JLS

In 2007, Oritsé Williams had a dream of “taking elements of the members of the greatest boy bands of all time and ending up with a supergroup.” He set off to find the perfect band members to join him, linking up with Aston, JB, and Marvin, who'd previously been in VS with Simon Webbe. With varied backgrounds in the performing arts, the British boy band JLS (an acronym of Jack the Lad Swing) burst into the public consciousness in 2008 when taking part in the popular UK talent show The X Factor. Though failing to win the competition (coming second to R&B/soul singer Alexandra Burke), the group gained popularity thanks to their weekly TV audience and after some initial wrangling with Simon Cowell's record company Syco, were soon signed to Epic Records. Following on from their fly-on-the-wall success, the boys released their debut single, the pop-infused, R&B-inspired “Beat Again” in mid-2009, and watched it shoot into the Number 1 position on the UK charts. Riding the crest of a wave, their sophomore single “Everybody in Love” was equally as popular when it was released later that year, also enjoying time in the top spot and setting the standard for the band's successive work. A self-titled album followed hot on its heels in late 2009, as did two BRIT Awards in 2010, hailing them the first X Factor contestants to ever win such an accolade. In the years that followed, JLS managed to land three more titles—Outta This World (2010), Jukebox (2011), and Evolution (2012)—in the Top 5 of the UK Albums Chart before splitting up in 2013. Six years after their breakup, the band announced a reunion tour and returned in full force with the album 2.0 (2021), which peaked at Number 4 in the United Kingdom.

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