Simon Cowell, Cassandra Gracey and Louis Bloom have toasted December 10's chart success after the boyband landed in the Top 5 with their debut EP.
The EMI-signed former Music Week cover stars entered the UK albums chart at No.5 on Friday (July 17) with On Your Side, which notched up 13,035 sales (94% physical) in its first week of release.
Recorded across Los Angeles, London, Nashville and Stockholm, with production from Julian Bunetta, Poo Bear and Savan Kotecha, it has become the highest-selling EP of 2026 and biggest debut EP from a boyband in the last 10 years.
Formed on the Netflix series Simon Cowell: The Next Act, the seven-piece – Cruz Lee-Ojo, Danny Bretherton, Hendrik Christoffersen, John Fadare, Josh Olliver, Nicolas Alves and Seán Hayden – were an even bigger hit in Ireland, where they charted at No.3.
Worldwide, they have amassed more than 30 million streams, 22.9m YouTube views and a combined social media following of 3.7m in just seven months.
This is more than I could have hoped for at this point. Im genuinely thankful for everyone who’s helped and supported the boys
Simon Cowell
For the all-star backroom team, the numbers have justified their belief in the project.
Cowell told Music Week: "I'm thrilled for the boys. The fans from day one have been amazing. The writer-producers have been incredible. And then behind them is a lot of people who have worked really, really hard. This is more than I could have hoped for at this point. Im genuinely thankful for everyone who’s helped and supported the boys."
The boyband, who have close to 500,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, were the inaugural clients for manager Cassandra Gracey's new management company, Gracey & Co.
"I am beyond thrilled with the Top 5 result and totally blown away by the number of units," said Gracey. "We were all hoping for a Top 10 – expectations managed accordingly! Props to the boys for their talent and their work ethic, their incredible team at EMI and the passionate fanbase they have built in the last seven months."
I am beyond thrilled with the Top 5 result and totally blown away by the number of units
Cassandra Gracey
December 10, who played two sold out nights at London's Shepherd's Bush Empire over the weekend, complete the European leg of their first major headline tour with a show at Dublin's National Stadium tonight (July 21), having sold more than 30,000 tickets across the run.
Gracey added: "We all look forward to leaving our tour bus and sleeping in our own beds before we head back to Japan in August! Lucky us. So grateful to everyone involved."
The group, who have festival slots at Summer Sonic Japan and Reading & Leeds still to come this summer, covered the March 2026 edition of Music Week as part of an interview also featuring Cowell, Gracey, Bloom and artistic collaborators including Kamille, Savan Kotecha, Raab and Poo Bear.
"We are forever grateful to every person who bought and streamed the EP and to you Music Week for giving us one of our first covers at the start," said the band. "We are currently finishing a tour and the response has been a madness. We have best teams working with us to make this happen!! Excited for what’s next as we finished The Next Step tour in our brother Sean’s home town Dublin."
The main objective was to win over die-hard fans so it's been so wonderful to see that connection happening
Louis Bloom, Island EMI
Reflecting on the chart performance, Island EMI Label Group president Louis Bloom hailed an "incredible result".
"When I first spoke to Simon about the project he said the main objective was to win over die-hard fans so it's been so wonderful to see that connection happening," he said. "The intensity and noise around the guys at their recent Shepherd's Bush shows was so visceral and something I haven't seen in the youth pop space in such a long time which bodes so well for them at such an early stage of their career."
Cowell opened up on his motivation for launching the group in an interview with Music Week earlier this year.
“I haven’t worked with a band like this for a very long time and I found I had really missed it, surprisingly," he said. "The buzz of finding people, it’s always exciting, and the people at Syco had missed it too.
“I think we all miss that era of when there were a lot of British boybands. I said to the production company, ‘I can’t explain what it feels like. If it works, you’ll understand why I’m doing this.’ They all said to me afterwards, ‘Okay, we get it now!’”
Subscribers can revisit our December 10 cover story here.
PHOTO: Click News & Media
