Oritsé Williams formed JLS in 2007, bringing together Marvin Humes, Aston Merrygold, and JB Gill. They finished as runners-up on The X Factor in 2008 but went on to significant commercial success, releasing five albums between 2009-2013. In 2013, after winning numerous awards and selling over 10 million records, JLS announced they would be splitting up following a farewell tour and greatest hits album release. The members said they felt they had achieved all they could as a band and were ready to pursue individual goals.

1. By Anisa Ayoob.

2.  JLS (Jack the Lad Swing) were an independent-sometimes referred to as
indie-British boy band consisting of band members JB Gill, Marvin
Humes, Aston Merrygold and OritseWilliams.
AstonJB Marvin Oritsè

4.  Full name: Oritse Jolomi Matthew Soloman
Williams.
 Born 27 November 1986.
 Attended St Edwards School inWest London,
where he was known as Music Boy.
 He attended the British International School in
Lagos, Nigeria. Here he befriended
English/Nigerian singer L Marshall (who also
attended the school) and won his first talent
show performing alongside L in his final year.
 Williams dreamed of being a solo artist from a
very young age.
 He was recruited for many boy bands but
believed that a good boy band has to have a
good bond between the members.
 He decided to put together his own boy band,
UFO, who later changed their name to JLS.
 He wrote the song ‘Wow Oh Wow’ for
JEdward.
 Williams won the first series of the ITV
dancing show SteppingOut, hosted by Davina
McCall.

5.  Full name: Martin Richard James
Humes.
 Born 18 March 1985.
 Is the oldest member of the band.
 Humes was previously a member of
another band calledVS, created by
Blue member SimonWebbe, but
they split shortly after releasing an
album.
 After meeting future fellow band
member Aston Merrygold, Humes
joined UFO.
 Humes has been in a public
relationship with RochelleWiseman
since March 2010.
 They got engaged on 31 December
2011 and got married on 27 July
2012.
 It was announced onTwitter on 22
November that they are expecting
their first child and on 20 May 2013,
Rochelle gave birth to their

6.  Full name: Jonathan Benjamin Gill.
 Born 7 December 1986.
 Gill spent the first five years of his life living in Antigua,
discovering his musical talent at a very early age.
 After completing his exams at university, he decided to
audition for The X Factor in 2007. It was at this point that
he came into contact with the other members of JLS.
 Gill grew up, mostly, in Croydon and began making
music at the age of seven when he played the recorder,
piano, flute and guitar.
 At the age of nine, he joined the choir and went onto
perform at the local church. Gill concentrated on his
music and began studying at The Centre for Young
Musicians (CYM). After leaving the CYM, Gill stayed
involved with the school music scene.
 He played Mercado in the play Mercado and was
involved with the choir at school. He continued this until
he was 15 but had to give it up due to the pressures from
the school to concentrate on his rugby career; he was
involved with London Irish rugby club until he was 18.
 Gill eventually decided that he wanted to sing rather
than play rugby and took up vocal coaching during a year
out before attending university. During this period, Gill
was contacted by Oritse to try out for the band because
of his musical ear and attention to harmonies.
 JB Gill is now an owner of a farm in Scotland and he will
take a pause from music and start a different life as a
farmer.

7.  Born 13 February 1988.
 In 2002, Merrygold entered
Stars inTheir Eyes where he
appeared as Michael Jackson,
singing “Rockin' Robin” and
finished in second place.
 He came in second yet again
with JLS on The X Factor at age
20.
 His initial aspiration was to play
football professionally.
However, after developing a
nerve problem in his left foot, he
tried singing and acting instead.
 Through acting, he met Humes.
As a result, he received a call
fromWilliams about joining a
boy band.

9.  Oritsé Williams decided to get into the music business
mainly because his mother has multiple sclerosis and he
wanted to raise money to help find a cure.
 Williams decided to form his own boy band and, through
friends, met Marvin Humes who had experience in R&B
and pop music, being a part ofVS in 2004.
 Next to join was Aston Merrygold, who was once cast in
the ITV children's programme Fun Song Factory, because
of his athletic ability.
 Last to join the group was JB Gill, for his "musical ear" and
harmonies.
 They bonded, became friends and together they were
called UFO (Unique Famous Outrageous).

10.  In 2008, UFO auditioned for the fifth series of The X Factor, but had to change
their name because it was already being used by another group, so they decided
to go with the name JLS (Jack the Lad Swing.
 They originally signed toTracklacers production company NewTrack City.
 Throughout the live shows the judges called them the best band ever to come
out ofThe X Factor.
 They made it to the final and performed their own version of the winner's song,
"Hallelujah", which the other finalistAlexandra Burke also performed.
 The public voted for the second time that night and Burke won the competition,
JLS coming second.
 They were the fourth band to make the final.
 Following their success on The X Factor, Cowell's record company, Syco,
announced that they were to sign JLS with an advance payment of £75,000.
 The Sun later reported on 20 January 2009 that Cowell had revoked this offer,
having instead decided to focus on Alexandra Burke.
 JLS's manager thought the band would be well suited to Epic Records, with
whom they signed a record contract in January 2009.

11.  As soon as the contract was signed, EpicA&Rs began album preparation by contacting the pop
songwriters and producers who they thought to be the best in the industry.
 These included Steve Mac, Wayne Hector, J.R. Rotem and DEEKAY.When they went to see Mac he
played them "Beat Again", a song he had written with Hector, and the pair enthusiastically agreed that it
was perfect for JLS. Charrington said: "Once you've got that special song everything else seems to fall
into place."
 The song was released as the debut single in July, only six months after the band had signed with the
label.
 It reached No. 1 on the UK SinglesChart on 19 July 2009.
 On 9 November 2009 JLS released their debut album, JLS.The album debuted at No. 1 on the UKAlbum
Chart, selling over 1 million copies and named the sixth best selling album in the UK during 2009.
 Their second single "Everybody in Love", released on 2 November 2009, also topped the UK Singles
Chart.
 Their third single, "One Shot", peaked at number six despite a physical release, however it did stay in the
charts for a number of weeks despite the drop.
 Due to the success of their album, the group went on their first headline tour, with twenty-five dates
around the UK and Ireland.
 The group also became the first TheX Factor contestants to win a BRITAward in 2010, winning the
British Breakthrough and Best British Single for "Beat Again".

12.  "The Club Is Alive" was announced as the lead single in April and released on 4
July 2010.
 on 4 July 2010.The group promoted the single on Britain's GotTalent and GMTV.
The single debuted at number one, becoming the group's third UK number one
single.
 On 16 September 2010 the group unveiled the second single, "LoveYou More"
and was a BBC Children in Need single. It was their 4th UK number-one.
 The group wrote the song withToby Gad and Wayne Hector.
 OuttaThisWorld was released on 22 November 2010and debuted at number 2 on
the UK Albums Chart selling 152,000 copies, being held off the number 1 spot by
the second week sales ofTakeThat's record breaking Progress album.
 The album's third single "EyesWide Shut" was remixed to featureTinieTempah,
and has so far reached number eight on the UK SinglesChart.
 Merrygold also revealed that the group had teamed up with Bruno Mars for
songs on the album, and had spoken about the possibility of working with Usher
or Rihanna.
 On 7 January 2011 the album was certified double platinum by BPI, representing
sales of over 600,000 in the UK.

13.  JLS began working on their third album, Jukebox in March 2011. In May 2011 it was confirmed that the first single
will feature American singer-songwriter Dev, and is titled "She Makes Me Wanna“.
 The album was released on 14 November 2011,and the band will embark on another UK arena tour in support of
the album in March and April 2012.
 On 15 September, JLS announced that "Take a Chance on Me" would be their second single from their album
Jukebox. It was released on 4 November 2011, and charted at number two on the UK Singles Chart.
 The band's third single "DoYou Feel What I Feel?" was released on 1 January 2012 and became their lowest
charting single to date, peaking at number sixteen.The album charted at number 2 on the UK Album Charts,
making it the second consecutive album to miss the number 1 spot, and entered the Irish Album Charts at
number 5.
 In 2012, JLS recorded the official Sport Relief charity single, "Proud". It was released on 18 March 2012.
 The band were among the performers at the Diamond Jubilee concert held outside Buckingham Palace on 4
June 2012.
 On 7 June 2012, they performed at the Royal Albert Hall for the Rays of Sunshine concert, which grants wishes
for seriously ill youngsters in the UK aged 3–18 years old.
 On 8 June 2012, they were announced to perform at the iTunes Festival 2012, along withThe X Factor alumni Olly
Murs, One Direction and Rebecca Ferguson.
 On 21 August 2012, JLS began filming a music video for "Hottest Girl in theWorld", the lead single from their
fourth album.
 On 25 August, the band announced that their upcoming fourth album would be called Evolution.The album will
be released on 5 November. On the direction of the album Merrygold said; "We didn't go by any kind of
guidelines or anything like that, we just made what felt right and we're really excited about it.“
 The single was released on 21 October and debuted at number 6 on the UK Singles Chart.

14.  On 14 December 2012, JLS were invited to Friday Download as a
special guest on the CBBC channel for British children.
 On 17 December, Humes revealed that the group were to release a
follow-up album to Evolution in 2013. On 1 February 2013, it was
confirmed that work on their fifth studio album had begun.
 On 23 April 2013, JLS released a statement on their official website
announcing that they would be splitting up after releasing their
greatest hits collection and completing their third and final arena
tour.
 On 24 April 2013, the band confirmed plans to release Goodbye –
The Greatest Hits in late 2013, which would be preceded by a new
single to coincide with their farewell arena tour across the UK.
 It was confirmed on 26 September that their final single will be
called "Billion Lights" and is due to be released on 17 November
2013.

15.  JLS have said they decided to split because they
felt there was nothing left for them to achieve —
but are remaining tight-lipped about a possible
reunion.
 The boy band, who came second on X Factor in
2008, became one of the show’s biggest success
stories when they went on to win Brit and Mobo
awards and sell more than 10 million records.
 Since announcing the split in April, they have
been preparing their farewell tour, which comes
to the O2 arena on December 21.

16.  Chart-topping boy band JLS have told Newsround
that the decision to split up "hit them very hard".
 The group announced in April that they'd be parting
ways - but not until after a final single, greatest hits
album and goodbye tour!
 Aston explained: "Things change, we've all grown up a
lot since that very first X Factor audition and we've all
got different, more goals individually."
 Marvin said: "The final tour's going to be amazing. It's
the first tour where we're taking a live band on the
road with us.“
 Video-JLS talk split and goodbye tour.