Last week, I ventured to go see Ed Sheeran in concert (for the second time) and discovered the amazing talent of Rizzle Kicks. Now let me start by saying, when I first heard their stuff, I was not the biggest fan. However, after seeing them as a supporting act for Ed, I am a huge fan of these incredible performers.
Rizzle Kicks are a hip-hop/rap duo from England, originally from Brighton, who create oddly catchy tunes and embody one-of-a-kind stage charisma. Jordan and Harley began rapping and recording covers of their favorite artists back in secondary school, where Jordan rapped and Harley sang vocals on some if his tracks. Their partnership instantly clicked and from there they formed Rizzle Kicks. "Rizzle" forming from a nickname given to Jordan and "Kicks" coming from their love for English football. From here, they began putting their work on their Youtube channel, creating a sensation of buzz on the internet.
In 2010, they recorded a demo of their first single 'Down With the Trumpets,' that shortly followed with a music video. They persistently continued to contact record labels and finally, someone caught notice of their channel. They signed with Island Records, a subdivision of Universal, later that year and their career took off.
The boys released a promotional single in early 2011, 'Prophet (Better Watch It)', which did decently well on the UK Charts. While recording their first studio album, the boys began opening for big UK acts, such as Dizzee Rascal (a well-known rapper in the UK) and The Streets at festivals around the nation. They finally released "Down With the Trumpets" in the Summer of 2011.
Here are the boys performing 'Down With The Trumpets' at BBC Radio's Big Weekend
The boys old school sound and catchy beats would soon catch on to the public, as their next single "When I Was a Youngster" landed at number 8 on the charts. Their debut album, Stereo Typical, dropped in the Fall of 2011, peaking at number 5 on the charts and later went platinum.
Up to now, the boys were establishing a decent fan base, but it was after their third single, 'Mama Do the Hump,' that they began to gain renown attention. After the single dropped, a dance craze known as "The Hump' broke out all over the UK, allowing the single to peak at number 2 on the charts. 'The Hump' was all over; TV personnel, other musicians and even the general public would post videos of their twist on the dance move.
Here are the boys performing 'Mama Do the Hump.' You can see the boys busting out the moves during the chorus.
However, their biggest success was yet to come. In August 2011, the boys collaborated with Olly Murs, an English artist who got his claim to fame on the hit show The X Factor, on a track called 'Heart Skips a Beat.' The trio earned a number one single and a massively huge hit.
Here are Rizzle Kicks and Olly Murs performing 'Heart Skips a Beat' for Children In Need. The boys enter about 2:30 minutes into the video.
Now a huge British success, the boys have collaborated with big names such as Ed Sheeran, Jessie J and Foster the People. In March 2012, the boys went on their first headlining tour, selling out the entire tour, including two sold out shows in London; they toured again in the Winter of 2012. In between the tours, the boys were asked to play at huge festivals throughout the UK, playing on some of the biggest stages in the world and sharing the same stage as some of the biggest names in music.
Here is a fan video of the boys performing 'When I Was a Youngster' at Wakestock 2012.
Currently the boys are supporting Ed Sheeran on his US Tour.
Like I said earlier, the boys songs are a hit or miss for most people, including myself. However, once you see them live, it is impossible not to love them. They bring so much energy to their performances and really get the crowd pumped. When I saw them open for Ed in the beginning of February, there was not a single song where the crowd was not jumping or throwing their arms up; half the people did not even know who they were. They run around the stage, jump on the speakers and bust out their own little, cute dance moves, adding a great amount to their performance. I caught myself numerous times with a huge smile on my face because that is the impression they leave on you. Definitely check these boys out and look for a new album later this year!
This past week my friend Courtney and I ventured on a trip of a lifetime to NYC to see The Saturdays at their show at the Highline Ballroom. Due to a high amount of requests for every detail of the trip, I decided to dedicate my weekly post to our amazing trip.
About 3 weeks ago, I was casually scrolling through my Twitter feed and came across a tweet from the 'Chasing the Saturdays' account announcing a contest for a trip to see The Saturdays at their sold out show in New York; a show I would have immediately bought tickets for had I lived on the East Coast. For those of you who follow my blog, you possibly remember that I had just done a feature on them that week and for those of you don't follow my blog, check out the post for a little background on the group (http://bit.ly/VRKlCa). The Saturdays are a massively popular girl group from the UK, often compared to the Spice Girls, who are making their move to the US. Thinking I had nothing to lose, I entered the contest. The sweepstakes were being monitored through their 'Chasing the Saturdays' page on Facebook and it was restricted to residents of the US only. As I began to read everything that the trip had included, the more I wanted to win. So, I entered all of my friends who had had been victims of my artist spamming: when I send my friends a message saying 'You have to listen to these guys!' and I send about 10 links to their songs and performances. Obviously, I had spammed about 4 of my closest friends with The Saturdays music beforehand and when I had entered Courtney into the contest I accidentally had put my number for her entry. The contest allowed for everyone to have one daily entry, so I entered myself and my friends everyday for the entirety of the sweepstakes. The whole time, I remember thinking, there is no way I will win with so many people entering and all these fans spamming their Twitter to pick them to win.
Monday, January 7th at about 10:00 am, I received a call from a Texas number and because I get spam calls all of the time, I did not answer. Around 12:30pm, they called again and this time I answered. A lady named Stephanie from Kaleidoscope Promotions introduced herself and asked for Courtney. Immediately, it clicked that this was for the contest and they had drawn Courtney's submission. After answering a few initial questions (i.e- are you a resident of the US, do you have any family relation to E!, etc) Staphanie informed me that we had won the Grand Prize trip to New York City! Stephanie informed me that trip would include airfare, ground transportation from the airport to the hotel, a hotel for three days and two nights, tickets to the show, a limo to the venue, meeting The Saturdays after the show and $1,000 in spending money. As she was explaining all the terms and conditions to me, it all went one ear out the other and all I could think about was this could not be real. One thing I remember her saying was they had to background checks on us because we were going to be "hanging out with the girls" so they had to make sure we would not "shoot up the place." I actually said to her "Omg, you just said I was going to hang out with The Saturdays. What?!" I was in total, utter disbelief. I got off the phone with her and immediately called Courtney at work, which I never do unless its important. I remember telling Courtney we had won and feeling tears go down my cheek because I was so in shock and so happy. Courtney was in disbelief and had no idea what I was saying at first. We were both just in disbelief.
Because the trip was the next week, we had to move fast and get background checks and notarized statements to Stephanie within two days. Courtney was leaving for a family vacation the next day so once she got off work (930pm), we immediately got everything taken care of; there was no way we would screw this up. Stephanie had sent us a pre-paid package slip to overnight the paperwork to Texas so all we had to do was somehow find a way to find to get things notarized that night. Because we were going to be meeting the girls, they needed to do background checks to make sure "we would not shoot up the place" and sign papers agreeing to all the terms and conditions of the trip. We ended up finding a mobile notary and got everything shipped out that night.
That week and the few days leading up to the trip, we would receive daily emails from Stephanie informing us of some new details of the trip; flight information, hotel reservations, show day itinerary, etc. We got extremely lucky that this trip was during "Syllabus Week" at school because otherwise, we would have possibly had to decline if we were not able to reschedule exams and such. Courtney and I were honest with all of our professors and told them about the trip and they were all completely understanding, so it was a good sign of a smooth sailing trip from the beginning. The week leading up the trip, countless people confronted Courtney and I about our trip and even professors would call us out in the middle of class to ask us about the trip. It just did not seem real that this had really happened to us. Who do you know that has ever won a contest like this? How did we get so lucky?
From the start, we thought this was too good to be true, so they would fly us out on the cheapest flights (red eyes presumably), put us in a crappy hotel in BFE (butt effing Egypt) and throw in some curve ball in the trip. We were so wrong. Stephanie had booked us on the earliest flight out of Denver Airport on Wednesday so we could get into NY and have half the day to play around the city and flew us out at 4pm on Friday, leaving us more time in NY. She had also booked us at the Marriot Marquis Hotel in the heart of Times Square; a hotel that goes anywhere from $400-$700 a night! When Wednesday came along to finally head out, we could barely keep still.
We arrived at the airport at 6am to take the 8am United flight to LaGuardia. The luck continued as there were many open seats on the flights so instead of us being squished in a middle seat, we were able to spread out and take the aisle and window seats, having the row to ourselves.
We arrived at LaGuardia Airport around 2pm, jumped into a taxi and headed into the city. The hotel was absolutely gorgeous and check- in was a breeze, simply taking two minutes. We got to our room, dropped our bags, shrieked with excitement and headed out.
We got in line for TKTS, a box office in Times Square that sells discounted tickets to Broadway and Off-Broadway shows for the day of. Normally, the line is anywhere from an hour to three hours (every person we talked to told us to expect to wait awhile) and you have to have three to four different shows you want to see in case they sell out. We waited 10 minutes (I know, lucky once again!) and got third row seats to our first choice show, Newsies! We had some time to kill before we needed to head to dinner so we embraced our inner tourist and adventured around Times Square.
We had no idea where to go for dinner so we relied on my memory from my last visit to the city and went to an Italian restaurant, Becco; a very popular restaurant that normally requires reservations. When we arrived around 5pm, the coat checker said we may not get in because we did not have a reservation, but, we did! We both had a moment of panic looking at the menu because it was nothing like I had remembered. Then we spotted the order I had gotten last time, which was a starter salad and unlimited helpings of their three homemade crafted pastas of that night. Such a relief! Our dinner was absolutely amazing and we could not have asked for anything better! Because we were in New York, we had spending money and we were not going to let money hold us back, we splurged on dessert; Courtney having a mouth watering cheesecake and I had an apple strudel with cinnamon gelato. We ended up making friends with these ladies in their (50s or 60s) at the table next to ours. They asked all about our trip and wanted to hear all about the contest; they even offered us some of their wine! When we asked them to get a picture of us, they insisted that we did a pose indicating our winning status (shown below). The whole dinner was absolutely perfect!
Food babies in our bellies, we headed off to the theater to see Newsies. We sat in the orchestra, 3 rows from the stage over to the right. The show was incredible! Filled with amazing dancing and a fun soundtrack; the super hot lead man did not hurt either.
The next day, we got up bright and early to start our day. Because we both had been to New York before, we decided to avoid doing the touristy things like Ellis Island, The Freedom Tower, etc, so we headed to SoHo to do some damage with our spending money. We knew we had to go to Top Shop and then the rest of was just played by ear.
When we went into Billabong, we ended up chatting with some of the employees and eventually asked for some lunch suggestions. They suggested we go to this place called Prince's Kitchen, actually named Mercer's Kitchen, so we did. The place was super cool, with a naturally lit, modern upper level and a warmly lit, kind of trendy atmosphere basement level. We went down to the bottom, only waited about 10-15 minutes and then were seated. The place was packed so we knew we were at an awesome spot. Courtney had a margherita pizza and I had a burger, both incredibly delicious, leaving us both incredibly satisfied.
Ahead of time, we had already planned out to get back to the hotel with plenty of time to get ready for the show and also to have some down time so we would not be tired for the show. So we headed back to the hotel, took a nap and then it was finally time to get ready for the show. We had to be in the lobby by 730, so we did final checks at 715 and headed down. We were the first ones down and somehow, the rest of the contest winners (4 more groups of 2) congregated around us. One group from Boston, another from Utah, a girl who came by herself was from Las Vegas and the last pair was from the city. Courtney and I were definitely the youngest with the rest of the group being primarily in their late 20s, some in their 30s. We were also the more relaxed fans of the group, as all of the other groups spent their time in New York following The Saturdays, meeting them outside their appearances and going to their signing at the NBC Store, while Courtney and I decided to go enjoy the city. We were also the most outgoing and talkative of the group, naturally because Courtney and I are normally always ones to start up a conversation. Anyways, we then waited for this mysterious David Moore to show up; the man Stephanie had told us to meet in the lobby to show chaperone us for the night. In the meanwhile, we got a picture in the lobby before heading out.
David and another lady named Barbara showed up at 730 sharp and we headed down to the ground level. We knew we would be getting a limo according to Stephanie, but to our surprise we actually got a full blown party bus to take us to the venue! (Below is us outside and inside the party bus and one pic is with all of the contest winners!)
We got to the venue around 8pm and arrived to a huge long line of people waiting to get in outside the venue. David and Barbara led us to the entrance, completely cutting the whole line. We heard numerous comments like "Who the hell are these people," or "Why are they so special that they get to cut the line." To answer their questions: we were winners, you are losers, deal with it (joking). The venue, the Highline Ballroom located in the Meat Market District, only held about 200-300 people. It included a lower level that combines a standing room that holds about 100 people and also tables that surround the room for those who choose to sit and eat during the show. There was also an upstairs level that was for VIPs; this is where the E! cameras placed themselves to film the show and the band's friends and business executives were also up there. So in total there was about 150 people downstairs and probably another 100 upstairs. We stood about 5 rows back, dead center for the show. We had time to kill before the girls went on so we went and got T-shirts, took some pictures and chatted with the other winners.
A girl apparently named 'Curly' opened for the girls at 845 and she was joined by a DJ that we named DJ Tiger because he was wearing a tiger shirt. She actually had good music that got everyone pumped up for the show. However, she was wearing this pink, sheer leotard that kind of revealed everything so to cover it, she had streamers covering her front side, but that did not really help. So like any show, there is a break before the opener and the headline act and that's normally 15-20 minutes. Poor Courtney really had to go to the bathroom, but she did not want to miss the show. The Saturdays did not end up going on stage until 945, but when they did, it was epic!
Here is a video of the opening. Not my video, but it's from the same show!
'Notorious'
'Ego'
'Up'
Here is a video I got of 'Forever is Over'
'30 Days'
The girls started the show with 'Notorious,' followed that with 'Ego,' 'Up,' 'Forever is Over' and '30 Days' and then slowed it down for 'Issues' and 'Chasing Lights.' There was a really hilarious moment while they were setting up their acoustic set when Rochelle was drinking a glass of coke and all of the girls wanted a sip of it. At one point, Mollie was like "What is that Rochelle?" and Rochelle responded, "It's a coke. I'm pregnant!" It was pretty funny; kind of had to be there. Anyways, for 'Issues,' the girls were supposed to sing the instrumental version of the single, not the acoustic version of the song, even though the stage manager brought out Una and Mollie's guitar to the stage. There were some technical issues and they ended up playing the single version, with their voice and everything so 10 seconds into the song, Rochelle and Vanessa stopped the song and asked to get the right track on. Una then just said, let's do it acoustic even though they had not rehearsed it.
Here is a video of the whole incident playing out including the song! Again, not my video, but the same show!
Then Mollie brought out her guitar and joined Una for 'Chasing Lights.'
Here is a video I got of 'Chasing Lights'
They speeded things back up again and performed 'Get Ready, Get Set,' a number they did on their All Fired Up Tour.
Here is a video I got.
Then the girls did 'All Fired Up,' a number that Una and Frankie said is their favorite to perform.
They closed the set with 'What About Us' and I knew something was up because they were using the version with Sean Paul in the background. Next thing you know, Una introduces Sean Paul and he comes out to perform with them!
Afterwards, they were hilarious and awkward and were like "Well, that's the end of our show. Goodnight" and they just walked off. A minute later they came back to do their encore, which was 'Higher.'
Here is a video I got of 'Higher'
Their exit was super cute. They seemed so genuinely appreciative and overwhelmed by the crowd and the support they got. The whole time, everyone was singing the words to the song and some people were doing their choreography. They definitely seemed surprised by the turnout and the amount of people who knew their music. It was a pretty short set, only lasting about 45-50 minutes, but it was one hell of a show. Not one of them ever sounded out of key. There was an insane amount of love for Mollie at the show and it wasn't coming from the VIP area, which could have been her friends. Rather, it was coming from the floor. The amount of people screaming her name was probably a good 60-70% of the audience. The guy in front of us even had her as his screensaver on his phone. She remained very professional the whole time and did not really give in to the people screaming for her, while if Rochelle or Una heard their name, they would wave or something. Frankie and Mollie both remained professional and carried on with the show. It was just very interesting because Frankie and Rochelle are both clearly well-loved in the UK, but over here, Mollie will probably receive a lot of attention.
After the show, the room cleared out and all the contest winners gathered in the center of the room to wait for further instruction for the meet & greet. Courtney and I primarily talked with David and Barbara while the rest of the group mingled. About 15 minutes after the show, they called us over and told us to line up single file against the stage. Courtney jumped on getting in the front of the line so we were the first ones to meet them. They then told us that they would be taking one group at a time (so one winner and their plus 1), only 1 picture with all of the girls (no individual shots) and only 1 autograph.
They called us in and Courtney led us back. They took us back to this very small, dark area behind a curtain, right next to the stage where the girls went before they went on stage. I made the initial move and started to introduce myself to everyone, Courtney shortly followed. I had to awkwardly shake Mollie's hand through the hands of Courtney shaking Una's hand, so I awkwardly said in that moment "Ooop let me just get in there." Good one, Allie. Rochelle was missing for some reason, but after we shook all of their hands, Una was like "how are we supposed to take a picture in here? Can we just move outside?" and all of the other girls quickly followed with "yeah, can we go somewhere else?" So we moved outside of the curtain back to the area so everyone could see us now. We all piled in for a picture and Courtney was loving life because she got to stand next to Mollie. But shortly, Rochelle ran in and squeezed in between them.
I wasn't going to just leave without getting to say any words to the girls so after the picture, I turned and took a step towards Frankie and talked to her about something very personal to us both and she gave me a hug. Apparently, nobody could hear me and Courtney wasn't talking to them so everyone was awkwardly watching me, including Mollie, who was right next to me, which made me nervous. This conversation lasted maybe 15 seconds. So then their manager or whoever he was, was pushing us to get our t-shirts signed and I hadn't noticed that he swiped my t-shirt from me when I was talking to the girls. So when Courtney was getting her t-shirt signed I was freaking out because I didn't know where my t-shirt was. Making an idiot of myself, I wondered around the area looking for my t-shirt, but then I put the pieces together and realized that the guy had snagged my t-shirt off my bag when I wasn't paying attention. While they were signing t-shirts, Mollie asked "Can I get one of these?" to their manager and Rochelle asked for one as well. After they were done signing, we both said thank you and I said "You guys are going to kill America, we are so excited." And they all erupted in thank yous. You could tell that they were genuinely humbled by the comment and just the whole night. Courtney and I then walked out, both of us incredibly high on life. The whole interaction lasted about 5 minutes, but if you thought that was short, the rest of the girls only got to get in, get a picture and something signed and get out. Our luck the whole trip was ridiculous. I was pretty excited for those next 10 minutes afterwards and all I wanted to do was go out! Courtney was the opposite; she was really amped all the way up until we were done meeting them and crashed once we walked out. So then all the groups had met them, we headed back to the party bus and went back to the hotel. Courtney and I both hit a wall on that bus and realized there was no way we could go out or do anything because of how exhausted we were. We got back to the hotel and Courtney and I gave Barbara and David hugs goodbye, while the rest of the group just shook their hands. We said goodbye to the group and headed back up to our room. I put on my t-shirt and we called it a night.
We got up early again on Friday morning, packed up our bags and checked out of the hotel. With time to kill before our flight, we ventured down to 5th Avenue and walked around the stores. Of course we had to go into Saks and the faces we got as we wandered around the designer areas were priceless. We then went down a street where there were a bunch of random little restaurants and we decided on a place called Global Market. Afterwards, we decided to head back to the hotel to just chill before we had to leave for the airport, but I wanted to explore a little more so we went down different streets to get back to the hotel. Poor Courtney was shivering she was so cold so instead of walking more we just went straight back to the hotel after walking two blocks out of our way. There was a super cool bar area in our hotel that had floor to ceiling glass windows overlooking Times Square so we sat there for 45 minutes just soaking in the city.
Our trip was sadly over and we jumped in a taxi to head to JFK. This truly was something we will never forget. The whole time we were there we kept saying "this is not real life" and we also quoted Mollie all the time, "OMG, now we're actually hereee.' (See video for reference)
But really. Who do you know that this happens to? We just could not believe we were in NY and just two weeks ago we were planning on just being in class. It was literally the perfect trip, nothing went wrong and everything went so smoothly; flights, hotel check-in and out, everything with the concert. Not to mention the incredible luck we had everywhere we went. I was a bit bummed for a second about the whole meet & greet thing because our itinerary said the meet and greet was from 1030-11, but then I slapped myself in the face and was like "ALLIE, YOU JUST MET THE SATURDAYS!" It is quite weird that I just did a feature on the group a couple of days before we won the contest, wishing there was some way they would come to Colorado or miraculously have a show in LA when I was home. Then two weeks later, we were seeing them perform! I don't know what we did to deserve this, but I guess we did something right to get this good karma. Thank you for all the love that we have received on Facebook, Twitter, etc. It was seriously the greatest/coolest thing that has ever happened to us and we do not ever want to forget it!!!
Taking a break from features, this week, being the music junkie that I am, I decided to compile a list of songs that are guaranteed to make you happy, feel good or just make casually jam out. It is quite amazing how sometimes, it is not even the lyrics that make you happy, but just the energy of the song; that is one of the huge reasons why I love music! From N'sync and the 90s to Avicci and Alternative music to Country music, there's something for everyone. I call them my 'Happy Songs,' enjoy!
I am also throwing in some videos that just make the song even happier :)
1. Party Come Get It - Aaron Carter
2. The Adventure - Angels & Airwaves
3. Levels - Avicii
4. Skater Boy - Avril Lavigne
5. Larger Than Life - Backstreet Boys
6. Price Tag/ Don't You (Forget About Me) / Give Me Everything / Just the Way You Are/ Party in the
U.S.A/ Turn the Beat Around - Bardon Bellas from the Pitch Perfect Soundtrack
7. Back Here - BBMak
8. Catch My Disease- Ben Lee
9. Howlin for You- The Black Keys
10. The Rock Show - Blink-182
11. Bad Touch - The Bloodhound Gang
12. Skinny Love - Bon Iver
13. Lucky - Britney Spears
14. Let's Go - Calvin Harris
15. Call Me Maybe - Carly Rae Jepsen
16. Just What I Needed- Cars
17. Hummingbird- Cheryl Cole
18. Forever - Chris Brown
19. Fancy Footwork- Chromeo
20. Just the Girl - The Click Five
21. Yellow- Coldplay
22. Memories - David Guetta featuring Kid Cudi
23. Stop the World - Demi Lovato
24. Barbara Streisand - Duck Sauce
25. Drunk - Ed Sheeran
26. Wonderful - Everclear
27. Kickstarts - Example
28. Sugar, We're Goin Down - Fall Out Boy
29. You've Got the Love - Florence & The Machine
30. Times Like These - Foo Fighters
31. Stacy's Mom- Fountains of Wayne
32. Love Machine - Girls Aloud
33. Hello, I Love You - Glee Cast
34. Rehab - Glee Cast
35. Slide- Goo Goo Dolls
36. Tongue Tied - GroupLove
37. Run & Tell That- Hairspray Soundtrack
38. Mmmbop - Hanson
39. So Yesterday - Hilary Duff
40. Tick Tick Boom - The Hives
41. Hold My Hand - Hootie & the Blowfish
42. Only Wanna be With You - Hootie & the Blowfish
43. Middle of Nowhere- Hot Hot Heat
44. Flake - Jack Johnson
45. Big Greek Tractor - Jason Aldean
46. The Remedy - Jason Mraz
47. The Middle - Jimmy Eat World
48. Say - John Mayer
49. All Around the World - Justin Beiber
50. Summer Love - Justin Timberlake
51. Teenage Dream - Katy Perry
52. Somebody Like You - Keith Urban
53. Since You've Been Gone - Kelly Clarkson
54. Mr. Brightside- The Killers
55. Pictures of You - The Last Goodnight
56. My Own Worst Enemy - Lit
57. Gangsta Boogie - Love Stink
58. Ho Hey - The Lumineers
59. Thrift Shop - Macklemore
60. Voulez- Vou - Mamma Mia
61. Sunday Morning - Maroon 5
62. Shake It - Metro Station
63. PYT - Michael Jackson
64. I Will Wait - Mumford & Sons
65. Starlight- Muse
66. Here We Go - N'Sync
67. Love & Memories - O.A.R
68. Good Life - OneRepublic
69. Good Time - Owl City & Carly Rae Jepsen
70. Hallelujah - Paramore
71. Sleepyhead - Passion Pit
72. Wait A Minute - The Pussycat Dolls featuring Timbaland
73. Steady As She Goes - The Raconteurs
74. Fast Cars and Freedom- Rascal Flatts
75. Be My Escape - Reliant K
76. We Found Love - Rihanna and Calvin Harris
77. Down With the Trumpets - Rizzle Kicks
78. So Much Love - The Rocket Summer
79. Reach - S Club 7
80. Love Song - Sara Bareilles
81. The Way You Watch Me - The Saturdays featuring Travie McCoy
82. Higher - The Saturdays
83. Breakeven - The Script
84. Summer of 98 - The Secret Handshake
85. Closing Time - Semisonic
86. Stop - Spice Girls
87. What I Got -Sublime
88. Memory - Sugarcult
89. Higher -Taio Cruz
90. Our Song - Taylor Swift
91. Sweet Disposition - The Temper Trap
92. Semi-Charmed Life- Third Eye Blind
93. When She Smiles -Three Doors Down
94. If It's Love- Train
95. When It Comes - Tyler Hilton
96. A-Punk - Vampire Weekend
97. Light Outside - Wakey! Wakey!
98. My Name is Jonas - Weezer
99. Believe - Yellowcard
100. Find A New Way - Young Love
101. Amber- 311
With the reemergence of girl groups (Fifth Harmony, Little Mix, Girls Aloud...), today's feature is appropriately about one of the hottest girl groups hailing from the UK: The Saturdays.
Unlike Fifth Harmony, Little Mix and Girls Aloud who all got their start from reality shows, The Saturdays were formed in 2007 from a series of auditions held by Polydor Records (same label as Cheryl Cole, Girls Aloud etc). The group consists of band members (left to right in picture above) Frankie Sandford, Vanessa White, Rochelle Humes, Una Healy and Mollie King, all incredibly gifted artists who each bring something different to the group. In the middle of 2008, the girls released their first single 'If This is Love,' which debuted at number eight on the UK charts; not too bad for their first song. While in the midst of releasing their first album, the band was asked to support Girls Aloud on their Tangled Up Tour.
Here are the girls performing 'If This is Love' while supporting Girls Aloud on their Tangled Up Tour.
The band released their first studio album Chasing Lights that same year, which landed at number nine on the charts and eventually went platinum. Off the album, the girls had five hit singles including, "If This is Love," "Up," "Issues," "Work" and their cover of "Just Can't Get Enough" for Comic Relief. Due to the success of their album, the girls went on promoting and performing singles until 2009.
Here are the girls performing "Just Can't Get Enough."
While promoting their album they performed an incredible cover of 'Beggin' on MTV Session and BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge. Check it out.
The group then ventured on to the Work Tour, their very first headlining tour. Here is an amazing performance of their song 'Chasing Lights' with Mollie and Una on the guitar.
From there, they began to record their album Wordshaker, which featured the hit single 'Forever is Over;' the track debuted at number two on the charts. The album was eventually turned into an EP. They then went on to record their full length album Headlines. The incredibly successful album also featured singles such as "Missing You" and "Higher" featuring Flo Rida. "Forever is Over" and "Ego" went on to the Headlines album, and all four singles reached the top 10, with the album, released in November 2010, debuting at number three.
Here they are performing 'Higher.'
During the process of releasing the Headlines album, they began to film their first documentary series The Saturdays: 24/7, in which a camera crew followed them around for a month capturing every moment of their chaotic life.
Here is a great video from the series of when the girls go to LA to film their music video for 'Higher.' Notice: the sequence where Frankie and Mollie practice their American accents.
The girls then ventured out on another tour, the Headlines Tour, which was completely sold out all over the UK and Ireland.
Here are the girls performing 'Forever is Over' on their Headlines Tour.
Their last album to date, On Your Radar, features more electronic, dance sounds with their hits 'Notorious' and 'All Fired Up,' both charting in the top ten. The 2011 album came in at number three on the charts.
Here is the music video for 'Notorious.'
The girls followed their album release with their first UK and Ireland arena tour, playing venues such as Wembley Stadium and the O2 in Dublin. The All Fired Up Tour took place all throughout November and December and it is their last tour to date.
Here are a few pictures from the tour.
In May 2012, they released their '30 Days' EP as they left to make their way in the US. Upon arriving in the states, the girls signed with Island Def Jam and Mercury Records and landed a series on E! called Chasing the Saturdays, which follows the group and their journey trying to make it in America. Just recently, the girls released their first US single, 'What About Us,' on Itunes now. Currently, the girls are playing little gigs in LA and NY, slowing making their way stateside.
Here is a video of one of their first gigs here in the states. Included is a performance of their single 'What About Us'
The girls in detail:
Mollie King: Mollie reminds me a whole lot of Ashley Roberts, a former member of the Pussycat Dolls. Not just because of her blonde hair, but because of her passion and energy on stage. She adds a very cool, sexy vibe to the group. Mollie is my favorite of the group for many reasons. For one, she is absolutely hilarious, but also, she is an incredible performer. Every time she takes that stage, your eyes are immediately drawn to her because she just knows how to work it. Before the Saturdays, Mollie auditioned for the X Factor as both a solo artist and then a couple years later with another girl band. Despite being rejected by the show twice, she still auditioned for The Saturdays and never gave up. Her determination and passion for music is inspiring. You can just tell how much she loves performing by the way she yells out to the crowd and how she always gives it her all. Mollie adds a particular, fun, bubbly energy to the group that is refreshing. She has been criticized to be one of the weaker singers in the group, which is partially true, but what people tend to ignore is that she plays a huge role in the harmonies. Her harmonies are always spot on, adding to the beautiful sound the group creates. Even though I think all of the girls are equally talented, I would say Mollie is the most solid of the group, meaning she can dance as well as she can sing and she can just do everything well. Fun facts: Mollie has been rumored to date Prince Harry and she was a professional skier on the Great Britain team before she decided to pursue singing.
Here is Mollie killing it with the girls as they perform 'Work' on their Headlines Tour.
Like I previously stated, Mollie is absolutely hilarious, so here is a video I found that captures how funny she is.
Frankie Sandford: What I love about Frankie is that she brings an incredible energy that you don't even notice is missing until she is not there. What she lacks in her singing she definitely makes up for in her dancing and harmonies (like Mollie). Her moves are very spunky and so it her voice. Frankie has the most followers on Twitter out of the whole group for several reasons. One, she dated a member of the incredibly famous band, McFly. Two, she now dates a super well-know English football player. Lastly, she is known for speaking out about her depression, making her a huge inspiration for younger kids. Even though she is not the youngest in the group, she adds that sort of happy, carefree energy to the group.
Here are the girls performing 'Missing You' at A Concert for Heroes, a song that Frankie surely shines in.
Rochelle Humes: The Beyonce of the group. Rochelle has a very deep, but great voice and it definitely adds to the groups range as a whole. She has a very strong, femme fatale essence and it definitely brings a lot to the group. Rochelle is one hell of a performer and you can tell just from their performances that she is the leader of the group in an energy and attitude sense. Second, to Vanessa, I would say she is also one of the lead singers. However, although she gives 110% every time she performs, her dancing is a bit awkward. While Frankie and Mollie are very smooth and make the performance look effortless, Rochelle looks like she's trying to hard. Overall, Rochelle is a huge rock for the group.
Here are the girls performing a Rihanna medley on the Headlines Tour. Rochelle absolutely murders 'What's My Name.'
Una Healy: I absolutely adore Una and her extreme Irishness. Una is often the one to sing the bridge in majority of their songs, but it's primarily because of her incredible voice. Una is the musician of the group, the one who has a pure love for music itself. There are several behind the scenes clips of her jamming on the piano and at all of their acoustic sessions, Una will normally be playing guitar. Una is definitely the overlooked one in the group primarily because when she is not singing, she doesn't draw much attention. Una is married with a child, but does that hold her back? No. In their recent three month trip to LA, Una brought along her 1 year old child and her mom so that she could still be a mom, but when she had to work, Una's mother would watch the baby. Props to Una!
Here are the girls performing an amazing cover of 'I Need a Dollar/Buzzin' at BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge in 2011. The arrangement was all Una's idea.
Vanessa White: If you could not tell from every other video, Vanessa could be considered the lead singer of the group. In fact, the girls even refer to her as their lead singer. Vanessa has an incredible voice, so incredible that she was asked to be on the reality competition Popstars to Operastars. Vanessa is normally always the one to take the solos in the group. However, Vanessa often makes mistakes within their performances and although her dancing is quite good, she has to know when to not hit it so hard. Besides that, the band's sound would not be what is it without her.
Here is Vanessa on Popstars to Operastars. If you watch all the way through, you will see how cute the other girls are in the audience after her performance and after she is safe from elimination.
What I love about The Saturdays is that almost all members are included in every single song. Yes, Vanessa takes lead vocals on most songs, but the rest of them always sing a verse, the chorus or something so they are incorporated in the song as well. With Girls Aloud, Cheryl, Nadine and Sarah all have significant weaknesses, while The Saturdays are all well rounded as a whole so their slight weaknesses are not as noticeable. Further, the harmonies The Saturdays create are absolutely stunning and their voices together allow for an incredible sound. Further, there are no divas in the group; they are equally humble and because they did not just become famous overnight, they know they cannot let it ever get to them. What Girls Aloud and The Pussycat Dolls have over them is there ability to perform as a unit; their unison is clean and they "breathe" together. The Saturday's don not look like they are a unit when they are dancing and transitioning. It is partially the fault of their horrible choreographer, but mainly they need to figure out how to get on the same page with their strides and timing. It is clear The Pussycat Dolls all hated each other and it is clear that Girls Aloud are super tight, but we all knew Cheryl and Nadine wanted to go solo at one point. With The Saturdays, there is no question that they are there for the group and are in it for the success and betterment of the group. When all of them were asked in individual interviews what was next for them, they all stated their future was wherever the group took them, with no sign of any of them having any desire to go solo. Overall, it is so hard not to love these girls and I adore everything they do!
To give you an idea of what their chemistry is like, here is a video of them performing a medley on their Work Tour.
Look for The Saturdays on your TVs January 30th on the E! Network! 'What About Us' is out on Itunes now!
