This week, Billboard is publishing a series of lists and articles celebrating the music of 20 years ago. Our 2005 Week continues here a discussion of Ciara’s dominant 2005, a year full of huge, beloved hits that set the tone for mid-’00s pop music, but proved pretty hard for the breakout artist to later match.
After hitting the mainsteram in late 2004, with her debut album Goodies and its Billboard Hot 100-topping title track, Ciara stayed winning all throughout 2005. From peaking at No. 2 on the Hot 100 with the Missy Elliott-assisted “1, 2 Step” that January through to matching that success with her Ludacris-featuring spring smash “Oh!” to returning the favor to Missy on the latter’s smash “Lose Control” and teaming up with her real-life paramour Bow Wow on “Like You,” Ciara ended 2005 with five consecutive top five hits, and four top 30 entries on the year-end Hot 100. It was an incredible year, one that played a huge part in defining that era in pop — though, perhaps understandably, Ciara never equaled it again.
In this week’s Vintage Pop Stardom episode of the Greatest Pop Stars podcast, host Andrew Unterberger is joined by former Billboard writer and current freelance journalist (and Nothin’ But North Texas radio host) Natalie Weiner to officially kick off our 2005 week with a deep dive into The First Lady of Crunk & B’s biggest year. We start at the beginning of the Goodies era, when Ciara emerged as the ideal new pop star for a top 40 world that had become increasingly rooted in hip-hop and R&B, and run through her awesome streak of still-beloved smashes, and some of the collaborators who helped make her year what it was.
And of course, along the way, we ask all the big questions about Ciara’s All-Star rookie season: What made her such a can’t-miss pop star for that moment in time? How weird was it that she was constantly cast as the one woman surrounded by a bunch of dudes? Did it hurt her in the long-term that she was never able to be a solo headliner on any of her early singles? How did Carmelo Anthony end up getting cast in the video for Goodies‘ lone flop single? And perhaps most importantly: Why don’t we ever seem to get pop star years as fun and simple as Ciara’s 2005 anymore?
Check it out above — along with a YouTube playlist of some of the most important moments from Ciara’s 2005, all of which are discussed in the podcast — and subscribe to the Greatest Pop Stars podcast on Apple Music or Spotify (or wherever you get your podcasts) for weekly discussions every Thursday about all things related to pop stardom!
And as we say in every one of these GPS podcast posts — if you have the time and money to spare, please consider donating to any of these causes in the fight for trans rights:
Gender-Affirming Care Fundraising on GoFundMe
Also, please consider subscribing to the trans legislation journalism of Erin Reed, and giving your local congresspeople a call in support of trans rights, with contact information you can find on 5Calls.org.
