The Saturdays

The Saturdays are a British/Irish girl group formed in London, UK in 2007. It consists of five members, which are Frankie Bridge, Vanessa White, Una Foden, Mollie King and Rochelle Humes. They made their recording debut in 2008 for the record label Fascination Records, a sub-division of Polydor Records. They have released five albums, a greatest hits album and eighteen singles.

2007-09: Formation, 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”.

2009–11: Wordshaker and Headlines!

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.

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.

2011–12: On Your Radar and All Fired Up! Live

The group announced that they were working on their third full-length studio album in late 2010. While recording the album they worked with a variety of collaborators for the album, including producers Lucas Secon, Labrinth, Danish pop band, Alphabeat, Taio Cruz, Space Cowboy, Carl Falk, Rami Yacoub, and Steve Mac. The band promised that their third studio album would be different and they would be taking risks in their music. They announced that their new sound is “dance floor” music. The band confessed that the album would be a lot “sexier” and a lot more R&B that their previous albums. The band confirmed that they have wrote the majority of the album themselves which makes the album a lot more personal to them. They said that the new album is; “it’s a very cool”.  Emeli Sandé said that she wrote a track for the band which was very dark and a strong ballad. She said that the lyrics are dark and very honest. The first single released from the album was “Notorious”. The single was released digitally on 22 May 2011 in the UK. The single peaked at number-eight on the UK Singles Chart and nineteen on the Irish Singles Chart. After the release of “Notorious” the band released a clothing line with high street store, Miss Selfridge. The t-shirts with feature lyrics from the band’s song; “Notorious” and “Higher” with the lyrics on T-shirts saying. ‘I’m Notorious’ and ‘Whatcha Doing Saturday Girl?’ slogan tees. The T-shirts were designed by the band themselves and picked the lyric[s] out themselves.
“All Fired Up” was released on 4 September 2011, which charted at number-three on the UK Singles Charts and six on the Irish Singles Charts. It was confirmed that the album would be titled On Your Radar, and the third single released would be “My Heart Takes Over”.

After the conclusion of The Headlines Tour, The Saturdays confirmed that they would go on tour again in December 2011, although this time it would be an arena tour, instead of a theatre tour like their two previous headlining tours. They also revealed that they are going to “fly” during the tour as it is a dream for the band. It was confirmed that the tickets would be released on Monday 13 June 2011 and tour would be titled All Fired Up! Live.

They said “It’s an arena tour so we’re forced to go all out for a big production.” Mollie King said that fans should expect a lot of bright colours and brightly coloured blocks for the production. The Saturdays later revealed in late June Irish tour dates. The girls confirmed during an interview with Capital FM that their new single, “30 Days” would be “very pop”, “amazing” and “crazy”. The single was premiered on 30 March 2012 on BBC Radio 1’s breakfast show with Chris Moyles. The video premiered on 5 April 2012. It was further confirmed that the group were working on their fifth album.

2012–14: Chasing the Saturdays and Living for the Weekend

The band began work on their fifth overall release, with first single “30 Days” released in May 2012 and would serve as the lead single from their upcoming fourth studio album. Rochelle Humes explained the concept of the single, “It’s a really amazing, catchy song but the sentiment behind it is being all excited and counting down the days to seeing someone when you’ve really been missing that person.” The single charted at number seven on the UK Singles Chart, which gained the band their eleventh top ten single. It was announced that The Saturdays had signed to Island Def Jam and Mercury Records to release future music in the United States. “What About Us” was released as the band’s first worldwide single. In order for the band to introduce themselves to the American public, the band released extended play, Chasing The Saturdays, which was released only in America and Canada. The Saturdays also star in a reality series called Chasing The Saturdays which premiered on E! on 20 January 2013. The show features the group trying to make it in America. Upon its premiere in the United Kingdom, Chasing The Saturdays became that week’s #1 most watched show with 72,000 viewers, having 10,000 more viewers than Kourtney and Khloé Take Miami.

After its UK release, it was reported that “What About Us” was on course to knock Justin Timberlake’s “Mirrors” off the number-one spot on the UK Singles Chart on 24 March. During the midweek charts, the band were 30,000 copies ahead of Timberlake’s track. The Saturdays revealed that they were due to call their upcoming fourth studio album The Chase, but decided against the title. They also revealed that they would release another single from the album before the release of it. Aston Merrygold tipped the band to be the “biggest UK girl-group”. “What About Us” charted at number-one on the UK Singles Chart, gaining The Saturdays their first number-one single, selling 114,000 copies in the first week of release and also becoming the fastest selling single of 2013. The band sold 40,000 copies more than their nearest competitor to keep them off the number-one spot, which was Timberlake.

In March 2013, it was reported that the second track to be taken from Living for the Weekend would be titled “Gentleman”, with the Daily Mirror reporting that body doubles had been hired to star alongside the five girls in the accompanying video. On 2 May 2013, Sandford announced through her Twitter account that she and her fiancé, Wayne Bridge, are expecting their first child together. On 4 May, it was confirmed that the album’s third single would be the previously rumoured track, “Gentleman”. A fifteen-second preview of the single was posted with the announcement, and the full track received its radio premiere on 9 May 2013. On 25 July, The Saturdays confirmed that the next single would be “Disco Love”. The single was released on 6 October. The single charted at number five on the UK Singles Chart. On 4 September, the album’s track list was revealed via Twitter along with the album’s title, Living for the Weekend. The album was released on 14 October 2013, and charted at number 10 on the UK album charts, making it their fourth top ten album to date. The album’s fifth single will be “Not Giving Up”.

2014–present: Finest Selection: The Greatest Hits

The Saturdays will go on the their Greatest Hits Live! tour in September 2014, and release Finest Selection: The Greatest Hits with all their singles plus three new songs; “What Are You Waiting For?”, “808” and “Walking Through The Desert”. Sandford said during an interview that, “this is not the end.” Humes also said, “when we do split up our greatest hits album would be four discs long!” Vanessa White added, “we hope to release another greatest hits album in three years time.”

On 14 June 2014, it was announced that the first single taken from the album would be titled, “What Are You Waiting For?”, produced by previous collaborators Xenomania. The girls also dropped a remix of “808” with American rap-artist, Angel Haze, which is expected to make a single release later this year.

Group Biography adapted from their Wikipedia Article [October 2014]