JLS
JLS are a British boy band consisting of members Aston Merrygold, Oritsé Williams, Marvin Humes, and [|JB Gill]; Williams formed the band. They initially signed with Tracklacers production company New Track City and were the runners-up of the fifth series of the ITV reality talent show The X Factor in 2008, coming in second to Alexandra Burke.
After their appearance on The X Factor, JLS signed to Epic Records. Their first two singles "Beat Again" and "Everybody in Love" were both number one on the UK Singles Chart.
The band's self-titled debut album was released on 9 November 2009 and has since sold over 1.5 million copies in the UK. JLS won the awards for British Breakthrough and British Single at the 2010 BRIT Awards. They won several awards at the MOBO Awards for Best song for "Beat Again" in 2009 and also Best Newcomer in the same year. In 2010, they won the MOBO Awards for Best UK act and Best Album. They also won their fifth MOBO in 2012 by winning Best Video for "Do You Feel What I Feel?". They won the title of the UK's hardest-working band for two consecutive years, in 2011 and 2012.
In 2010, JLS signed a record deal with the US record label Jive Records and released "Everybody in Love" as their debut and only US single, but it failed to chart. "The Club Is Alive", the lead single from their second studio album, was released in the UK in July 2010 and earned the band their third number-one on the UK Singles Chart. Their single "Love You More" was the official single for Children in Need in 2010 and gave the group their fourth number-one single in the UK. Their single "She Makes Me Wanna" featuring Dev was their fifth UK number one. As of 2012, their debut album and single have been named one of The X Factors top ten biggest-selling debut singles and albums. As of 2013, they were the 16th-richest reality TV stars in the UK, with an estimated fortune of £6 million per member, thus giving the band a financial worth of approximately £24 million.
In May 2013, after seven years together, JLS announced that they would go their separate ways after releasing a greatest hits album and one last UK and Ireland arena tour. In February 2020, the band announced a reunion, with the Beat Again Tour due to start in November 2020, but it was postponed to June 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and then postponed to October 2021.
According to the British Phonographic Industry, JLS has sold 2.6 million albums and 3.6 million singles in the UK.
Music career
2007–2008: Formation as UFO
decided to get into the music business mainly because his mother has multiple sclerosis and he wanted to raise money to help find a cure. He was originally scouted for a number of boy bands but did not feel they were right and believed that a group should have a "real" connection with each other like his heroes, the Four Tops. Williams decided to form his own boy band and, through friends, met Marvin Humes who had experience in R&B and pop music, being a part of VS in 2004. Next to join was Aston Merrygold, who was once cast in the ITV children's programme Fun Song Factory, because of his athletic ability. Last to join the group was JB Gill, for his "musical ear" and harmonies. They bonded, became friends and together they were called UFO. They signed to Tracklacers developing a sound they then called "Jack the Lad Swing", combining the phrase "Jack the lad" and the urban music of new jack swing. While working their way into the music business, UFO instantly signed to Epic Records, before winning their first award in late 2007 at the Urban Music Awards for Best Unsigned Act thanks to their mash-up of "Stand by Me" by Ben E. King and "Beautiful Girls" by Sean Kingston. Shortly thereafter, they released their second single, "Slap Ya Elbow". The group give credit to 'DJ Triz' who produced one of UFO's first songs and helped them write it.2008–2009: ''The X Factor'' and new name
In 2008, UFO auditioned for the fifth series of The X Factor, but had to change their name because it was already being used by another group, so they decided to go with the name JLS. Following the elimination of girl groups Bad Lashes and Girlband in weeks one and two respectively, JLS were Louis Walsh's last remaining act in the competition, but throughout the live shows the judges called them the best band to come out of The X Factor. In week 7, JLS were in the bottom two along with Rachel Hylton. However, they survived thanks to votes from Walsh, Cheryl Cole and Simon Cowell. Cowell stated when deliberating that JLS did not deserve to be in the bottom two. In the quarter-final, JLS performed "...Baby One More Time" and received negative comments from two of the four judges, with Cowell saying "at the moment you're out", but after their second performance, "You Light Up My Life", Cowell commented that they were "back in the race" and that they could "have a hit record" with the performance.In the semi-final, JLS performed "Umbrella" and "I'm Already There". Cowell then predicted they would win the competition. They made it to the final and performed their own version of the winner's song, "Hallelujah", which the other finalist Alexandra Burke also performed. The public voted for the second time that night and Burke won the competition, JLS coming second. They were the fourth band to make the final. JLS's manager thought the band would be well suited to Epic Records, with whom they signed a record contract in January 2009.
2009–2010: ''JLS''
As soon as the contract was signed, Epic A&Rs Nick Raphael and Jo Charrington began album preparation by contacting the pop songwriters and producers who they thought to be the best in the industry. These included Steve Mac, Wayne Hector, J.R. Rotem and DEEKAY. When they went to see Mac he played them "Beat Again", a song he had written with Hector, and the pair enthusiastically agreed that it was perfect for JLS. Charrington said: "Once you've got that special song everything else seems to fall into place." The song was released as the debut single in July, only six months after the band had signed with the label. It reached No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart on 19 July 2009. On 9 November 2009 JLS released their eponymously titled debut album, JLS. The album debuted at No. 1 on the UK Album Chart, selling over 1 million copies and named the sixth best selling album in the UK during 2009, only being released for 8 weeks before the list was compiled. Their second single "Everybody in Love", released on 2 November 2009, also topped the UK Singles Chart. Their third single, "One Shot", peaked at number six despite a physical release; however, it did stay in the charts for a number of weeks despite the drop. Due to the success of their album, the group went on their first headline tour, with twenty-five dates around the UK and Ireland. The group also became the first The X Factor contestants to win a BRIT Award in 2010, winning the British Breakthrough and Best British Single for "Beat Again". Jay-Z predicted that they would become as big as 'N Sync.In the beginning of 2010, a bidding war was underway between Epic Records and Jive Records to sign JLS to an American deal. The group settled with Jive Records, while continuing to remain with their native signing on Sony Music UK's Epic Records. As of August 2010, the album had sold over 1.2 million copies and had been certified 4× Platinum in the UK.
2010–2011: ''Outta This World''
In an interview with HitQuarters recorded in March, producer-songwriter Steve Mac said he was currently at work writing for the second JLS album, Another album contributor, Lucas Secon, said that the style of songs he worked on for the album were "a little more acoustic", prefiguring what he sees as a pop music trend shift from synthetic sounds to a more live approach. Songwriter-producer Chris Braide confirmed in August that he had just written and produced two tracks for the album. Braide said that he composed "skeleton" versions of the songs by himself, and then two members of JLS then came into his London studio to help complete them. One song was written and recorded within the space of a day."The Club Is Alive" was announced as the lead single in April and released on 4 July 2010. The group promoted the single on Britain's Got Talent and GMTV. The single debuted at number one, becoming the group's third UK number one single. Then reports suggested that a second single, "Ay Mama", was to be released in United States on 14 September 2010 and was set to feature Barbadian singer-songwriter Shontelle. However the group told Digital Spy that although a song had been recorded with Shontelle, it was never confirmed for the album. On 16 September 2010 the group unveiled the second single, "Love You More" and was a BBC Children in Need single. It was their 4th UK number-one. The group wrote the song with Toby Gad and Wayne Hector.
Outta This World was released on 22 November 2010 and debuted at number 2 on the UK Albums Chart selling 152,000 copies, being held off the number 1 spot by the second-week sales of Take That's record breaking Progress album. The album's third single "Eyes Wide Shut" was remixed to feature Tinie Tempah, and has so far reached number eight on the UK Singles Chart.
Merrygold said that the group had teamed up with Bruno Mars for songs on the third album, and had spoken about the possibility of working with Usher or Rihanna. On 7 January 2011 the album was certified double platinum by BPI, representing sales of over 600,000 in the UK.
2011–2012: ''Jukebox'' and ''Evolution''
JLS began working on their third album, Jukebox in March 2011. In May 2011 it was confirmed that the first single will feature American singer-songwriter Dev, and is titled "She Makes Me Wanna". The song was produced by BeatGeek, Jimmy Joker, and Teddy Sky, who are part of RedOne's production company after the group bid £30,000 for a recording session with the producer at Alicia Keys' Black Charity Ball in 2010. It was serviced to radio stations on 25 May 2011, while it was released for digital download on 24 July 2011. The album was released on 14 November 2011, and the band will embark on another UK arena tour in support of the album in March and April 2012. On 15 September, JLS announced that "Take a Chance on Me" would be their second single from their album Jukebox. It was released on 4 November 2011, and charted at number two on the UK Singles Chart. The song was written by Emile Ghantous, Frankie Bautista, Nasri Atweh, and Nick Turpin. The band's third single "Do You Feel What I Feel?" was released on 1 January 2012 and became their lowest-charting single to date, peaking at number sixteen. The album charted at number 2 on the UK Album Charts, making it the second consecutive album to miss the number 1 spot, and entered the Irish Album Charts at number 5.In 2012, JLS recorded the official Sport Relief charity single, "Proud". It was released on 18 March 2012. The song was co-written with Daniel Davidsen, Jason Gill, Cutfather and Ali Tennant, who also worked on the Jukebox album. The band was among the performers at the Diamond Jubilee concert held outside Buckingham Palace on 4 June 2012. On 7 June 2012, they performed at the Royal Albert Hall for the Rays of Sunshine concert, which grants wishes for seriously ill youngsters in the UK aged 3–18 years old. On 8 June 2012, they were announced to perform at the iTunes Festival 2012, along with The X Factor alumni Olly Murs, One Direction and Rebecca Ferguson.
On 21 August 2012, JLS began filming a music video for "Hottest Girl in the World", the lead single from their fourth album. On 25 August, the band announced that their upcoming fourth album would be called Evolution. The album will be released on 5 November. On the direction of the album Merrygold said; "We didn't go by any kind of guidelines or anything like that, we just made what felt right and we're really excited about it." The band also confirmed that a Deluxe version of the LP will be available that will feature bonus and unreleased tracks. Producers on the album include chart-topping US studio bods Rodney Jerkins, Bangladesh, and Midi Mafia. On 6 September, they premiered the lead single, "Hottest Girl in the World", on BBC Radio 1. The single was released on 21 October and debuted at number 6 on the UK Singles Chart.