Newsmakers: TrueBliss look back on time on Popstars

Interviewing our original Popstars a quarter of a century since they rocketed into our consciousness was a brilliant couple of hours. Four funny, endearing and sharp women to spend time with.

I couldn't help thinking the interview would have been vastly different if we'd met at the start of their careers — I was just starting out in journalism too and I imagine a lot of circling and self-consciousness in the air.

But that's one of the wonderful things about getting older, meeting now with lived experience and all having grown up in industries where woman aren't always treated right, Joe Cotton, Megan Alatini, Erika Takacs and Keri Harper, were all ready to get stuck straight in.

Before the interview I had rewatched Popstars.

I wanted to know what they thought as they watched themselves, early 20s and five strong personalities thrust together.

Cotton still very much a self-deprecating comic, immediately joked: "Oh I was a pain in the butt." But she went deeper too.

"I think when you watch back and see us like that, there's this sort of like a protective thing, like me looking at myself and these girls and being like 'oh, I would not let those girls stand for that now' ... We just didn't know necessarily any better. So, we just let people kind of walk all over us to a degree and we were just like 'because we're just happy to be here'."

Takacs also spoke to that.

"We hadn't been exposed to the world of like social media you have now. It was so raw, and I see a really young, insecure, easily intimidated woman trying to make her way or to make this dynamic work."

It was 1999, before America had an idol, before Britain got talent. New Zealand was the first to try and make a successful music group from a group of unknowns.

Popstars varied slightly from the idol and talent mould — it picked the group in the first few episodes and then followed them as they made an album and tried to generate hype in the music world.

The group gave up work to make a go of it, in some cases moved cities. Alatini had a young child.

Cotton said the whole experience was a bit of a rollercoaster, Takacs adding the struggles and highs and lows we saw on camera were accurate.

"We weren't putting on airs you know, trying to create something that wasn't genuine in ourselves."

Alatini said not everyone was rooting for them.

"Some media experts were being interviewed and the journalist asked 'so what do you think is going to happen now that the cameras are off, what's going to happen now that there isn't a TV show' and some experts were sitting back and saying, 'well we can't wait to see the demise and flop of this'."

At the end of nine weeks, the wild ride came to an end and with it a number 1 single. A sell-out tour followed.

Things did fizzle in the early noughties but over the years the band's stuck together (minus Carly Binding who departed to do her own thing).

They sang for us at the end of our interview and if your preconception was this was a group that didn't have pipes, have a listen. Alatini explained in the show the melding of their voices was something special.

"One thing we need to give the producers and the directors credit for was picking girls who maybe individually didn't always have the most standout fantastic voices of song, of solo artists if I speak for myself, but then when you blend it together with four and five voices that we had it really was a unique sound."

Takacs said the producers picked a vocal collective that worked beautifully. "Even sitting around that kitchen bench upstairs. Rehearsing together ... You know, first there's Joe and I initially, and you can tell something's missing, Keri arrives oh there ... it's coming ... then adding Megan and boom."

Over the years TrueBliss has become a warm throwback for many. TrueBliss said they have a wide fan base, young girls who loved them 25 years ago and now are dragging kids of their own to gigs.

Even a certain Bachelor is a fan. Cotton said: "I think it was all embarrassing to like TrueBliss, so then to come back now and find that actually you can have a conversation with a grown up human who's like 'oh my God, I love TrueBliss'. I did a show with Art Green and he was like 'OMG my first ever concert was TrueBliss at the Auckland Town Hall' and the fact he admitted that without any shame in the game is such a thing that makes me happy."

But by far the biggest thing I took from meeting the group is their love for each other. A 25 year journey which brings out all the feelings.

"Our bond is so deep," Alatini said through tears. "We have to support each other and be a collective ... the world was against us."

All of the Newsmakers Revisited episodes are available on TVNZ+.