Rak-Su

Career

The group Rak-Su is made up of four childhood friends from Watford: Ashley Fongho, Jamaal Shurland, Myles Stephenson, and Mustafa Rahimtulla. Fongho and Stephenson had been close since they were 11, often recording freestyles at home. Shurland came to Watford from Barbados at age 12 and went to the same school as Stephenson and Rahimtulla. Shurland and Rahimtulla started performing together when they were 14, and Fongho met Rahimtulla and began performing with him at 16.

In their early twenties, Fongho heard Shurland sing at a party and they started recording and performing together, with Stephenson and Rahimtulla joining their sessions and shows. By 2016, the four decided to form a group and auditioned for The X Factor to get their original music heard. At their 2017 audition, they started with Justin Timberlake's "Señorita" but Simon Cowell stopped them, unimpressed, and asked for something else. They then sang an original track, "I'm Feeling You," and got four yes votes.

Cowell said they would not have made it through on the first song alone. After the first bootcamp challenge, they kept performing original songs and reached the six-chair challenge in the Groups category, mentored by Cowell. They passed that round with "Change Your Mind" and later performed "Palm Tree" at judges' houses for Cowell and Cheryl, who sent them to the live shows.