WINNIPEG -- Sugar Jones' Maiko Watson turned an old adage on its ear last night. Turns out you can go home again.

 Family, friends and about 1,250 adoring fans welcomed the Winnipeg raised singer back into the fold with open arms -- along with deafening screams and cheers as Sugar Jones hit the stage at the Walker Theatre. The made-for-TV Popstars -- Watson, 20, Andrea Henry, 22, Julie Crochetiere, 21, Mirella Dell'Aquila, 19, and Sahara MacDonald, 24 -- opend their first Winnipeg concert with the appropriately titled flash-pop single Get Yourself Together.

 Dressed in black velvet bellbottoms and cropped tops the quintet pranced and gyrated across the stage through their second hit How Much Longer and then took a sultry turn with It's Like Ice Cream.

 Too hip

 The crowd, well stocked with pre-teen girls, too hip for the room eight-year-olds and indulgent parents, drowned out Watson's words -- "I love you guys" -- when the group took a short break to introduce themselves, an unnecessary formality given their popularity with fans of Global TV series Popstars.

 The five singers were chosen from a pool of more than 4,000 hopefuls who auditioned last year to star in the reality TV show.

 The series followed their fledgling careers as they took dance lessons, recorded their debut album and performed at their first live gig, a private music industry party in Toronto.

 Now in the middle of their first tour -- a month long bus trek from Vancouver to St. John's, Nfld. -- Sugar Jones augmented music from their album with a handful of old standards and rock covers more suited to an older crowd. I Heard It Through Grapevine was a treat for parents, as was Watson's solo cover of Aretha Franklin's Natural Woman. But Crochetiere's jazz-pop version of Fever prompted a bathroom break for many young fans in the back of the room.

 Earlier, an orchestrated group chant pumped the crowd for their funky, attitude song Keep On Walking and the quintet saved the showstopper for last -- their first and best known hit single Days Like That.

 The first leg of their tour had them on a bill with Destiny's Child in Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton last week. Their last official visit to Winnipeg was in July, when they signed autographs for about 1,200 fans at Polo Park mall.

 Goodwill work

 But since the five had a day off in Winnipeg on Wednesday, they did a little goodwill work, visiting sick kids in a local hospital. And last night, they dedicated one song, A Little Bit of Heaven, to last week's victims of the terrorist attack in New York City and Washington, D.C.

 Edmonton's folk singer-songwriter Maren Ord opened the show with a 45-minute set of ballads.