Gabriels are a British-American three-piece band consisting of

Jacob Lusk The tenth season of ''American Idol'' premiered on January 19, 2011, and concluded on May 25, 2011, on the Fox television network. The show underwent a multitude of changes from the ninth season, including the return of Nigel Lythgoe as the execu ...

, Ryan Hope and Ari Balouzian. The band formed after meeting in Los Angeles in 2016. They were nominated for

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...

's Sound of... for 2023.

Formation

Hope and Balouzian were working together on a film in 2016 and were searching for a choir for the soundtrack when they came across the work of Lusk. Lusk had previously appeared on ''

American Idol ''American Idol'' is an American singing competition television series created by Simon Fuller, produced by Fremantle North America and 19 Entertainment, and distributed by Fremantle North America. It aired on Fox from June 11, 2002, to Ap ...

'' in 2011 and sang backing for

Diana Ross Diana Ross (born March 26, 1944) is an American singer and actress. She rose to fame as the lead singer of the vocal group the Supremes, who became Motown's most successful act during the 1960s and one of the world's best-selling girl groups o ...

and

Gladys Knight Gladys Maria Knight (born May 28, 1944), known as the "Empress of Soul", is an American singer, actress and businesswoman. A seven-time Grammy Award-winner, Knight recorded hits through the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s with her family group Gladys Kn ...

but they hadn’t seen this; at the time Lusk was orchestrating an amateur choir. They asked him to come to Hope's music studio in Palm Springs to make more music and when he declined, they instead camped outside Lusk’s church with a remote recording studio. The band is named after St. Gabriels Avenue, the street in

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

, England that Hope grew up on. Together they are said to fuse musical styles such as gospel, doo-wop and jazz.

Career

Gabriels debut EP ''Love and Hate in a Different Time'', released in June 2021, was called "one of the most seminal records I've heard in the past 10 years" by

Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, pianist and composer. Commonly nicknamed the "Rocket Man" after his 1972 hit single of the same name, John has led a commercially successful career a ...

. Their second EP ''Blame'' was released in November 2021. In August 2021 they signed with major labels Elektra in the U.S. and Parlophone in the U.K. In the spring of 2022 the band toured with

Celeste Celeste may refer to: Geography * Mount Celeste, unofficial name of a mountain on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada * Celeste, Texas, a rural city in North Texas ** Celeste High School, public high school located in the city of Celeste, ...

. In June 2022 they played at

Glastonbury Festival Glastonbury Festival (formally Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts and known colloquially as Glasto) is a five-day festival of contemporary performing arts that takes place in Pilton, Somerset, England. In addition to contemp ...

. The first part of their debut album '' Angels & Queens'' was released in 2022 and was described in ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' as 'beguiling' and having "real emotional depth". ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' review asked "could this be the album of the year?" The second part followed on July 7, 2023. At the 2023 Brit Awards the band were nominated in the International group of the year category. Gabriels performed at the 22nd Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in April 2023.

Discography

Studio albums

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gabriels American gospel musical groups African-American musical groups Musical groups from Los Angeles