Rak-su
| Rak-su | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| origin | Watford , England |
| Genre (s) | Pop , Contemporary R&B |
| founding | 2016 |
| Website | www.raksu-official.com |
| Current occupation | |
singing |
Ashley Fongho |
singing |
Jamaal Shurland |
singing |
Myles Stephenson |
singing |
Mustafa Rahimtulla |
Rak-Su is a British R&B band that originated in Watford . The group gained notoriety after winning the fourteenth season of The X Factor in the UK . This makes Rak-Su the first group with an exclusively male cast to win the show. The band consists of Ashley Fongho, Jamaal Shurland, Mustafa Rahimtulla and Myles Stephenson. Dimelo , which was created in collaboration with Naughty Boy and Wyclef Jean , was released as their winning single, making it the first winning single written by the winner or the winners themselves. It reached number two on the British music charts and was only placed behind Perfect by Ed Sheeran. The debut EP Rak-Su was released on February 16, 2018.
history
2016–2017: Founding and The X Factor
Rak-Su are a four-piece boy band made up of childhood friends Ashley Fongho, Jamaal Shurland, Myles Stephenson and Mustafa Rahimtulla from Watford . Fongho and Stephenson had been best friends since they were eleven years old, during which time they were already doing their freestyles at home. Shurland moved from Barbados to Watford at the age of 12 and attended the same school as Stephenson and Rahimtulla. Rahimtulla and Shurland later began performing together at the age of 14, Fongho also met Rahimtulla two years later and then the two also performed together. In his early twenties, Fongho met Shurland at a party after hearing him sing and the two started making music together. They were regularly supported by Stephenson and Rahimtulla for performances or studio recordings. In 2016, the group decided to form their own band and also quickly applied for the fourteenth season of the UK singing talent show X Factor .
In 2017, Rak-Su finally appeared before the jury, which consisted of Simon Cowell , Louis Walsh , Sharon Osbourne and Nicole Scherzinger , during the auditions . After a producer on the show advised them not to present their own title in the casting, they began this with Señorita from Justin Timberlake , before Cowell, unimpressed, stopped them and asked for another song. The group responded to this request with their self-composed title I'm Feeling You . The jury was enthusiastic and they received four “yeses”. Simon Cowell remarked that if they had stayed with the first song they would not have gotten any further.
After their first bootcamp challenge , they continued to rely on their own material. With this, Rak-Su, who were supervised by Simon Cowell as candidates in the Groups category , also managed the Six-Chair Challenge and the Judges House Round, where they performed in front of Cowell and his former jury colleague Cheryl Cole . With that they reached the live shows .
During the live shows, the group continued to perform exclusively with their own songs in addition to two cover versions with additional rap interludes by Fongho and Stephensons. They finally reached the final, which took place on the weekend of December 2nd, 2017. There they competed against Grace Davies and Davy White . After the latter was selected by the audience in the course of the first half of the show on Saturday, they ultimately won with over 50% of the audience votes against Grace Davies after the top 2 show.
With their victory, Rak-Su are only the second band ever to win the show after Little Mix , who won the eighth season. They are also the first male group to win the final. Immediately after the finale on December 3, 2017, they released their debut and winning single on streaming platforms and as a digital download. The proceeds from this were donated to charities Together for Short Lives and Shooting Star Chase . Just two days after the finale, the song made it to number 6 in the official charts. After the full live show voting results were published, Rak-Su emerged as the clear winners once again, having received the most audience votes every week, with the exception of the third week, when they beat Kevin Davy by one percent of the vote would have.
| The X Factor appearances and results | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| show | Title selection | theme | Result | |
| Auditions | "Señorita" - Justin Timberlake / "I'm Feeling You" - Original song | - | Made it to the boot camp | |
| Bootcamp round 1 | "24K Magic" - Bruno Mars (with Charlie Cammish, Riley Peters, Jack Morgan & New Dynamixx) | Progress in round 2 | ||
| Bootcamp round 2 | "Knock, Knock" - Rak-Su | Made progress in the Six-Chair Challenge | ||
| Six-Chair Challenge | "Change Your Mind" - Rak-Su | Got further in Judges' Houses | ||
| Judges' Houses | "Mamacita" - Rak-Su / "Palm Tree" - Rak-Su | Got ahead in live shows | ||
| Live show 1 | "Mamacita" - Rak-Su | Express yourself | 1st place | |
| Live show 2 | " Dimelo " - rak-su | Viva Latino | 1st place | |
| Live show 3 | "Faith" - George Michael | George Michael | place 2 | |
| Quarter finals | "Mona Lisa" - Rak-Su | Crazy in Love | 1st place | |
| Semifinals | "Flowers" - Sweet Female Attitude | Cool Britannia | 1st place | |
| "I'm Feeling You" - Rak-Su | Get Me to the Final | 1st place | ||
| final | "Mamacita" - Rak-Su | Free choice | 1st place | |
| "Dimelo" - Rak-Su feat. Naughty Boy & Wyclef Jean | Celebrity Duet / Winners Single | |||
| "Touché" - Rak-Su | Song to Win | Winner (51.7%) | ||
| "Mona Lisa" - Rak-Su | Song of the Series | |||
2018 – present: Rak-Su EP , upcoming album and Rome
On February 16, 2018, Rak-Su released their debut EP Rak-Su , which includes the songs "Mamacita", "Dimelo", "Mona Lisa" and "I'm Feeling You", which they wrote during The X Factor had sung. On March 30th, 2018 they appeared on the Danish version of X Factor with their single Dimelo . They also supported Little Mix on their 2018 Summer Hits Tour as the opening act. At the end of June 2018, the group also released the song Pyro Ting in collaboration with Banx & Ranx . Her next single, I Want You To Freak , was released in September before the accompanying music video was released on October 5th. On October 21, 2018, Rak-Su returned to X Factor to perform the single on the first Results Show . At the end of 2018 it was announced that both Rak-Su and Little Mix are leaving Syco Musik and are also leaving Modest! Management , which both had represented until then, would separate. They then signed a record deal with RCA Records . The group said their time at Syco was frustrating as they weren't allowed to release as much new music as they would have liked. They stated that RCA was okay with the direction they wanted to go musically. In 2019 they supported the You Know, I Know Tour by Olly Murs. Their second EP Rome was released on February 22, 2019. In the months after that, the group also released the singles Yours or Mine and Rotate (Clockwise) . In August 2019 it was reported that Rak-Su were no longer under contract with RCA due to a lack of success .
In November 2019, Rak-Su released their first single as an independent band La Bomba . The song Girl followed in December .
Discography
EPs
| title | Details |
|---|---|
| Rak-su |
|
| Rome |
|
Singles
| title | year | Chart placement | Certification | album | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DE | AT | CH |
UK |
IRISHMAN |
SCO |
||||
| "Dimelo" (feat. Wyclef Jean and Naughty Boy ) |
2017 | - | - | - | 2 | 29 | 2 |
|
no album known yet |
| "I Want You To Freak" | 2018 | - | - | - | 39 | 82 |
17th | ||
More publishments:
- Flights (2016)
- Last Night (with Charles Dixon) (2016)
- Pyro Ting (with Banx & Ranx ) (2018)
- Yours Or Mine (2019)
- Rotate (Clockwise) (2019)
- La Bomba (2019)
- Girl (2019)
Tours
As a support act
- The X Factor Live Tour (2018)
- Little Mix - Summer Hits Tour 2018 (2018)
- Olly Murs - You Know, I Know Tour (2019)
As the main group
- Rak-Su - The Scenic Route Tour (2019)
- Rak-Su - (2020)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Rak-Su: Boy band beat Grace Davies to win X Factor 2017 , BBC News. December 4, 2017. Retrieved April 8, 2020.
- ↑ Eleanor Bley Griffiths: Who are Rak-Su? Meet The X Factor 2017 group who are killing it with their original songs . Radio Times. Retrieved April 8, 2020.
- ↑ Barbadian X Factor winner and Rihanna went to the same school | Loop News . December 5, 2017. Retrieved April 8, 2020.
- ↑ Rak-Su on 'Pyro Ting', forming the group, X Factor, Quick Fire Questions: Media Spotlight UK . YouTube . Retrieved April 8, 2020.
- ↑ Sam Warner: X Factor's Simon chooses his Six Chair Challenge Groups . 17th October 2017.
- ↑ The hitter over: X Factor for besøg af britiske superstjerner .
- ↑ Little Mix split from X Factor boss Simon Cowell's record label days before new album release . Digital spy. November 10, 2018. Retrieved April 8, 2020.
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from May 26, 2019 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Rak-Su full Official Chart history . British music charts . Retrieved April 8, 2020.
- ↑ IRMA - Irish Charts, Week Ending 15 Dec 2017 . Irish Recorded Music Association . Retrieved December 16, 2017.
-
↑ Chart positions in Scotland:
- For "Dimelo": 2017 Top 100 Scottish Singles Archive (8 December 2017) . Official Charts Company . Retrieved December 9, 2017.-
- For "I Want You to Freak": 2018 Top 100 Scottish Singles Archive (26 October 2018) . Official Charts Company. Retrieved October 27, 2018.
- ↑ BRIT Certified - bpi (To access, enter the search parameter "Rak-Su" and select "Search by Keyword") British Phonographic Industry . Retrieved October 26, 2018.
- ↑ IRMA - Irish Charts . Irish Recorded Music Association . Retrieved November 3, 2018.
- ^ Rianne Houghton: X Factor Winners Rak-Su Will Support Little Mix On Their Summer Hits Tour Later This Year . In: Digital Spy . March 5, 2018. Retrieved March 8, 2018.
- ↑ Olly Murs: A BIG THANK YOU to everyone who has already bought tickets for my 2019 tour. General tickets are ON SALE NOW! See you all next year and BRING YOUR MOVES !! . October 12, 2018.
