Five-member boyband Collabro are living their dreams after winning the UK reality talent show, writes Faisal Asyraf
COLLABRO, the winners of Britain’s Got Talent 8 only had a month to get to know each other and prepare for the audition early this year.
The quintet, comprising Richa rd Hadf ield, M ichael Auger, Matthew “Matt” Pagan, Thomas J.
Redgrave and Jamie Lambert, amazed the judges — Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden, Alesha Dixon and David Walliams —with their soulful and melodious rendition of Stars from the musical play Les Miserables.
The judges didn’t expect the group, whose forte is musical theatre, to be so good.
Cowell, for instance, was seen rolling his eyes before the group even started to perform.
“Many hopefuls came to the audition, dreaming to be like One Direction, so we understood when the judges smirked and had zero expectations of us.
We were ready to prove that we were not just another typical boyband, that we’re different from the rest,” said Hadfield, in Hong Kong recently.
Clad in black tuxedos, the quintet looked exhausted after their performance at the Langham Hotel, a few hours earlier.
They had performed tunes from their debut album Stars, including Come What May, Over The Rainbow, Let It Go, All Of Me, Bring Him Home and Stars.
This marks their first international performance abroad after winning the competition last June.
OVERWHELMING RESPONSE
Twelve million home viewers in Britain tuned in to watch the audition.
Collabro’s rendition of Stars earned a standing ovation from the 3,500 audience members, including the judges.
“Oh my god, you just made me teary.
I could just burst with pride for you because that was brilliant,” said Holden at that time.
The other judges had nothing but praise for them, with Walliams commenting: “It was a faultless performance, absolutely fantastic...this could be really big.” Meanwhile, Cowell added: “When the five of you came out, I thought ‘here we go again, another boyband, this is going to be awful...it was an absolutely brilliant audition.” All the positive comments put the members in high spirits.
Redgrave said: “We were doing something new.
Nobody has done a musical theatre in five-part harmony, not on the mainstream level, at least not in England.
We had no idea how the audience was going to react.
Backstage, prior to their performance, they had discussed on what they would do if they got buzzed out in five seconds.
“But we went out and gave our best.
At one point when we were singing, we could hardly hear the music because it was drowned by the loud cheering.
We were really glad they loved our performance.” Hadfield said it felt surreal.
“You never think to see these people (the judges) in real life because you are so used to watching them on TV.
That day it was like watching them in super real HD (high definition).
When they stood up and cheered for us, the feeling was indescribable.
It meant a lot to us.” Lambert, who towers above the others, was so overwhelmed by the judges’ response that he burst into tears.
For him, Britain’s Got Talent was his last chance to break into the mainstream music scene.
“I am 24 and not considered young for a musical theatre singer in London.
Competition is stiff as more and more young and talented students graduate each year.
Besides, I’m not good at dancing.
My only talent lies in my voice.
To have that kind of reaction from the judges would be something that most could only dream of,” he said.
DAY JOB
Prior to Britain’s Got Talent, the boys juggled between their day job and part-time musical theatre career.
Hadfield was a labourer, Auger was a sales assistant at a petrol station and Pagan, a kitchen salesman.
Meanwhile, Redgrave and Lambert worked in a Japanese restaurant and hospital respectively.
Today, their lives have taken a 360-degree turn.
“It’s a different kind of life altogether.
Its been amazing since we won the competition.
We get to do what we love, which is singing, and that is very special,” said Lambert.
THE AUDITION
Collabro was formed in less than a year ago, thanks in large part to the social media.
On the band’s inception, Pagan explained: “I became friends with Jamie through Facebook.
We had the same interest in musical theatre, so we thought of forming a musical theatre boyband.
“Initially, we wanted a fourmember group, so we held an audition online.
That’s when Michael (Auger) and Thomas (Redgrave) came onboard.
Then, we thought we needed a fifth member.
We found Richard (Hadfield) on YouTube.” But the group hardly hang out together since they live far from one another.
“It was hard to try to get everyone to meet.
So most of the time, we just kept in touch through the social media,” said Hadfield.
They only had a group practice a month before the audition.
Pagan said: “We were very lucky because although we barely knew each other, we had a natural chemistry.
To be frank, there’s not much to talk about when we met, but when we started rehearsing, our vocals complemented one another, and magic happens.” A week before the audition, they chose to sing Bring Him Home from Les Miserables but later, picked Stars three days before the D-Day instead.
“We were just singing Stars for the sake of adding something different to our repertoire.
Somehow, we knew that was it.
We rendered Bring Him Home in the semi-final instead,” said Lambert.
And the rest, as they say, is history.
Todate,theirauditionvideowhichwas uploaded on YouTube has garnered 12.6 million views.
DEBUT ALBUM
Last August, Collabro released its debut album, Stars.
“Stars is a reflection of us as a group.
It features our interpretation, our ways of telling the stories and touching the listeners’ emotion,” said Lambert.
Auger added that this album would define them as a musical theatre boyband, and make them stand out from the rest.
“Simon (Cowell) likes that we knew what kind of group that we want to be.
He advised us to stick to what we’re doing and stay true to ourselves.
Honestly, there is no point in jumping around genres,” said Auger.
Last month, they made a surprise performance at Cowell’s birthday bash which was attended by celebrities including Cheryl Fernandez, Amanda Holden and Alesha Dixon.
Stars topped the UK’s album chart for seven days, turning Collabro into the first Britain’s Got Talent winner to helm the chart in a week.
It even knocked Ed Sheeran’s X to No.
2, and other artistes such as Courteneers, Sam Smith and George Ezra.
Collabro is signed under Cowell’s record label, Syco.
The record features a collection of 10 covers, including Come What May (Moulin Rouge!), With You (Ghost), Let It Go (Frozen), Anthem (Chess), Secrets (originally sung by One Republic), Somewhere (There’s A Place For Us), All Of Me (originally sung by John Legend), and Over The Rainbow (from The Wizard Of Oz).
Touching on the track list, Hadfield explained: “Most of our listeners are familiar with the tunes.
Musical theatre is about reinterpreting a song in a different way, and that’s what we do.
I’m sure our fans enjoy listening to this album.” “Our fans are the reason behind our success.
And because of them, we now have the opportunity to travel extensively across the globe.
It’s important for them to know how much we appreciate them,” Redgrave said, ending the interview.
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