JLS
A few years ago, nobody had
heard of Aston Merrygold, Marvin Humes, Oritsé Williams and Jonathan Gill.
Calling themselves ‘UFO’ – which stood for ‘Unique, Famous, Outrageous’ – the
group had performed at Showcase:LIVE in 2007 and 2008, but hadn’t made as much
of splash as they’d hoped, despite winning an Urban Music Award for Best
Unsigned Act. However, the lads were not to be discouraged. They changed their
name to an acronym of ‘Jack the Lad Swing’, and entered a popular UK
televised talent show called ‘The X Factor’. The rest, as they say, is history:
JLS had arrived.
Although they finished second to Alexandra Burke in the competition, they have undoubtedly had more commercial success since. Shortly after the conclusion of the show, the group were snapped up by Epic Records, after Simon Cowell had withdrawn an offer to sign them up to his own company, Syco. When the obligatory X Factor tour had been completed, JLS went into the studio to record their debut single, ‘Beat Again’, which went straight to number one in the UK charts upon its release in July 2009. Since then, the group have known nothing but success: their second single release, ‘Everybody in Love’, also made it to number one in the UK, and their eponymous debut album has sold over one million copies in the UK alone since its release in November 2009. To put the icing on a very tasty cake, JLS landed MOBOs for Best UK Newcomer and Best Song, and also scored both the British Breakthough and British Single gongs at the 2010 Brit Awards ceremony, making them the first X Factor contestants ever to win one of the prestigious industry prizes. Could they have it any better right now?
The key question with any product of a TV talent show is an obvious one: will they last? Girls Aloud, Will Young and Leona Lewis, all winners of their respective competitions, would argue that the shows never did their careers any harm. And, the likes of Lemar, Liberty X, and American Idol’s Adam Lambert show that failing to scoop the top prize is not necessarily a portent of doom either. However, for every Will Young there is a Steve Brookstein, and for every Lemar there is a Gareth Gates. JLS may be making waves at the moment, but will they still be around two years from now? Of course, only time will tell, but with a new album due out later this year, and the JLS Arena Tour planned for 2010-2011, the group are certainly not going to give up on their dream now that it is finally coming to fruition. There will always be a market for such earnest, energetic and likeable performers: expect JLS to be around for some time to come.
