Aloud

Aloud is an American, Boston-based indie rock band known for its songwriting and vocal prowess as well as using a two lead singer approach.

Founded in 2002 by Jen de la Osa (lead vocals, guitar, keys) and Henry Beguiristain (lead vocals, guitar, keys), the group is rounded out by bassist/backing vocalist Charles Murphy and drummer Frank Hegyi. From 2006, Aloud released music under the Lemon Merchant Records label before signing with Mother West in 2013.

Aloud is currently on tour promoting their fourth studio album, It's Got To Be Now, recorded with producers Charles Newman and Benny Grotto

History

Formation and early years: 2002-2006

Aloud was formed in May 2002 by vocalists/guitarists Jen de la Osa and Henry Beguiristain out of an earlier version of the group named Feedback, which included bassist Roy Fontaine. Rob Acevedo was recruited to play drums for the fledgling band on an indefinite, but temporary basis. The four spent the summer working on a home-recorded four song demo titled Don't Trust the Radio, which was released on July 31, 2002 and sold at shows.

Girls Aloud

Girls Aloud was an English-Irishpop girl group, which was created through the ITV talent show Popstars: The Rivals in 2002. The group comprised singers Nadine Coyle, Cheryl Fernandez-Versini, 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".

The group's musical style was pop, but throughout their career they had experimented with electropop and dance-pop. Girls Aloud's collaborations with Brian Higgins and his songwriting and production team Xenomania earned the group critical acclaim, due to an innovative approach to mainstream pop music. The group became one of the few UK reality television acts to achieve continued success, amassing a fortune of £30 million by May 2010. Guinness World Records lists them as "Most Successful Reality TV Group" in the 2007 edition. They also hold the record for "Most Consecutive Top Ten Entries in the UK by a Female Group" in the 2008 edition, and are credited again for "Most Successful Reality TV Group" in the 2011 edition. The group was also named the United Kingdom's biggest selling girl group of the 21st century, with over 4.3 million singles sales and 4 million albums sold in the UK alone. In March 2013, after the Ten: The Hits Tour, the group announced their split.

Britain's Got Talent

Britain's Got Talent (often shortened to BGT) is a British television talent show competition which started in June 2007 and originated from the Got Talent franchise. The show is a Thames production (formerly Talkback Thames) distributed by FremantleMedia and is produced in association with Syco TV. The show is broadcast on ITV and its sister show Britain's Got More Talent is broadcast on ITV2. Anyone of any age with some sort of talent can audition for the show. Acts compete against each other in order to gain the audience support while trying to win the title of "The winner of Britain's Got Talent''. The original judging panel consisted of the show's creator Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden and Piers Morgan. Kelly Brook was brought in as a fourth judge in series 3, but was axed after one audition site. Morgan did not return for series 5 and Cowell was only present during the live shows, while David Hasselhoff and Michael McIntyre joined the panel. Alesha Dixon and David Walliams joined the panel in series 6 as replacements for McIntyre and Hasselhoff.

Got Talent

Got Talent is a talent show television format conceived and owned by Simon Cowell's SYCOtv company. A pilot was made in the United Kingdom in 2005, hosted by Paul O'Grady, but after O'Grady's split with ITV, the series was postponed, resulting in America's Got Talent – the first full series of the format.

It has spawned spin-offs in over 58 countries (as of April 2014), in what is now referred to as the Got Talent format, similar to that described by FremantleMedia of the Idol and The X Factor formats. In April 2014, the format was named the world's most successful reality TV format ever by the Guinness World Records.

History

Got Talent was an invention by The X Factor creator Simon Cowell, with comedian and talk show host Paul O'Grady producing a pilot for ITV in 2005 under the provisional title Paul O'Grady's Got Talent. O'Grady left the network after disputes with ITV, resulting in Cowell moving the concept to the United States while he and ITV searched for a new show host.

Due to these issues, the Got Talent franchise ended up debuting first as America's Got Talent on NBC on 21 June 2006, with judges David Hasselhoff, Brandy Norwood, and Piers Morgan. The show's original series was hosted by Regis Philbin. In 2016, the judging panel consisted of Howie Mandel, Heidi Klum, Melanie Brown, and Simon Cowell, and hosted by Nick Cannon, who has been the presenter since 2009. The grand prize on America's Got Talent is $1 million, and, since season 3, a chance to headline a show on the Las Vegas Strip. America's Got Talent proved extremely successful for NBC, pulling in high ratings in both total viewers and the younger 18-49 demographic. The show's initial success in America is credited with the eventual launch of the British series, and the overall global launch of the Got Talent franchise.

Only Boys Aloud

Only Boys Aloud (OBA) is a choir based in the South Wales Valleys in Wales made up of boys aged 14–19. It was set up in 2010 by choral director Tim Rhys-Evans and members of Only Men Aloud. They finished third in Britain's Got Talent in May 2012.

Besides the choral function, the choir also has a social side. They intend to give the participating boys a way to broaden their horizons, grow in ability and self-confidence and keep out of trouble.

History

The boys' inaugural appearance took place at the National Eisteddfod at Ebbw Vale in 2010. Since then, they have appeared at many events, including at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff with Dame Shirley Bassey and Catherine Zeta-Jones in the "Ryder Cup Welcome to Wales" concert.

In December 2011, they joined forces with their father company, Only Men Aloud, to perform on the final night of Only Men Aloud's arena tour at the Motorpoint Arena Cardiff and also featured on their Christmas CD. They have been the subject of two TV documentaries and appeared on BBC's Songs of Praise.