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation. The vocoder was ...

ed.

Release

"Untouchable" was selected as the third single from '' Out of Control'' after it fared best in a fan poll on Girls Aloud's official forum. It was announced as the single on 20 February 2009. "Untouchable" was released on

CD single A CD single (sometimes abbreviated to CDS) is a music single in the form of a compact disc. The standard in the Red Book for the term ''CD single'' is an 8 cm (3-inch) CD (or Mini CD). It now refers to any single recorded onto a CD of any s ...

and

7" vinyl In music, a single is a type of release, typically a song recording of fewer tracks than an LP record or an album. One can be released for sale to the public in a variety of formats. In most cases, a single is a song that is released separate ...

formats on 27 April, while digital download formats were available a day earlier. The CD includes a previously unreleased b-side entitled "It's Your Dynamite", which

Digital Spy Digital Spy (DS) is a British-based entertainment, television and film website and brand and is the largest digital property at Hearst UK. Since its launch in 1999, Digital Spy has focused on entertainment news related to television programmes, ...

says "matches the standard set on their previous releases ..a treat for the ears." The 7" vinyl picture disc format includes the Thriller Jill Mix of "Love Is the Key", as heard on ''

The Girls Aloud Party ''The Girls Aloud Party'' was a one-off Christmas variety show starring British girl group Girls Aloud, produced for ITV. The show was aired on 13 December 2008, in between '' The X Factor'' series finale and its results show. All five member ...

'' opening credits and commercials. A promo CD was released with various remixes previously unreleased or part of the singles collection.

Reception

Critical response

Girls Aloud - Untouchable 2 (Out of Control Tour)

"Untouchable" received generally favourable reviews from

music critics Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on ...

. ''

Slant Magazine ''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New Yo ...

'' said that it was "one of Girls Aloud's finest achievements." Matthew Horton of ''

The Quietus ''The Quietus'' is a British online music and pop culture magazine founded by John Doran and Luke Turner. The site is an editorially independent publication led by Doran with a group of freelance journalists and critics. Content ''The Quietu ...

'' labelled the song as an "epic, a nearly-seven-minute monster". Similarly, John Murphy from ''

MusicOMH MusicOMH (stylized as musicOMH) is a London-based online music magazine which publishes independent reviews, features and interviews from across all genres including classical, metal, rock and R&B. History MusicOMH was founded and launched by ...

'' called the track an "epic seven-minute electro-thumper which builds slowly, explodes into life, drops out brilliantly, then bursts back into life". In a blog for

BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

, Fraser McAlpine agreed that "it's epic and dreamy and a bit of a diversion from the usual GA pattern while still being recognisably very Girls Aloud." It was also praised by ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

''s Jaimie Hodgson, described as "post-Ibiza power-balladeering". The song was referred to as "fast, electronic and fantastic" with an immense build-up to the chorus by Peter Robinson from

Popjustice Popjustice is a music website founded in 2000 by UK freelance music journalist Peter Robinson, who has worked for '' NME'', ''The Guardian'', ''Attitude'' and many others. It is composed of the work of editor Robinson, features editor Michael Cra ...

. Talia Kraines of

BBC Music BBC Music is responsible for the music played across the BBC. The current director of music is Bob Shennan, who is also the controller of BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 6 Music, and the BBC Asian Network. Officially it is a part of the BBC's Radio ...

felt "the Balearic bliss of epic seven minute marathon Untouchable ..prove that you don't have to be brassy to be brilliant." Michael Cragg from ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide ...

'' called it a proper "statement song", as well as "the band's most effortless-sounding single" without ever feeling overly long. Nick Levine of

said the song "serves as the centrepiece" on the album and that even the radio edit "remains surprising, thrilling and strangely moving - in short, classic Girls Aloud." Matthew Chisling from

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...

deemed it "the album's most club-friendly smash". ''

Newsround ''Newsround'' (stylised as ''newsround'', and originally called ''John Craven's Newsround'' before his departure in 1989) is a BBC children's news programme, which has run continuously since 4 April 1972. It was one of the world's first tele ...

'' declared it "seems to want to be a ballad and a dance track without doing either well."

GayNZ.com GayNZ.com is a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender community website for New Zealand. Prior to the websites closure in 2018, it posted daily local and international news stories, monitors fundamentalist Christian politics in New Zealand a ...

s Andrew Grear stated that the song "works....but possibly not as well as the girls were hoping." Andy Gill from ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publishe ...

'' called it a "stomp-a-matic filler" from the album.

Chart performance

The song entered the

on 29 March 2009 at number 54. It entered the top forty three weeks later. On 3 May 2009, it officially reached number eleven. On the

Irish Singles Chart The Irish Singles Chart is the Republic of Ireland's music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) and compiled on their behalf by the Official Charts Company. Chart rankings are b ...

, the song entered at number 38 and peaked at number nineteen. After the single failed to achieve top ten success when it was released late April 2009, a fan-created

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin ...

campaign was started nearly a year later (January 2010). The group hoped to push the single into the top ten, reviving and continuing Girls Aloud's streak. The campaign failed, with "Untouchable" only charting at number 152.

Music video

The music video for "Untouchable" was directed by Marco Puig with post-production from The Mill. Shot in a west London studio on 18 March 2009, the filming took sixteen hours. The video premiered on 25 March 2009 on 4music at 7:00pm GMT and was shown again at 11:05pm on

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

. The "Untouchable" video was made available on

MSN MSN (meaning Microsoft Network) is a web portal and related collection of Internet services and apps for Windows and mobile devices, provided by Microsoft and launched on August 24, 1995, alongside the release of Windows 95. The Microsoft Net ...

the following day. The futuristic video was inspired by

's classic

science fiction film Science fiction (or sci-fi) is a film genre that uses speculative, fictional science-based depictions of phenomena that are not fully accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial lifeforms, spacecraft, robots, cyborgs, interstell ...

'' 2001: A Space Odyssey''. Girls Aloud appear in "sci-fi inspired PVC leotards", travelling through space and approaching Earth in illuminated glass spheres (resembling

s). After the second verse, the words 'Alert: Condition Red' appear on the screen and the girls have trouble in their bubble-like orbs. They begin to plummet through Earth's atmosphere, with the spheres erupting in flames. Still burning, they pass an

aeroplane An airplane or aeroplane (informally plane) is a fixed-wing aircraft that is propelled forward by thrust from a jet engine, propeller, or rocket engine. Airplanes come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and wing configurations. The broad spec ...

and approach a city. The video ends with televisions showing the 'breaking news' as they hit the ground, with a reporter describing it as a "meteor shower" before turning to static.

lauded the "Untouchable" music video as "almost as exciting as the song itself."

Live performances

The first performance of the song occurred at the ''

'' semi-finals. Girls Aloud entered on wires suspended from the ceiling and performed the song whilst ice dancers

Torvill and Dean Torvill and Dean (Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean) are English ice dancers and former British, European, Olympic, and World champions. At the Sarajevo 1984 Winter Olympics the pair won gold and became the highest-scoring figure skaters of al ...

skated around them. Girls Aloud wore draped

Grecian The Greeks or Hellenes (; el, Έλληνες, ''Éllines'' ) are an ethnic group and nation indigenous to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea regions, namely Greece, Cyprus, Albania, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, and, to a lesser extent, othe ...

dresses. Smoke followed the group as they were lowered down on to individual podiums. As Nadine sang the final verse, Torvill and Dean were raised into the air on wires. The song ended with an explosion of

pyrotechnics Pyrotechnics is the science and craft of creating such things as fireworks, safety matches, oxygen candles, Pyrotechnic fastener, explosive bolts and other fasteners, parts of automotive airbags, as well as gas-pressure blasting in mining, quarry ...

. Torvill and Dean were criticised for "completely and utterly ruining the momentum and energy." "Untouchable" was one of the most significant performances of Girls Aloud's 2009

. The song is "performed over the crowd on a flying platform," which Girls Aloud used to travel to a smaller stage in the middle of the arena. The group wore

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imagination, imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, Paral ...

-inspired outfits, designed by Welsh fashion designer Julien MacDonald, along with the rest of the show's costumes. According to Lauren Mulvenny from the ''

Belfast Telegraph The ''Belfast Telegraph'' is a daily newspaper published in Belfast, Northern Ireland, by Independent News & Media. Its editor is Eoin Brannigan. Reflecting its unionist tradition, the paper has historically been "favoured by the Protestant po ...

'', the performance got "a great crowd reaction." The song was performed on 2013 Ten: The Hits Tour with the girls singing it on a stage in the middle of the arena.

Formats and track listings

These are the formats and track listings of major single releases of "Untouchable". UK CD # "Untouchable" (Radio Mix) – 3:49 # "It's Your Dynamite" (Girls Aloud, Xenomania) – 4:21 UK 7" picture disc # "Untouchable" (Radio Mix) – 3:49 # "Love Is the Key" (Thriller Jill Mix) – 6:35 Digital download # "Untouchable" (Radio Mix) – 3:49 # "Untouchable" (Bimbo Jones Radio Edit) – 3:46 # "Untouchable" (Bimbo Jones Club Mix) – 6:04 iTunes download # "Untouchable" (Radio Mix) – 3:49 # "Untouchable" (Album Version Edit) – 3:03 # "Untouchable" (Bimbo Jones Club Mix) – 6:04 ''The Singles Boxset'' (CD21) # "Untouchable" (Radio Mix) – 3:49 # "It's Your Dynamite" – 4:21 # "Love Is the Key" (Thriller Jill Mix) – 6:35 # "Untouchable" (Album Version Edit) – 3:03 # "Untouchable" (Bimbo Jones Club Mix) – 6:04 # "Untouchable" (Bimbo Jones Radio Edit) – 3:46 # "Untouchable" (Bimbo Jones Dub) – 6:02 Promo CD # "Untouchable" (Almighty Essential Radio Edit) – 4:36 # "Untouchable" (Almighty Essential Mix) – 9:11 # "Untouchable" (Almighty Alternative Vocal Mix) – 9:11 # "Untouchable" (Almighty Essential Dub) – 9:13 # "Untouchable" (Almighty Essential Instrumental) – 9:11

Credits and personnel

*Bass guitar: Kieran Jons *Engineering: Toby Scott, Dan Aslet *Guitars: Nick Coler, Jason Resch *Keyboards and programming:

Tim Powell Tim Powell (born 14 April 1968) is a former Australian rules footballer who played with Richmond and Carlton in the Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian ...

, Owen Parker,

Fred Falke Frédérick Falke () (born 7 January 1973), known professionally as Fred Falke, is a French house and dance music producer and DJ. Biography Falke started out as a bass player before moving to production work. His first record, a collaboration ...

, Sascha Collison, Matt Gray *Mixing: Tim Powell, Brian Higgins *Songwriting: Miranda Cooper, Brian Higgins, Tim Powell, Matt Gray *Published by

Warner/Chappell Music Warner Chappell Music, Inc. is an American music publishing company and a subsidiary of the Warner Music Group. Warner Chappell Music's catalogue consists of over 1.4 million compositions and 65,000 composers, with offices in over 40 countries. ...

and Xenomania Music

Charts

References

External links

Girls Aloud's official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Untouchable 2000s ballads 2008 songs 2009 singles Synth-pop ballads Girls Aloud songs Song recordings produced by Xenomania Songs written by Brian Higgins (producer) Songs written by Miranda Cooper Songs written by Tim Powell (producer) Fascination Records singles