The Saturdays

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The Saturdays are a British/Irish girl group formed in London, UK in 2007. It consists of five members, which are Frankie Sandford, Vanessa White, Una Healy, Mollie King and Rochelle Wiseman. They made their recording debut in 2008 for the record label Fascination Records, a sub-division of Polydor Records. They have released three albums, and scored eight UK Top Ten singles, with only nine singles released. As of September 2010, the band have sold close to 2 million records.

Their debut album, Chasing Lights, produced four top ten singles on the UK Singles Chart.The band embarked on their first headlining UK tour, The Work Tour, in June 2009, and started work on their second album during this tour.The band released the number-two single “Forever Is Over” in October 2009 from their second album, Wordshaker. The album peaked at number nine on the UK Albums Chart and produced another top ten single, “Ego”. The Saturdays released an mini album, Headlines!, on 16 August 2010.”Missing You” is the album’s first single, and “Higher” is the second. Soon after release, the band announced an accompanying tour, The Headlines Tour.

Debut Album Chasing Lights and The Work Tour

The Saturdays were signed to Fascination Records, a sub-label of Polydor Records. Their first studio album, Chasing Lights, was recorded during May and June 2008 with input from multiple producers and song writers, including Alex James, Ina Wroldsen and Alex Cartana. The group supported Girls Aloud on their Tangled Up Tour before the release of their first single, “If This Is Love”. The single was released on 2 July 2008 and peaked at number 8 on the UK Singles Chart, the track featured a sample of Yazoo’s 1982 single, “Situation. The second single, “Up”, was released in October 2008 and peaked at number five. The single achieved a certificate of Silver by the BPI. Also in October, the album Chasing Lights was released. It peaked at number nine on the UK Albums Chart.In early 2009 the album was certified Platinum by the BBI. The third single, “Issues”, was released in January 2009 and reached number four,which also gained a certificate of Silver by the BBI.Early in the band’s career, Frankie Sandford stated in an interview with Mail Online, “‘We’re not models who can’t sing. We all sing and we all dance. No one’s telling us what to do. We’re all different because we’re just ourselves – and that’s the way it should be.”

As well as supporting Girls Aloud, The Saturdays also supported the Jonas Brothers at their Hammersmith Apollo gig on 11 September.They also played at Capital FM’s Jingle Bell Ball at The O2 Arena in December.On 5 November they performed at Perez Hilton’s One Night In Liverpool, and played at Cardiff’s Gay Pride event. On the Christmas 2008 special of British Nickelodeon show Ross Lee’s Ghoulies, The Saturdays made a special appearance.They also guest starred in Hollyoaks Later in September 2008 and on a 10-minute BBC show, Myths. Early in 2009, the group presented a “Debut Singles” chart show for 4Music.

In March, the group released their fourth single, a cover of the Depeche Mode song “Just Can’t Get Enough” as one of the official Comic Relief 2009 singles. The single peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart and was the group’s third consecutive top twenty hit in Ireland, reaching number six, the group’s first top ten appearance in a foreign music market. The single later achieved a Silver certificate by the BBI.The song has also become a cult anthem for Celtic Football Club.

The group announced that they would be doing their own tour in 2009 – The Work Tour, the tour had twenty-seven dates. The group’s support acts for the tour were Mini Viva, Pixie Lott, Vagabond and Jessie Malakouti.The name The Work Tour came across after the band released a fifth and final single from the first studio album, Chasing Lights, which was the single “Work”, the single later peaked at number 22 in the UK and number 21 in Ireland.Also McFly’s Dougie Poynter, Frankie Sandford’s boyfriend played bass guitar during “Just Can’t Get Enough”. Vanessa White tripped on some wires back stage and had a foot injury, she remained seated on stage for some shows. On the last night of the tour at Manchester Apollo, Michael Jackson’s memorial service was on backstage and the band was watching it, so they played a tribute song, singing, sing-a-long of The Jacksons’ “Blame It on the Boogie”.

Second Album: Wordshaker

The group released their second album Wordshaker on 12 October, with opening sales of 15,022. It peaked at number nine, dropping to number forty a week later. The lead single from the album was “Forever Is Over”, which entered the UK Singles Chart at number two and the Irish Singles Chart at number nine. The single was originally written for American Idol winner, Kelly Clarkson, written by ex-Busted member James Bourne. The song was also wanted by American pop rock artist P!nk. The B-side of the song “I Can’t Wait” was written by the band with Hannah Robinson and producers Ben Macklin, Julian Peake and Richard Stannard.

In 2008 and 2009, the Saturdays appeared in adverts for several products including a brand of deodorant, tampons, mobile phones, an operating system, and hair removal products. In December 2009, they performed a gig at the HMV Forum in London, which was later shown on Channel 4.

The second single from Wordshaker was “Ego”. It peaked at number nine on the UK Singles Chart and at number ten in Ireland. The song later achieved a certification of Silver. Although the single is the group’s second lowest charting, it later become their second best selling single after “Up”, while selling roughly 307,000 and “Up” selling roughly 311,000.

Headlines and The Headlines Tour

The group’s third project is titled Headlines!, described by Una Healy as a mini album. It was released on 16 August 2010.The group have said that if the chance arose they would like to collaborate with American R&B singer-songwriters singers, Ne-Yo and Jason Derülo.The project’s lead single, “Missing You” was released on 8 August 2010. Universal Music said “Missing You” is “bittersweet lyrics are an ode to a lost love, sung over some synth riffs.”The music video was shot at the end of May 2010. On 26 June, the music video was premiered on the Saturdays’ website. It was shot in Malaga, Spain.The single was performed for the first time an T4 on the Beach 2010 on 4 July 2010, though Mollie was absent from the performance due to an injury.She stated on The Saturdays: 24/7, “It puts a strain on the band, you have to rearrange the formation and someone’s having to learn my lines and my harmonies.”‘Missing You’ entered the UK Singles Chart at number three, with ‘Headlines’ also entering at number 3 on the album chart.

The second single from Headlines was “Higher”,which entered the UK singles chart at number 10 on 7 November 2010. After Flo Rida beat the group to number one for the second time, the American rapper offered to do a collaboration with the band, after saying, “I don’t know much about The Saturdays but we put smiles on people’s faces when we make music, which counts more than getting number ones.” The Saturdays jetted off to Los Angeles to film the music video for single “Higher”.They also performed at the 2010 Help for Heroes charity concert, with over 60,000 fans present.Boy band JLS have expressed views to record a duet with the band.On 31 August 2010, it was announced that the band had collaborated with American rapper, Flo Rida. It was later confirmed, by the band’s official website that Flo Rida had recorded a new version of the group’s ninth single, “Higher”, which Rida’s vocals would be featured on.It was also announced that the single would be released on 29 September 2010.Flo Rida recorded his parts of the music video separately.The video was completed on 29 August 2010.”Higher” had its first radio airplay on 16 September 2010, the Flo Rida version.”Higher” debuted at number 10 in the UK, which meant it was their eighth exclusive top 10 hit in the UK. Higher has spent a total of 13 weeks inside the UK Top 40, and 24 weeks in the Top 100, selling over 260,000copies to date making it their 3rd best-selling single. The week after “Higher” was released, 8 November 2010 they re-issued their third studio album Headlines! which included the new Flo Rida version of “Higher” and three other tracks which were on their previous album Wordshaker. In late November, Headlines! gained a Gold certification by the British phonographic industry.

The Saturdays announced their second national tour in the UK, the tickets went on sale on 3 September 2010, the tour is named The Headlines Tour. The tour will take in a total of 17 cities across the country beginning in Liverpool on 5 February, before culminating in the Republic of Ireland on 2 March, the last of their first headlining gigs in the country. This will be there first venture into touring in a foreign country, with their dates in Dublin, so far, bringing the tour to an end. Wiseman said: “We couldn’t be more excited for the ‘Headlines’ tour. Performing live is absolutely our favourite part of being in the Saturdays, and we can’t wait to see all our fans up and down the country!” The Headlines Tour sold out in each of its venues.

Group Biography adapted from their Wikipedia Article [March 2011]