G4
This UK vocal troupe shot to fame in the mid-00s following their participation in the first series of the popular UK reality television show, The X Factor. Comprising four former students of the classical establishment Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Jonathan Ansell (b. 10 March 1982, Bognor Regis, West Sussex, England), Mike Christie (b. Michael Phillip Christie, 21 April 1981, Redhill, Surrey, England), Matthew Stiff (b. 13 December 1979, Grimsby, Humberside, England) and Ben Thapa (b. Ben Vishala Thapa, 2 March 1982, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England), the group finished as runners-up to solo artist Steve Brookstein when the show reached its conclusion in December 2004. The obvious appeal of four classically-trained and good-looking young men to the MOR market was too tempting for record companies to ignore, however, and the quartet signed a multi-million pound contract with BMG Records. Their self-titled debut album duly topped the UK charts in February 2005, and went on to achieve double platinum status, easily eclipsing the sales of Brookstein's debut album. The album's mixture of pop chestnuts ("Bohemian Rhapsody", "Everybody Hurts", "My Way") and popular classical pieces ("Nessun Dorma", "Jerusalem") was cleverly calculated to appeal to the broadest audience possible. Subsequent albums repeated this cloying but highly effective formula.
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