Sugar Jones was having another "day like that."

You know them and love them from the Popstars reality show.

Now say hello to the girls from Canada's first made-for-TV pop group.

They were in town yesterday for a round of media interviews, a show at West Edmonton Mall, an autograph session and an early bedtime for a 4 a.m. wakeup call to do it all again in Vancouver today.

In their hotel suite yesterday afternoon, Sahara MacDonald, 23, Andrea Henry, 22, Maiko Watson, 19, Julie Crochetiere, 20, and Mirella Dell'Aquila, 19, looked tired, acted giddy and popped Altoids to nurse hoarse voices as they answered the same silly questions they're doomed to face over and over and over again.

Which of you will be the first to go solo?

"We've got a lot on our plate right now."

Who's the leader?

"We all rise at different times for different reasons."

Is this what you really wanted?

"I guess we'll find out as we go. We're learning every day."

How'd you like to be on some other reality show, Fear Factor or Survivor, say?

Much laughter, "No, no, no, NO! Enough reality!"

Barely two weeks into their (real) music career, Sugar Jones has been announced to open four shows for Destiny's Child (including Edmonton on Sept. 17).

Until then, their dance card is full.

Welcome to the wonderful world of pop stardom, ladies.

It's ironic to consider that their "prize" for being the finalists in Popstars is one 12-hour day after another of some of the hardest work they've ever known.

If anything, they say they're gained huge respect for pop stars who came before them and realized "how much hard work and commitment it takes to go through it."

It's paid off for Sugar Jones so far. The group's single, Days Like That, is a big hit, and their self-titled CD debuted at No. 2.

So what was it like living on that island, eating nothing but rice and bugs and enduring those humiliating immunity challenges?

Oops ... wrong reality show.

Popstars featured a gruelling "boot camp" performer training ground that covered every detail, from costumes to dance moves to music, and plenty of crying.

The finalists were chosen from more than 4,000 contestants.

"Intense," is the word Sugar Jones uses to describe the experience.

It's still intense.

They're just not on TV all the time.

Actually, it might be interesting to have cameras following them around now that the show is over. Imagine: from Making the Band to Breaking the Band. These five young women take it one day at a time.

"We don't know exactly what we were expecting," says the raven-haired Mirella. "Everything is really new to us and we're just trying to adapt to the daily life of being part of Sugar Jones, out there in the pubic eye. We're taking it a step at a time and we have each other to go through it with."

The members of Sugar Jones aren't pretending to be anything but a manufactured pop group. But that's all in the past. The future is in their hands (and in the hands of their record company, of course). For one thing, the next album will contain some of their own ideas, they insist, which time didn't permit on the debut. They didn't even have a say in which song would be the single, though the R&B-spiced Days Like That turned out to be a wise choice.

"We're not denying that it started as a fabricated, manufactured approach to bringing a band together, but at the same time I think a lot of things in everyday life are like that, especially in show business," Sahara says.

"I think it would be nice if everyone would kind of leave it alone. That will probably take a while. Hopefully the album will give us some credibility."

After all, they're exactly the same people they were in the TV show.

"I think it was all reality," Maiko says.

"You're still doing what it takes to get into a band. It was more like a documentary. It wasn't like we came out of the TV and became real. That's how people think of it: 'Oh, now they're real people.'

"We've always been real."