Reborn in the USA | |
---|---|
Genre | Reality television, music |
Directed by | Jonathan Bullen |
Presented by | Davina McCall |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
No. of series | 1 |
No. of episodes | 8 |
Original release | |
Network | ITV |
Release | 8 March – 26 April 2003 |
Reborn in the USA is a British reality television show broadcast on ITV, in which ten British pop acts were transported to the US, where they were supposedly not known in the hope of revitalising their music career.
Each week, the American audience voted for their favourite act. The two acts with the fewest votes would then face the vote from the British public, where the following week the act with the fewest votes was eliminated from the contest and sent back to Britain. The series was presented by Davina McCall and the eventual winner was ex Spandau Ballet lead singer Tony Hadley, who was awarded with the prize of a recording contract. [1]
The competitors were: Tony Hadley, Michelle Gayle, Gina G, Elkie Brooks, Dollar, Leee John (of Imagination), Haydon Eshun (of Ultimate Kaos), Sonia and Mark Shaw of Then Jerico. Controversy hit the show early on when Shaw quit the show in the first week after being criticised by other participants for his drunken behaviour prior to the recording of the first concert. Quickly, Peter Cox (of Go West) was flown in as a replacement.
Contrary to the rules, Hadley, Cox, and Gina G all had at least 1 Top 40 hit (and in the case of Dollar had their only US single, "Shooting Star," peaked at No. 74 in 1978) on the Billboard Hot 100 singles in the US, while Sonia's debut single peaked at number 10 on Billboard's Dance/Club Play Songs chart in 1990; Gina G, Cox (as part of Go West), and John's group also placed singles on the latter.
Further controversy arose in the second week when acts Dollar and Sonia had received the fewest votes and were both up for the public vote. Sonia elected to leave the tour due to stress, but then decided to return to face the vote. Dollar (David Van Day and Thereza Bazar) accused her of pulling a publicity stunt to gain votes, resulting in a heated argument between the two acts, where Sonia ultimately told Van Day he was "a nasty piece of work". In the end, Dollar were voted off and Sonia continued in the show for a few more weeks. [2]
The format for the show had the artists travelling on a tour bus to a new venue each week. [3] Each would perform one song which would relate to the city they were performing in (e.g. the concert in New Orleans would have each perform a well-known song about New Orleans). All songs performed were cover versions, until the final show where the final two (Hadley and Gayle) each sang one of their own hits. Despite his late entry to the show, Peter Cox was the favourite to win, but he finished in third place after forgetting the words to the song he was performing.
The show's theme music was composed and produced by Stuart Hancock for London-based music production company Mcasso Music, and variations of this theme music were used to accompany the on-screen action between song performances.
Following the show's transmission, a book and an album was released. [4] [5] The album contained studio recordings of various cover versions by the acts, comprising 17 songs.
– | Singer was up for eviction from the tour bus and had to face the weeklong British public vote |
– | Singer received the fewest public votes and was immediately eliminated |
– | Singer received the most votes from the live American audience |
Act | Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Quarter-Final | Semi-Final | Final | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Tony Hadley | Safe | Safe | Bottom Two | Safe | Safe | Safe | Safe | Winner | ||
Michelle Gayle | Safe | Safe | Safe | Safe | Bottom Two | Bottom Two | Safe | Runner-Up | ||
Peter Cox | Safe | Safe | Safe | Safe | Safe | Safe | 3rd | Eliminated (semi-final) | ||
Haydon Eshun | Safe | Safe | Safe | Safe | Safe | Bottom Two | Eliminated (quarter-final) | |||
Leee John | Safe | Safe | Safe | Bottom Two | Bottom Two | Eliminated (week 5) | ||||
Sonia | Bottom Two | Safe | Safe | Bottom Two | Eliminated (week 4) | |||||
Elkie Brooks | Safe | Bottom Two | Bottom Two | Eliminated (week 3) | ||||||
Gina G | Safe | Bottom Two | Eliminated (week 2) | |||||||
Dollar | Bottom Two | Eliminated (week 1) | ||||||||
Mark Shaw | Withdrew (week 1) | |||||||||
Against British public vote | Dollar, Sonia | Elkie Brooks, Gina G | Elkie Brooks, Tony Hadley | Leee John, Sonia | Leee John, Michelle Gayle | Haydon Eshun, Michelle Gayle | ||||
Destination: New Orleans, Louisiana
Artist | Song (Original artist) | Results |
---|---|---|
Dollar | "They Can't Take That Away from Me" (Ella Fitzgerald) | Eliminated |
Elkie Brooks | "Love Letters" (Dick Haymes) | Safe |
Gina G | "Fever" (Peggy Lee) | Safe |
Haydon Eshun | "Misty Blue" (Dorothy Moore) | Safe |
Leee John | "Unforgettable" (Nat King Cole) | Safe |
Michelle Gayle | "When I Fall in Love" (Nat King Cole) | Safe |
Peter Cox | "The House of the Rising Sun" (The Animals) | Safe |
Sonia | "The Greatest Love of All" (Whitney Houston) | Bottom two |
Tony Hadley | "To Love Somebody" (Bee Gees) | Safe |
Destination: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Artist | Song (Original artist) | Results |
---|---|---|
Elkie Brooks | "When Will I See You Again" (The Three Degrees) | Bottom two |
Gina G | "Don't Leave Me This Way" (Thelma Houston) | Eliminated |
Haydon Eshun | "I'll Make Love to You" (Boyz II Men) | Safe |
Leee John | "Betcha by Golly, Wow" (The Stylistics) | Safe |
Michelle Gayle | "The Whole Town's Laughing at Me" (Teddy Pendergrass) | Safe |
Peter Cox | "Me and Mrs. Jones" (Billy Paul) | Safe |
Sonia | "In The Midnight Hour" (Wilson Pickett) | Safe |
Tony Hadley | "If You Don't Know Me by Now" (Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes) | Safe |
Destination: Detroit, Michigan
Artist | Song (Original artist) | Results |
---|---|---|
Elkie Brooks | "You Keep Me Hangin' On" (The Supremes) | Eliminated |
Haydon Eshun | "One Day in Your Life" (Michael Jackson) | Safe |
Leee John | "What's Going On" (Marvin Gaye) | Safe |
Michelle Gayle | "Yester-Me, Yester-You, Yesterday" (Stevie Wonder) | Safe |
Peter Cox | "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" (Marvin Gaye) | Safe |
Sonia | "You Can't Hurry Love" (The Supremes) | Safe |
Tony Hadley | "For Once in My Life" (Stevie Wonder) | Bottom two |
Destination: Memphis, Tennessee
Artist | Song (Original artist) | Results |
---|---|---|
Haydon Eshun | "Blue Suede Shoes" (Elvis Presley) | Safe |
Leee John | "Return to Sender" (Elvis Presley) | Bottom two |
Michelle Gayle | "Love Me Tender" (Elvis Presley) | Safe |
Peter Cox | "Always on My Mind" (Willie Nelson) | Safe |
Sonia | "Can't Help Falling in Love" (Elvis Presley) | Eliminated |
Tony Hadley | "Walking in Memphis" (Marc Cohn) | Safe |
Destination: Nashville, Tennessee
Artist | Song (Original artist) | Results |
---|---|---|
Haydon Eshun | "If Tomorrow Never Comes" (Garth Brooks) | Safe |
Leee John | "A Little Bit More" (Dr. Hook) | Eliminated |
Michelle Gayle | "Breathe" (Faith Hill) | Bottom two |
Peter Cox | "You're Still the One" (Shania Twain) | Safe |
Tony Hadley | "How Do I Live" (LeAnn Rimes) | Safe |
Act | First song | Second song | Result |
---|---|---|---|
Haydon Eshun | "My Girl" (The Temptations) | "Wonderful Tonight" (Eric Clapton) | Eliminated |
Michelle Gayle | "Until You Come Back to Me (That's What I'm Gonna Do)" (Aretha Franklin) | "Ben" (Michael Jackson) | Bottom two |
Peter Cox | "Every Breath You Take" (The Police) | "The Tears of a Clown" (Smokey Robinson) | Safe |
Tony Hadley | "I Can't Make You Love Me" (Bonnie Raitt) | "Changes" (David Bowie) | Safe |
Destination: New York City, New York
Act | First song | Second song | Result |
---|---|---|---|
Michelle Gayle | "Fly Me to the Moon" (Frank Sinatra) | "I Say a Little Prayer" (Aretha Franklin) | Safe |
Peter Cox | "I Drove All Night" (Cyndi Lauper) | "Don't Know Why" (Norah Jones) | Eliminated |
Tony Hadley | "Mack the Knife" (Bobby Darin) | "That's Life" (Frank Sinatra) | Safe |
Destination: London
Act | First song | Second song | Third song | Result |
---|---|---|---|---|
Michelle Gayle | "Sweetness" | "Love Me Tender" | "I Say a Little Prayer" | Runner-Up |
Tony Hadley | "Through the Barricades" | "Walking in Memphis" | "That's Life" | Winner |
Reborn in the USA – 17 Unforgettable Songs as Performed on the hit ITV1 Show
Anthony Patrick Hadley is an English pop singer. He rose to fame in the 1980s as the lead singer of the new wave band Spandau Ballet and launched a solo career following the group's split in 1990. Hadley returned to the band in 2009 but left again in 2017. Hadley is known for his "expressive voice" and "vocal range".
Sonia Evans, known mononymously as Sonia, is an English pop singer from Liverpool. She had a 1989 UK number one hit with "You'll Never Stop Me Loving You" and became the first female UK artist to achieve five top 20 hit singles from one album. She represented the United Kingdom in the 1993 Eurovision Song Contest, where she finished second with the song "Better the Devil You Know". Between 1989 and 1993, she had 11 UK top 30 hits, including "Listen to Your Heart" (1989), "Counting Every Minute" (1990) and "Only Fools " (1991). In 1994, she starred as Sandy in a West End revival of the musical Grease, while on television she appeared as Bunty in the 1998 BBC comedy series The Lily Savage Show.
Gina G is an Australian singer who represented the United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1996, with the song "Ooh Aah... Just a Little Bit", which reached No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart. The song also reached the US top 20 in 1997 and earned her a 1998 Grammy Award nomination for Best Dance Recording. Her other UK Top 30 hits are "I Belong to You" #6 (1996), "Fresh" #6 (1997), "Ti Amo" #11 (1997) and "Gimme Some Love" #25 (1997).
Elkie Brooks is an English rock, blues and jazz singer. She was a vocalist with the bands Dada and Vinegar Joe, and later became a solo artist. She gained her biggest success in the late 1970s and 1980s, releasing 13 UK Top 75 singles, and reached the top ten with "Pearl's a Singer", "Sunshine After the Rain" and "No More the Fool" (1986). She has been nominated twice for the Brit Awards.
Michelle Patricia Gayle is a British singer, songwriter, actress and writer. Gayle had success as a soul and R&B singer in the 1990s, having achieved seven top 40 singles in the UK Singles Chart. These include "Sweetness" and "Do You Know". She released two top 40 albums through RCA Records but they parted company in 1997, and although Gayle has recorded other albums, they have not been released.
Imagination were an English trio, who came to prominence in the early 1980s. They had hits in 28 countries, earning four platinum discs, nine gold discs, and more than a dozen silver discs around the world between 1981 and 1983.
Eurovision: You Decide is the most recent name of a BBC television programme that was broadcast annually to select the United Kingdom's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest. The show had previously gone under several other names, including Festival of British Popular Songs (1957), Eurovision Song Contest British Final (1959–1960), The Great British Song Contest (1996–1999), Eurovision: Making Your Mind Up (2004–2007), Eurovision: Your Decision (2008), and Eurovision: Your Country Needs You (2009–2010), but was known, for most of its history, as A Song for Europe.
Leslie McGregor "Leee" John is an English musician, singer and actor of St Lucian descent. He rose to fame as the lead singer of the soul band Imagination, which had three UK top 10 hits in the early 1980s.
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Dollar were a pop vocal duo from the United Kingdom, consisting of David Van Day and Canadian-born Thereza Bazar. The duo were successful in the late 1970s and 1980s, achieving ten UK top-40 singles, including the top-10 hits "Love's Gotta Hold on Me" (1979), "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" (1979), "Mirror Mirror" (1981), "Give Me Back My Heart" (1982) and "O L'amour" (1987).
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