Critical Response and Recognition
Since their inception, Xenomania has garnered praise from all areas of the international media. Pitchfork Media, which generally focuses on independent music, praised Xenomania for their "deathless hooks and multi-genre pyrotechnics songs stuffed to the gills with one, two, three, sometimes four different choruses, sounding like patchwork assemblages of the best bits of a hundred fantasy pop songs." In 2006, British pop website Popjustice stated, "This cartel of songwriters and producers are the most talented pop powerhouse since the glory days of Cheiron, and could easily become the most exciting British hit machine of all time." Celebrity gossip blogger Perez Hilton consistently praises their work.
Xenomania has been given various accolades and recognition. British music industry trade magazine Music Week said in an October 2008 piece, "As one of song-writing and production team Xenomania, the publicity shy Brian Higgins has been responsible for some of the most life-affirming and innovative pop songs of the last decade." They were named Music Week's Producer of the Year award for 2009. Higgins won the Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically for his work on Cher's "Believe"; it was also awarded the sales-based International Hit Of The Year and Best Selling UK Single. It also won the Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording. Xenomania won Best British Single for Girls Aloud's "The Promise" at the 2009 BRIT Awards, while Gabriella Cilmi's "Sweet About Me" won Best Single at the ARIA Music Awards of 2009. Pet Shop Boys' Yes was nominated in the Best Electronic/Dance Album category at the 52nd Grammy Awards.
The Observer placed Higgins at number thirteen in a 2008 list of the twenty most powerful "celebrity makers." The article labeled Xenomania "not only UK pop's most successful songwriting and production team, they're also its most cutting edge." Miranda Cooper was in Harper's Bazaar Power List 2007 as one of the thirty "women who shape our lives today". They wrote of Cooper, "If it's a hit you want, you'd better talk to Cooper. For the rest of us, Cooper has the power to get a tune inside our heads."
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