Fame Academy ''Fame Academy'' was a British television talent competition to search for and educate new musical talents. The winner received a chance to become a successful music artist and part of the international franchise ''Star Academy'' known under va ...

'' is a British television programme that ran for two series, in

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

and

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

. The show was produced for the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

in a

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...

format. The winners of the show,

David Sneddon David Sneddon (born 15 September 1978) is a Scottish singer, songwriter, musician and music producer of contemporary pop music. He began his career performing on stage and television, singing lead roles in stage musicals in Glasgow. In 2002, h ...

and

Alex Parks Alexandra Rebecca Parks (born 26 July 1984) is an English singer-songwriter. Parks was entered into the BBC Television programme, ''Fame Academy'' by her father. It was a show that she went on to win. Soon after winning ''Fame Academy'', she re ...

, were awarded music recording contracts to allow them to release music and live like top recording artists for a year. Sneddon had a run of three top-20 hits, including his debut single "

Stop Living the Lie "Stop Living the Lie" is the debut single of Scottish singer-songwriter David Sneddon, taken from his album '' Seven Years – Ten Weeks''. It was released through Mercury Records on 13 January 2003. During its first week of release, it charted a ...

", which peaked at number one on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

in January 2003.

signed to major music publisher

Sony/ATV Music Publishing Sony Music Publishing (formerly Sony/ATV Music Publishing) is the largest music publisher in the world, with over five million songs owned or administered as of end March 2021. US-based, it is part of the Sony Music Group, which is itself owned ...

in 2009 as a

songwriter A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music gen ...

. Parks' debut single "

Maybe That's What It Takes "Maybe That's What It Takes" is a song by English singer-songwriter Alex Parks, taken from her debut album, ''Introduction'' (2003). It was released as her debut single on 17 November 2003, shortly after she won the second series of ''Fame Academ ...

" charted at number three in November 2003. In addition to Sneddon and Parks, several other contestants have gone on to have successful music careers, while others were given record deals and released several songs before leaving the music industry. The runner-up from the first series,

Sinéad Quinn Sinéad Quinn ( ga, Sinéad Ní Chuinn; born 24 March 1980) is a Northern Irish singer, best known as a contestant in the first series of the UK BBC TV series ''Fame Academy'' in 2002. She later went on to sign a recording contract, released a ...

, signed a record deal with

Mercury Records Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. In the United States, it is ...

, the same company as Sneddon, and released her debut single " I Can't Break Down" in February 2003. The song charted at number two on the UK Singles Chart. Her second single, " What You Need Is..." peaked in top 20 in June 2003.

Ainslie Henderson Ainslie Thomas Henderson (born 28 January 1979, Edinburgh, Scotland) is a Scottish singer-songwriter and animator. He became known to the public via his appearance on the BBC's television programme, ''Fame Academy'', and his subsequent UK top 5 ...

's debut, and thus far only single " Keep Me a Secret" ranked number five in February 2003.

Malachi Malachi (; ) is the traditional author of the Book of Malachi, the last book of the Nevi'im (Prophets) section of the Tanakh. According to the 1897 ''Easton's Bible Dictionary'', it is possible that Malachi is not a proper name, as it simply mean ...

and

Alistair Griffin Alistair Richard Griffin (born 1 November 1977) is an English singer-songwriter and musician. Already an established songwriter, he first became famous as a solo artist through his appearances on the BBC television show ''Fame Academy 2'' in 2 ...

released self-penned songs in 2003 but were subsequently dropped from their record labels.

James Fox William Fox (born 19 May 1939), known professionally as James Fox, is an English actor. He appeared in several notable films of the 1960s and early 1970s, including '' King Rat'', ''The Servant'', ''Thoroughly Modern Millie'' and ''Performanc ...

was chosen as the United Kingdom's

representative Representative may refer to: Politics *Representative democracy, type of democracy in which elected officials represent a group of people *House of Representatives, legislative body in various countries or sub-national entities *Legislator, someon ...

for the

2004 Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest 2004 was the 49th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Istanbul, Turkey, following the country's victory at the with the song "Everyway That I Can" by Sertab Erener. Organised by the European Broa ...

; he sang "Hold Onto Our Love", which charted at number 13 on the UK Singles Chart in April 2003, and received 29 points for his performance.

Lemar Lemar Obika (born 4 April 1978), known as Lemar, is an English singer, songwriter and record producer. Initially rising to fame after finishing third on the first series of British talent show ''Fame Academy'', he was later signed to Sony BMG ...

, who finished in third place in the first series, has been the most successful contestant from the show. He released his first single, "Dance (With U)", which charted at number-two on the UK Singles Chart, in August 2003; he has since recorded nine further top 40 hit singles, including six that charted in the top 10. He has released four studio albums; The Truth About Love is the most successful, charting at number three on the UK Albums Chart in 2006. As of March 2014, Fame Academy contestants have released 28 charting singles and 10 charting albums. Of the 20 singles that reached the top twenty, 13 were top-ten hits. Eight of the twelve releases peaked inside the top 20. Lemar is the only artist who is still releasing music.

Singles

Albums

''Only albums that charted in the Top 100 of the

UK albums chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...

are included in this list.''

Fame Academy albums

At the end of both series, a compilation album was released featuring cover versions from the contestants. The first album reached number two on the UK Compilation Chart. A third album, ''Bee Gees Special'', was released during the show's broadcast and featured cover versions of

Bee Gees The Bee Gees were a musical group formed in 1958 by brothers Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb. The trio were especially successful in popular music in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and later as prominent performers in the disco music era in ...

songs.

Other releases

* Alistair Griffin released a cover version of "

Hallelujah ''Hallelujah'' ( ; he, ''haləlū-Yāh'', meaning "praise Yah") is an interjection used as an expression of gratitude to God. The term is used 24 times in the Hebrew Bible (in the book of Psalms), twice in deuterocanonical books, and four tim ...

" called "Hallelujah

Mark Viduka Mark Antony Viduka ( ; born 9 October 1975) is an Australian retired football player who played as a centre forward. He captained the Australia national team to the Round of 16 at the 2006 FIFA World Cup which remains their best ever performance ...

" through

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

. * Malachi Cush has released four further albums that have failed to chart: ''Celtic Heartbeat (Where the Heart Is)'' (2005) and ''Two Sides of Malachi'' and ''New Day'' (both 2007) and ''Timeless'' (2009). * James Fox released an EP entitled ''Six Strings'' and an album that failed to chart called ''Rocking Chairs and Lemonade''. He released a single "Higher" in 2008. * Alex Parks released " Looking for Water" as a download-only single but the song only peaked at number 250. *

Peter Brame Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a su ...

released an album, My Secret Suicide, in 2008, but it failed to chart.

Notes

Bluebirds Flying High Bluebirds Flying High is a song written by British singer-songwriter James Fox. It was recorded as Cardiff City F.C.'s official song for the 2008 FA Cup Final. It was released as a single in May 2008 and charted at a peak position of number 15 in ...

was recorded by James Fox with

Cardiff City F.C. Cardiff City Football Club ( cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Dinas Caerdydd) is a professional association football club based in Cardiff, Wales. It competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1899 as R ...

as the club's official song for the

2008 FA Cup Final The 2008 FA Cup Final was an association football match between Cardiff City and Portsmouth held at Wembley Stadium, London, on 17 May 2008. The final was the showpiece match of English football's primary cup competition, the 2007–08 Footba ...

. Alistair Griffin recorded "My Lover's Prayer" with

Robin Gibb Robin Hugh Gibb (22 December 1949 – 20 May 2012) was a British singer and songwriter. He gained worldwide fame as a member of the Bee Gees pop group with elder brother Barry and fraternal twin brother Maurice. Robin Gibb also had his o ...

, who had appeared as a guest judge on Fame Academy.

References

;General * allmusic (((Alistair Griffin > Discography)))* allmusic (((Alex Parks > Discography)))* allmusic (((David Sneddon > Discography)))* allmusic (((Sinéad Quinn > Discography)))* allmusic (((Lemar > Discography)))* allmusic (((James Fox > Discography)))* allmusic (((Malachi Cush > Discography)))* allmusic (((Ainslie Henderson > Discography))) ;Specific

External links

Fame Academy imdb profile

{{Fame Academy Fame Academy British reality television series