Popstars (UK) is a British reality television show produced for ITV that aired for two series. The first series, Popstars , aimed to find five singers to form a new pop group. During the second series, Popstars: The Rivals , two music groups were formed to compete for the Christmas number-one single in the United Kingdom. [1]
Popstars was an international reality television franchise and a precursor to the Idol series. The series first began in New Zealand in 1999 when producer Jonathan Dowling formed the five member all-girl pop music group TrueBliss. Popstars remains one of the most successful TV show formats of all time with the format being sold to more than 50 countries. The show was the inspiration for Simon Fuller's Idols franchise.
Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unknown individuals rather than professional actors. Reality television came to prominence in the late 1990s and early 2000s with the global successes of the series Survivor, Idols, and Big Brother, all of which became global franchises. Reality television shows tend to be interspersed with "confessionals", short interview segments in which cast members reflect on or provide context for the events being depicted on-screen. Competition-based reality shows typically feature gradual elimination of participants, either by a panel of judges or by the viewership of the show.
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The five winning contestants from the first series formed the group Hear'Say. [2] Their first two singles, "Pure and Simple" and "The Way to Your Love", became number-one hits on the UK Singles Chart. Two other single releases, "Everybody" and "Lovin' Is Easy", reached the top ten. Hear'Say released their first album Popstars in May 2001; this was followed by a second album, Everybody. After a line-up change, the group split a year after formation. [3] [4]
Hear'Say were a British pop group. They were created through the ITV reality TV show Popstars in February 2001, the first UK series of the international Popstars franchise. The group, who were signed to Polydor Records, originally consisted of Danny Foster, Myleene Klass, Kym Marsh, Suzanne Shaw, and Noel Sullivan. Sullivan is originally from Cardiff, Wales and Marsh is from Wigan, but the other members originate from London, England. Hear'Say achieved instant fame, breaking chart records with their debut single "Pure and Simple" and the album Popstars. However, their second album failed to match this success.
"Pure and Simple" is a song by British pop group Hear'Say, the winners of the UK version of Popstars. It was a cover of the original version recorded three years earlier by English-Dutch girl group Girl Thing, who were dropped from BMG before the song was given to Hear'Say. The song was released on 12 March 2001 as the lead single from Hear'Say's debut studio album Popstars (2001). The B-side is a cover of Simon & Garfunkel's "Bridge over Troubled Water".
"The Way to Your Love" is the second single from the group Hear'Say, the winners of the UK version of Popstars. It was the second and last single from their debut studio album Popstars (2001).
In the second series, two new groups, Girls Aloud and One True Voice, were formed. [5] [6] They competed for the Christmas number-one in 2002 with their debut singles "Sound of the Underground" and "Sacred Trust / After You're Gone" respectively; Girls Aloud finished on top and debuted at number one, and One True Voice debuted at number two. [7] One True Voice released another single, "Shakespeare's (Way with) Words" before splitting in June 2003. [8] Girls Aloud, in contrast, have become one of the most successful female groups in the United Kingdom, with 17 successive top-ten singles, four number-ones singles and six top-ten albums. During the group's three-year hiatus, Cheryl Cole, Nadine Coyle, and Nicola Roberts also went on to release solo material. Girls Aloud reunited to celebrate their tenth anniversary in 2012.
Girls Aloud were an English-Irish pop girl group, which was created through the ITV talent show Popstars: The Rivals in 2002. The group comprised singers Cheryl, Nadine Coyle, Sarah Harding, Nicola Roberts and Kimberley Walsh. The group achieved a string of twenty consecutive top ten singles in the United Kingdom, including four number ones. They also achieved seven certified albums, of which two reached number one. They have been nominated for five Brit Awards, winning the 2009 Best Single for "The Promise".
One True Voice were a British boy band created on the ITV television series Popstars: The Rivals. In the show, pop groups of both genders were created through a public vote and competed in the UK Singles Chart for the 2002 Christmas number one single. In the contest, One True Voice with their No. 2 double A-side "Sacred Trust / After You're Gone" lost out to girl group Girls Aloud and their No. 1 single "Sound of the Underground". One True Voice released a further single in 2003 before acrimoniously splitting in August without having released an album.
"Sound of the Underground" is the debut single by British-Irish pop group Girls Aloud, later featured on their debut album of the same name. The song was written by Miranda Cooper, Brian Higgins, and Niara Scarlett, and produced by Higgins and his production team Xenomania. Following Girls Aloud's formation on the ITV1 reality television show Popstars: The Rivals, "Sound of the Underground" was released just sixteen days later on 16 December 2002.
In addition to the winners of the show, several other participants have achieved careers in music. Liberty X (originally known as Liberty before a legal dispute) has had eight top ten singles in the UK charts, including the number-one hit "Just a Little" in 2002. Kym Marsh released a solo album and two singles after leaving Hear'Say, and Darius Danesh, who did not advance past the audition stage, released material after appearing on Pop Idol . Javine Hylton, the singer who missed out on a place in Girls Aloud, debuted at number four with "Real Things and released several other singles. She was selected as the United Kingdom's entry for the 2005 Eurovision Song Contest, singing "Touch My Fire". [9] The four other female finalists formed the band Clea, and the five losing male finalists experienced success in their band Phixx. The Cheeky Girls, a Romanian duo who did not make the live finals, were given a record contract, and debuted at number three behind the two winning bands.
Liberty X were a British-Irish group consisting of Michelle Heaton, Tony Lundon, Kevin Simm, Jessica Taylor and Kelli Young.
"Just a Little" is a song recorded by English-Irish pop group Liberty X. Written by singer Michelle Escoffery and produced by The BigPockets, it was released on 13 May 2002 as the third single from the group's debut studio album, Thinking It Over. The song proved to be Liberty X's breakthrough to mainstream and critical success, in the process overtaking fellow Popstars alumni Hear'Say in terms of success. During Celebrity Big Brother 6, Michelle Heaton, who performed a version of the song wearing a tight PVC catsuit for a Big Brother task, revealed that she did not contribute vocals to "Just a Little" because she "wasn't good enough to cut it". A music video was also made for the song, featuring the group as a gang of professional burglars who steal a diamond from a building in London.
Kimberley Gail "Kym" Marsh is an English actress and former singer-songwriter, who rose to fame in 2001 after winning a place in the band Hear'Say, as a result of appearing on the reality television series Popstars. Hear'Say enjoyed brief success, achieving two UK number one singles and a UK number one album, but Marsh left the band in 2002 to pursue a solo career. She released an album titled Standing Tall in 2003, which peaked at number nine in the UK and spawned two UK top ten singles.
