Welcome
to thetalentzone
for the UK, where we
profile the very best talents discovered on British
television music talent shows this century.
British
television has had a long history of
talent shows where many successful talents have been discovered.
However, the format of these shows have change significantly since
the
beginning of the century as a result of computing and
telecommunication advancements. These advancements
allow the public to participate by voting for their
favourite contestant electronically for the first time. The show which
led the way
for this new style of audience participation to find new vocal
talent was the 2001 ITV show Pop Idol created by Simon
Fuller. The format has since been duplicated in many countries around
the world. In Britain following the success of Pop Idol, both the BBC
and ITV produced further talent shows which attracted
mass audience and
lucrative revenue from telephone voting.
Britain’s Got Talent is the latest of these shows. Launched in 2007 on
ITV by Simon Cowell, the show has proved a big hit with the public, so
much so that the second season saw viewing figures which puts it on
course to become Britain’s most popular TV program in 2008.
Click here to view Britain’s Got Talent
2008 Top 10 performances.
Pop Idol
In
2001/2 the ITV first series of Pop Idol saw
Will Young and Gareth Gates go head to head for the Pop Idol crown in
a very close and exciting race. Will emerge has the victor, but
both Will and Gareth when on to have commercial success. In
2002 ITV produce Popstars The Rivals which focused on creating a girl
group and boy group from the most talented contestants. Girls
Aloud was the girl group created by the show; they went on to have
amazing chart success. They are now perhaps one of the most successful
girl groups produced in the UK. 2003 saw the return of a
second series of Pop Idol, which was won by Michelle McManus. The pop
Idol series did not only bring fame to the contestants, but the
judges also became a household name, in particular Simon
Cowell.
Fame Academy
In 2002 and 2003 the BBC produced Fame Academy. This show had much more
of a reality TV theme to that of Pop Idol because the
contestants lived together during the time they were on the show and
was cut off from the outside world. Their daily lives were televised
each day along with the main weekly TV show where the
contestants performed live and the public voted to save their
favourite contestant. The winner of the first series was
David Sneddon, and the second series was Alex Parks. However it was
Lemar, a contestant in the first series who has had the greatest
commercial success since leaving the show.
The X Factor
The X
Factor, the brain
child of Simon Cowell,
was launched on ITV in 2004. The show as gone from strength to strength
and is
rarely out of the headlines. It has produced worthy winners such as
Shayne Ward and Leona Lewis but the headlines are often dominated
by issues surrounding the judges. One of the biggest was the sacking of
Louis Walsh from the judging panel in 2007, only to be reinstated at
the start of the series in the same year. Also in 2007, Dannii Minogue
joined Louis, Simon and Sharen
Osbourne as the forth member of the panel.
Perhaps
the finest British female vocal talent discovered in the UK in
recent years. Leona is the winner of the third series of The X
Factor. Her debut single broke the record for the largest
number of downloads in a thirty minutes time slot ever achieved on the
internet.
Leona was born and
raised in London and comes from a musical family.
Before entering The X factor competition, she worked as
a receptionist.
Since
winning the popular TV series in 2006, she has gone on to record
a number one selling album titled Spirit. The album reached the number
one
spot in the UK and has also been very successful in a number
of
other countries. Her album is the fastest selling debut album for an
artist in the UK.
A
Moment Like This (Live)
A Moment Like This was
the debut single from Leona's
debut platinum selling album Spirit. This performance was
taken
from The X Factor live shows. Other performances from Leona on the
shows include:
Gareth was the
runner up in the first series of the popular ITV talent
show Pop Idol in 2002. He is a fantastic singer with an angelic voice
despite having a Stammer for all his life.
Since leaving Pop
Idol, he has had very good international chart
success with three albums now released. He also release a charity
single for children in need which reached number one in the UK charts.
Gareth has also in
recent years been able to control much of the
problems with his Stammer as a result of his participation in the
McGuire Programme. The McGuire Programme delivers practical
training devised and developed to promote recovery from stuttering.
Gareth has since qualified as a speech coach
and is now a course instructor for the programme. He was
the youngest person in the UK to qualify for such a position.
Sunshine
Sunshine is the second single from Gareth's second album titled Go Your
Own Way. Single releases from Gareth's first album include:
A soul
and
R&B sensation.
This may be the best way to describe Lemar's musical talents. In our
opinion he is the best soul and R&B artist to immerge
on
the UK music seen in the past decade.
Lemar came to
the public attention
during the first series of Fame Academy. He finished the
competition in third place, but it was clear quite early on
that he did not have to win to guarantee commercial
success.
During the show he
performed a duet with Lionel
Richie, who predicted at the time that Lemar would be a great success.
Lemar has so far released three successful albums in the UK, two of
which were top 10 hits.
Someone
Should Tell You (Live)
Someone Should Tell You was the second single released from Lemar's
third album titled The Truth About Love. Other single releases include:
If There Is Any Justice
Time To Grow
Don't Give It Up
To view these videos plus footage from Lemar's performances on Fame
Academy, click here.
Shayne
is the winner of The X factor in 2005. He was born in Manchester and
before entering The X Factor
competition, he worked as a shop assistance in the city. He
was also a member of a band that performed in pubs, clubs and weddings.
The
competition has since made him a house hold name in the UK and Ireland.
So far he has recorded
two top 10 selling albums, one of which reached the number one
spot in the UK and several other countries.
Breathless (Live)
Breathless is the
third single from Shayne's second platinum selling
album of the same name. Shayne's other single releases include:
Girls Aloud was
created by the
ITV talent show
Popstars The Rivals in 2002. The members of the group are:
Cheryl
Cole from Newcastle Upon Tyne. Before entering the competition
she was working as a waitress, prior to that she appeared in adverts
for various companies.
Nadine Coyle from
Northern Ireland. Before Popstars The rivals, she was
selected
as a member of a pop band in Ireland formed during the Irish Popstars
TV show. Unfortunately, due to an age discrepancy on her application
form, she was dropped from the band.
Sarah Harding from
Poynton in Cheshire. Sarah worked as a barmaid in Manchester
before entering Popstars The Rivals competition.
Nicola Roberts from
Runcorn in Cheshire is the youngest member of the band. She had just
finished school before entering Popstars The Rivals.
Kimberley Walsh from
Bradford. Kimberley appeared in a TV advert as a child and
made
several other TV appearances before Popstars The rivals.
Since the formation
of the band, Girls Aloud as gone on to have a string of success
including 6 platinum selling albums and over fifteen top ten selling
singles in the UK and Ireland.
Jump
Jump was the first single released from the group's second album. Other
single releases from the girls include:
Will
was the winner of the first series of Pop Idol, beating the series
favourite Gareth Gates by a narrow margin. He became noticed following
an argument with Simon Cowell who criticised one of his performances.
Since
leaving the show, Will has had phenomenal chart success with his first
two albums reaching number one in the UK charts and the third album
reaching number two. In recent years Will
has embarked upon an acting
career performing roles in both theatre and screen.
Who Am I (Live)
Who Am I was the third single taken from the
album Keep On. His other single releases include:
Welcome
to 
The X
Factor, the brain
child of Simon Cowell,
was launched on ITV in 2004. The show as gone from strength to strength
and is
rarely out of the headlines. It has produced worthy winners such as
Shayne Ward and Leona Lewis but the headlines are often dominated
by issues surrounding the judges. One of the biggest was the sacking of
Louis Walsh from the judging panel in 2007, only to be reinstated at
the start of the series in the same year. Also in 2007, Dannii Minogue
joined Louis, Simon and Sharen
Osbourne as the forth member of the panel.
A soul
and
R&B sensation.
This may be the best way to describe Lemar's musical talents. In our
opinion he is the best soul and R&B artist to immerge
on
the UK music seen in the past decade.
