Antony Costa, Duncan James, Lee Ryan and Simon Webbe, more widely known as Blue, have sold 15 million records worldwide. In the UK they’ve had three number 1 albums, ten top 10 singles (including three number 1's), won Brit and MTV Asia Awards and have sung with Elton John and Stevie Wonder.
They formed in London in the year 2000 and had their first hit All Rise in 2001 – a track which still sounds amazing today over 20 years later. Their first appearance came on the Big Breakfast, where as an unknown band they were the ‘family of the week’ appearing on the show from Monday to Friday, and then performed on live TV for the first time that Saturday on CDUK. By the time the track entered the top 10, fans were flocking to see them and Blue fever started!
Their debut album also called ‘All Rise’ spawned four top 10 singles, including the number 1’s ‘Too Close’ and ‘if you come back’ and the excellent ‘Flyby’. The album hit number 1, sold over a million copies and in under a year the band played their first fully live gig with a band at the MTV 5 night stand series of gigs in April 2002, the band having just won their first Brit Award for British Breakthrough act.
The boys followed up their successful debut with two more huge albums, One Love (Number 1 – 2002) featuring the number 1 lead track also called One Love and follow up singles U Make Me Wanna and Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word with Elton John. The album was certified 4 x platinum in the UK.
In October 2023 Blue announced that they would be embarking on their ‘Greatest Hits’ theatre tour in the spring of 2024, playing their biggest hits and telling stories from the past 20 plus years. They said: ‘As this is a theatre tour, we wanted it to have a different kind of feel – welcoming, more intimate with the chance to sing our biggest hits and share stories with our fans who have been with us for so many years now. We can’t wait to put this show together and get it out there!’
