The boy band Blue got off to an impressive start in the early ’00s with three consecutive No. 1 albums in their native UK.
• Singers Lee Ryan and Anthony Costa first met in 1999 while auditioning for a boy band that future Pop Idol impresario Simon Cowell was putting together. Ryan made the cut, but Costa didn’t. The band never took off.
• In 2000, Ryan and Duncan James formed their own band and invited Costa and Simon Webbe to join them. They debuted in 2001 with the single “All Rise,” which reached No. 4 on the pop charts—the first of 11 Top 10 hits.
• Blue’s first album, also titled All Rise, topped the charts as part of a 63-week stint in the Top 75.
• In 2001, the group notched two No. 1 UK singles: “Too Close” and “If You Come Back.” Their 2002 cover of “Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word,” featuring Elton John, also hit the top spot.
• After two subsequent chart-topping albums, One Love in 2002 and Guilty in 2003, Blue announced a hiatus that lasted from 2004 through the end of 2010.
• The group reunited in 2011 and represented the UK in that year’s Eurovision Song Contest with “I Can.” They finished in eleventh place, and “I Can” reached No. 16 on the UK singles chart.
• Blue returned in 2013 Roulette, their first album in a decade. Roulette and the band’s next album, 2015’s Colours, each reached No. 13.
Hometown
London, England
Genre
Pop
Similar to: Blue
Discover more music and artists similar to Blue, like Westlife, Backstreet Boys, A1