Alliage was a French

boy band A boy band is loosely defined as a vocal group consisting of young male singers, usually in their teenage years or in their twenties at the time of formation. Generally, boy bands perform Love song, love songs marketed towards girls and young ...

active from 1996 to 2000.

History

Alliage was assembled during the

1990s File:1990s decade montage.png, From top left, clockwise: The Hubble Space Telescope orbits the Earth after it was launched in 1990; American F-16s and F-15s fly over burning oil fields in Operation Desert Storm, also known as the 1991 Gulf War ...

craze. The musical group was met with the most commercial success in France alongside fellow boy acts like Worlds Apart,

2Be3 2Be3 was a French boy band that was active from 1996 to 2001. History 2Be3 was formed in 1996 and comprised three childhood friends from Longjumeau (a suburb of Paris): Filip Nikolic, Adel Kachermi and Frank Delay. Inspired by English bands li ...

and G-Squad. The band included four young men; Steven Gunnell, Roman Lata Ares, Brian Torres and

lead singer The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of the ...

Quentin Elias Quentin Elias (10 May 1974 – 25 February 2014) was a French singer, actor and model. Of Algerian heritage, he was the original lead singer of the French boy band Alliage with Steven Gunnell, Roman Lata Ares and Brian Torres from 1996 to 2000. ...

. Alliage, whose name translates as "mixture," was marketed as a

multicultural The term multiculturalism has a range of meanings within the contexts of sociology, political philosophy, and colloquial use. In sociology and in everyday usage, it is a synonym for "Pluralism (political theory), ethnic pluralism", with the tw ...

fusion of several different ethnic origins:

Corsica Corsica ( , Upper , Southern ; it, Corsica; ; french: Corse ; lij, Còrsega; sc, Còssiga) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the 18 regions of France. It is the fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of ...

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

, American, and

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

n- French, respectively. Some of their songs were " alliages" of several languages such as "Baila" and "Lucy". The group's breakthrough hit was their first single "Baila" ("''Dance, I love you, your memory still follows me''") which sold more than 450,000 copies. Their first album titled ''Alliage, l'album'' was released in 1997, selling more than 500,000 copies. At the peak of their success, ''Alliage'' collaborated with

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

boy band

Boyzone Boyzone were an Irish boy band, created in 1993 by talent manager Louis Walsh. Before even recording any material, Boyzone made an appearance on RTÉ's '' The Late Late Show''. Their most successful line-up was composed of Keith Duffy, Steph ...

on " Te garder près de moi" and

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

band Ace of Base on " Cruel Summer".

Break up and later

By the end of the 1990s Alliage's record sales declined as boy bands fell out of favor with the public.

was the first to leave the group and embark on a solo career in 1999. Elias was based in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. He remained active as a recording artist, model and actor in films, television and theater until his sudden death in 2014. Gunnell also become soloist and recorded an album of

Catholic music Catholic music may refer to: *Gregorian chant *Contemporary Catholic liturgical music Contemporary Catholic liturgical music encompasses a comprehensive variety of styles of music for Catholic liturgy that grew both before and after the reforms ...

called ''In terra'', having rediscovered his creed and passion for the

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

. Ares began a career in

photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed ...

and became the editor of the Spanish edition of '' V Magazine''. Torres became a

male model A model is a person with a role either to promote, display or advertise commercial products (notably fashion clothing in fashion shows) or to serve as a visual aid for people who are creating works of art or to pose for photography. Though mo ...

and actor.

Discography

Albums

Singles

External links

{{Use dmy dates, date=May 2020 French boy bands French pop music groups Musical groups established in 1996 Musical groups disestablished in 2000