The song and band were also criticised by several contemporary musical acts at the time, including Stereophonics, David Gray, and Blur. Take Me Home Country Roads" is set in West Virginia, but John Denver had never been there when he recorded the song.

Bob Marley gave the songwriting credit for "No Woman No Cry" to his friend Vincent Ford, who ran a soup kitchen in Trenchtown, the area of Kingston where Marley grew up. During the tour, the group's vehicle was threatened by an apparently armed man at a motorway service area on the M1 motorway in Leicestershire. Hear'Say's popularity had been eclipsed by that of Liberty X, a band composed of the five other finalists of Popstars. Kym's voice is by far the strongest and she stands out as the most talented member of this new band, which explains why she takes most of the lead lines.In November 2001, just nine months after the release of their debut album, Hear'Say released Everybody. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products.

During the summer of 2002, the group toured the UK radio roadshows circuit, where they were constantly booed and abused by members of the public, with a performance in Brighton being cut short due to the animosity concerned – evidence of the degree of public animosity that had built up.The five unsuccessful finalists went on to form the group Liberty (later renamed Liberty X after a legal dispute). Girl Thing then found out, after the song was written, that their manager Chris Herbert (who also managed Hear'Say) had given the song to the newer band as their debut single, an act that upset Girl Thing. Their record was beaten a year later by Will Young, the first UK Pop Idol, with his debut single "Anything Is Possible/Evergreen," which sold over 1 million in its first week.

Many critics noted that the song had a distinct resemblance to Oasis's " All Around the World" and All Saints' " Never Ever". This single had the third fastest selling opening week (550,000 copies sold) in UK chart history and the biggest ever by a debut act and a non-charity record. Johnny Shentall, husband of Steps singer Lisa Scott-Lee, won the auditions, joining the group on 5 February 2002.The song was also a number-one hit in New Zealand, where it topped the RIANZ Singles Chart for five consecutive weeks in July and August 2001, earning a gold certification for selling over 25,000 copies.