Blue (English group)

History

In 1999, two teenagers, 15-year-old Lee Ryan and 17-year-old Antony Costa, crossed paths while trying out for a boy band on the ITV show This Morning. Simon Cowell was behind the project. Ryan got in, alongside future Pop Idol winner Will Young, but Costa didn't make the cut. The group never got off the ground, though Ryan and Costa stayed in touch.

The following year, Costa teamed up with another friend, Duncan James, to start their own band, and they brought Ryan on board. Their manager, Daniel Glatman, later said the three came to him and he was completely taken by their talent. Still, they felt the lineup was incomplete, so they held auditions for a fourth member. That spot went to Ryan's flatmate, Simon Webbe.

Blue dropped their first single, "All Rise," in May 2001, which landed at number four on the UK Singles Chart. Their next single, "Too Close," hit number one that August. The band then traveled to New York City to shoot the video for "If You Come Back," and while there, they witnessed the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. A month later, in an interview with The Sun, Ryan said the New York situation was being blown out of proportion and asked, "What about whales?"

The other band members tried to quiet him, but he kept going. The remarks sparked a huge media backlash, costing Blue a record deal in the US and prompting calls for Ryan to be kicked out. Despite the controversy, Blue scored another number one in November with a ballad. Their debut album, "All Rise," came out in time for Christmas, topped the charts, sold over 1.3 million copies in the UK, earned a 4x Platinum certification, and stayed on the UK top 75 albums chart for 63 weeks. The album's last single, "Fly By II," peaked at number six in March 2002.