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Last Updated: 6 March 2022

Sounds of the 21st Century is a series of eleven soundscapes featuring the music, media, news, triumphs, tragedies, and trivia from the years 2000 to 2010.

The Sounds of 2002, available now on ±«Óãtv Sounds, recalls the year of Will v Gareth, Ali G and George W, the launch of 6 Music and 1Xtra.

It was also the year Halle Berry made history with her Oscar win, Coldplay went stratospheric, and we were all hoping Tim and Dawn would get together in The Office.

Below we look back on a selection of memorable moments from the year in music and popular culture, 20 years on…

A night in front of the telly remained a nice family tradition in 2002, and we were spoiled by night after night of unpredictable, engrossing reality TV.

In one of the most memorable TV moments of the year, watched by nearly 14 million viewers, Will Young pipped Gareth Gates to the hotly-contested Pop Idol prize. His debut record Evergreen, released within hours of his victory went on to become the decade's best-selling single.

This show also gave us a revived Darius (who'd first turned up brimming with confidence about his future success in 2001's Popstars) and Rik Waller, who scored a hit with a cover of I Will Always Love You, the Dolly Parton song made famous by Whitney Houston.

Meanwhile, another alumni of Pop Idol, Jessica Garlick, was later chosen to represent the UK at the 2002 Eurovision Song Contest with the song 'Come Back'. She finished an impressive joint third, the UK's highest placing in the 21st century to date. Just a year later the Jemini experienced the humiliating "nul points", setting the scene for the UK's declining Eurovision fortunes.

Talent shows were all the rage in 2002: Girls Aloud, including Cheryl Cole and the late Sarah Harding, formed via the only series of Popstars: The Rivals. The show also gave us the Cheeky Girls and their 'Cheeky Song' hit.

Over on the ±«Óãtv, David Sneddon came out trumps in the first Fame Academy. He went on to enjoy four Top 40 hits in 2003, including a No.1 with his debut single ‘Stop Living the Lie‘, before moving into song-writing, where he’s penned tracks for Lana Del Rey, Newton Faulkner and Shane Filan, amongst others.

Elsewhere, the first ever American Idol was won by Kelly Clarkson.

We were also invited into The Osbournes’ family home, with behind-the-scenes access to Ozzy, Sharon, Kelly and Jack’s bizarre and brilliant lifestyle. And eight celebrities found themselves competing in the Australian jungle in new ITV series I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of There, with future Radio 2 presenter Tony Blackburn proving triumphant.

This was a golden age for reality TV – we were well and truly hooked.

The year's other TV highlights included Keeley Hawes, Matthew Macfadyen, and David Oyelowo starring in new drama Spooks, which brough the spy genre into the 21st century, and led to a number of complaints when Lisa Faulkner's character was violently killed off in just the second episode. Meanwhile, American import 24 starred Kiefer Sutherland as counter-terrorism agent Jack Bauer. Set in real-time, each episode of the 24-part series covered one hour of Bauer's day as he battled to foil a terror plot.

Kate Lawler won the third series of Big Brother, although the late Jade Goody was arguably the programme's standout star. Footballer's Wives and Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway began on ITV, while Channel 4 replaced The Big Breakfast with the short-lived RI:SE. Jacqueline Wilson's much loved Tracey Beaker made her small screen debut, while Dick and Dom could be found in Da Bungalow on the newly launched C±«Óãtv channel.

One of 2002’s most significant cultural moments saw Halle Berry becoming the first black woman to win the Best Actress Oscar, for her role in 2001's Monster's Ball.

In tears, she used her acceptance speech to declare: "This moment is so much bigger than me… The door tonight has been opened." However, initially viewed as a turning point, the awards have since been criticised for a continued lack of diversity. Not least by Berry herself: in 2017 the win "meant nothing".

Nearly 20 years on, Berry remains the only black woman to take this prize, with, as of 2021, only six nominated since - Gabourey Sidibe, Viola Davis (twice), Quvenzhané Wallis, Ruth Negga, Cynthia Erivo (the first black British nominee for the award), and Andra Day.

Elsewhere in movies this year, UK-set films Bend It Like Beckham, which made stars of Keira Knightley and Parminder Nagra, the Hugh Grant-led About a Boy, 28 Days Later - starring future Peaky Blinder and 6 Music DJ Cillian Murphy - and Ali G Indahouse all topped the box office charts.

And chances are in 2002 you were sitting down with your popcorn to enjoy a sequel - with second big screen outings for Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings, the second Star Wars prequel, Attack of the Clones, and the 20th James Bond movie, Die Another Day, which proved to be Pierce Brosnan's final outing as 007. And Tobey Maguire made his debut as Spider-Man, a role he'd reprise for two further outings, paving the way for the plethora of superhero movies that have followed over the last 20 years.

By 2002, we hadn’t fully transitioned to the swipe-friendly, app-filled, always-on world we live in today, but the signs were there. Chunky, wired devices were out, in came tiny portable mp3 players which could hold a whopping 500 songs.

Meanwhile, the ±«Óãtv launched new digital music radio stations 6 Music and 1Xtra, along with Asian Network, which went nationwide for the first time, and ±«Óãtv 7 (now 4 Extra), which broadcast classic speech progammes from the archives. Listeners snapped up radios which displayed scrolling text and a list of available stations (a novelty at the time).

On TV, Freeview arrived in October 2002, making digital-only channels like ITV2 and the newly-launched ±«Óãtv Four more widely available. Selfie culture even began to rear its head, with the introduction of the world’s first camera phone. The idea of having access to everything all the time once seemed like a pipe dream, but 2002 set the wheels in motion.

If you could pinpoint a specific moment when Coldplay went from charming, rough-and-ready newcomers to one of the world’s biggest bands, it occurred in 2002. The release of second album A Rush of Blood to the Head – containing anthems like The Scientist, Clocks and In My Place – was a landmark moment, and it remains one of the biggest-selling records of the 21st century.

Worthy Farm was quick to notice Chris Martin and co.’s remarkable ascent: three years after debuting at the festival's new bands tent, they were given a triumphant Glastonbury headline slot. It was a rarity for a band still taking their first steps, but they rose to the challenge, and they’ve headlined three more times since.

A Rush of Blood to the Head was the UK's fourth best-selling album of 2002, out-sold only by Robbie Williams, P!nk, and Enrique Iglesias. Other popular albums this year included Blue's second long-player One Love, Avril Lavigne's debut Let Go, and Heathen Chemistry, the fifth album from Oasis. Meanwhile, Ms Dynamite took home this year's Mercury Prize for her debut A Little Deeper which contained top 5 hit, and earworm 'Dy-Na-Mi-Tee.'

The early 2000s gave us some great hip-hop duets. There was Ja Rule and Ashanti with 'Always on Time' in 2001 and Beyoncé and Jay-Z with 'Crazy in Love' in 2003. But right in the middle of those classics came another equally-great gem of the genre: Nelly's 2002 team-up with Kelly Rowland, 'Dilemma'.

The Patti LaBelle-sampling song, which follows the story of two people in love despite being in separate relationships, topped both the UK and US charts and won a Grammy Award (for Best Rap/Sung Performance).

"I love Nelly," Rowland told MTV at the time. "This song is so catchy. Nelly has a great ear... A lot of people can relate to it, people find themselves in the dilemma. I just had a lot of fun recording the song. It didn't even feel like work."

'Dilemma' still remains in the cultural dialogue today, with its music video recently going viral due to a scene in which Kelly attempts to text Nelly while using a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. The song has become something of a karaoke classic too - even Radio 2's Rylan and Vanessa Feltz love it!

Sugababes, aka British teenagers Keisha Buchanan, Mutya Buena and Siobhán Donaghy, had first appeared at the turn of the century with their critically-lauded debut single 'Overload' and debut LP 'One Touch'. While they were quickly touted by the indie press, only 'Overload' managed to crack the Top Ten, and they parted company with their label London Records in 2001.

In 2002, newly signed to Island Records, they unveiled the first of what would be a numer of line-up changes (pictured above) through the 00s, with ex Atomic Kitten Heidi Range replacing Siobhan. Their sound also evolved, as they teamed up with super producers Lucas Secon and Xenomania, and started to appeal to a more mainstream audience. The move paid off with the trio scoring two UK No.1 singles - 'Freak Like Me' (a mash-up of Adina Howard's song of the same name with Gary Numan's 'Are Friends Electric'), and 'Round Round.', plus a third Top Ten Hit with 'Stronger' before the year was out. Their album 'Angels with Dirty Faces' was also among the year's best-selling albums.

The group would enjoy further chart success throughout the decade with hits like 'Push the Button' and 'About You Now' but the constant line-up changes began to overshadow the music, and by 2009 none of the original trio remained.

Fast forward to 2021, and Keisha, Mutya and Siobhán have reclaimed the Sugababes name, and released remixes of tracks from their debut LP. 20 years on from their first taste of hitting No.1, could a return to the charts be on the cards in 2022?

Other big hits in 2002 included Enrique Iglesias' 'Hero', the Spanish star's only UK No.1, which topped the chart for four weeks early in the year; Skahira's debut UK hit, 'Whenever, Wherever', a No.2 in March; 'Without Me', the leading single from Eminem's fourth studio album The Eminem Show; Movie star and singer Jennifer Lopez told us she just 'Jenny from the Block'; Madonna took her 'Die Another Day' Bond theme to No.3; And Westlife's chart domination continued with 'World of Our Own' and 'Unbreakable', their 10th and 11th No.1s respectively.

Meanwhile, Elvis Presley made an unlikely return in the form of a chart-conquering remix. Initially a 1960s b-side, 'A Little Less Conversation' was given a horn-backed, light-footed dance edit by Dutch producer Junkie XL, and it went on to become one of the year’s biggest hits. It ended up being shoehorned last minute into a compilation of Elvis' number 1 singles.

To date Elvis has gone on to top the chart three more times, with re-issues of some of his more well-known hits, including Jailhouse Rock and It's Now Or Never.

Ricky Gervais was quickly becoming a household name thanks to his fly-on-the-wall comedy The Office, which aired its second series in 2002. But looking beyond David Brent’s cringe-inducing jokes, we were glued to a will-they-won’t-they office romance between the show’s characters Tim Canterbury (Martin Freeman) and Dawn Tinsley (Lucy Davis). The loveable, self-deprecating Tim was madly in love with receptionist Dawn. She clearly had feelings for him too, but there was an elephant in the room: her brutish fiancé Lee. By 2002, this agonising love story still hadn’t reached its conclusion - the country was on tenterhooks, and would have to wait until Christmas 2003 for a resolution.

2002 marked the first time that tennis superstar sisters Serena and Venus Williams faced each other in the Wimbledon Women's singles final, with the younger sibling Serena taking home the top prize following two years of Venus reigning supreme on centre court.

"At the beginning of the year, I told myself I don't care what else happens this year, I want to win Wimbledon," Serena said after her victory. "I wanted to become a member of so much prestige. I wanted to be a part of history."

Rivals but also teammates, the Williams sisters also took home the Women's doubles trophy after beating Spain's Virginia Ruano Pascual and Argentina's Paola Suárez.

Meanwhile, in the Men's singles final Lleyton Hewitt won his only Wimbledon title beating David Nalbandian in the final, 6–1, 6–3, 6–2.

Other sporting highlights this year included another Masters and US Open win for golfer Tiger Woods; Chris Hoy, Paula Radcliffe, Nicole Cooke, Jonathan Edwards, David Calvert, and Beth Tweddle were among the gold medal winners at the Commonwealth Games, held in Manchester; and in the US Tom Brady won his first-ever Super Bowl with the New England Patriots, a seminal moment for a now all-time NFL great who has since become a Super Bowl champion a total of seven times (and counting!).

In hindsight, how on earth did England, led by Sven-Göran Eriksson, not the World Cup in 2002? After all, they had a squad packed full of the so-called golden generation including David Beckham, Steven Gerrard, Ashley Cole, Paul Scholes, Michael Owen, and Sol Campbell.

What’s more, they had Ant and Dec’s terrace-ready 'We’re On the Ball' single as their official soundtrack. If only Brazil's Ronaldinho hadn’t stumped David Seamon with that free kick in the quarter-finals, maybe our favourite Geordie double act would have been associated with World Cup glory.

Victory in fact went to the Brazilians, with the original Ronaldo scoring twice to beat Germany 2-0 in the final, earning the team redemption for their 1998 loss to France.

Fashion in the early 00’s was fascinating. It was an alternate universe of studded belts, ties over t-shirts, and rapper Nelly putting a plaster on his face as some kind of statement. But if there’s to be any definitive reflection of an era’s fashion choices, it’s David Beckham’s hair. Becks has had it all – blonde curtains, clean-shaven authority, the full mohawk. 2002 saw him embracing the faux-hawk, a spiked up look with a slightly-raised blond streak. It took off, and his hairdresser at the time started charging £300 for a cut. By the end of the year – after England’s World Cup exit – he’d started wearing a giant hairband.

It had been six long, painful years since Take That announced their split in 1996, and it would be another three years before Gary, Mark, Howard and Jason got back together, and another six before Robbie Williams joined his old gang for sixth album Progress. The band’s members had plenty going on in 2002, however.

Robbie became “rich, rich beyond my wildest dreams!”: his £80m six-album deal with EMI was the most lucrative signed by a UK musician at the time. It's also one rarely matched since, given how much physical album sales have dropped in the last 16 years. He had more reasons to celebrate when his Escapology album was named the year's biggest seller.

Meanwhile, Mark Owen (the first ex-Take That member to release solo material) wooed the general public by winning the second Celebrity Big Brother, pipping Les Dennis and Melinda Messenger to the prize. It was all quiet in Gary Barlow’s world, after his solo career had floundered, but he’d eventually steer the group’s revival later in the decade.

These days Gary, Mark, and Howard continue as a three-piece Take That, and you can also find Gary exploring the world of songwriting in his own Radio 2 and ±«Óãtv Sounds series, We Write The Songs. Among his esteemed guests are the likes of Barry Gibb, John Legend, and Sheryl Crow, plus his old Take That pal Robbie Williams!

• 5 things we learned from Robbie Williams and Gary Barlow's heart-to-heart

One of 2002’s most longstanding crazes saw the opening of Queen’s West End musical, ‘We Will Rock You’. The Ben Elton-penned story – based on songs from Freddie Mercury, Brian May and co. – ended up being the longest-running musical at London’s Dominion Theatre, eventually closing in 2014 with a performance from May and Roger Taylor.

• Coldplay, Kylie's comeback, and the Millennium Dome: 20 things that will make you feel nostalgic for the year 2000

• From Wizards to Wernham Hogg to Wikipedia: 21 memorable moments in music and popular culture from 2001

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