Booty Luv also known as Cherise & Nadia are an English dance
group formed in June 2006 via the Hed Kandi label. It is fronted
by two R&B vocalists Cherise Roberts and Nadia Shepherd, both
of whom were in the original line-up of the successful hip hop band
Big Brovaz. To date, they have released one BPI Silver-certified
studio solo album as a twosome, and have had five consecutive top
twenty hits in the UK. They have also achieved international
success, gaining hits in Ireland, Poland, the Netherlands and Germany.
Roberts and Shepherd both began their career in the R&B group
Big Brovaz, who had considerable success following their launch in
2002. Roberts was an established singer before the group's success,
recording a solo album - Look Inside and single "2nd Best".
The album was much praised and won a MOBO Award. After scoring top
five hits with songs such as "Favourite Things" and "Nu
Flow", Big Brovaz received rave reviews from fans and critics
for their unique style, and received comparisons with other groups
such as Outkast and solo artists such as Eminem, Nelly and Jamelia.
After a lengthy hiatus following one member's drug addiction being
revealed, Big Brovaz re-instated their career in 2004 with new single "Yours
Fatally". Expectations were high following their previous string
of top ten hits, although the single disappointingly stalled at Number
15 in the UK Top 40 and third female member Dionne left the band.
Subsequently, the band were dropped by their record label. This resulted
in a three-year gap before they finally released a second studio
album. In April 2007, new album Re-Entry was released, although it
was a commercial disaster and failed to chart.
Booty Luv was created during early recordings of Big Brovaz' Re-Entry
album when music executives offered Roberts and Shepherd the chance
to record and promote a new version of R&B/soul singer Tweet's
club hit "Boogie 2nite". Following the poor sales of early
singles from Re-Entry in mid-2006, the girls accepted the offer and
began recording their new version of the song, initially only as
a promotional track for the record label Hed Kandi. Six months later
in December, however, Booty Luv's version of "Boogie 2nite" was
decided to be released as an actual single in the UK and mainland
Europe following positive reviews from club DJs on the dance scene.
[edit] 2006–08: Boogie 2nite
In late 2006 the video for "Boogie 2nite" was sent to
top music channels and the song was heavily promoted. The original
dance remix by Seamus Haji was chosen for the song's download and
physical releases, while the video was chosen to feature the remix
by the group DB Boulevard.[2] The song continued its success onto
digital music video channels, holding Number 1 positions on the The
Hits Most Selected and TMF Hitlist UK. It became their first Number
1 single in the UK Dance Charts. Spending 17 weeks inside the UK
Top 75, the positive response for "Boogie 2nite" resulted
in Booty Luv extending their contract with Hed Kandi to four follow
up singles and an album. As of September 2009, the single re-entered
the UK Dance Chart at number 31 following on from the popularity
of the band's recent single Say It, three years after its original
release.
In 2007, after taking several months to record their debut album,
Booty Luv released the follow-up single "Shine", a cover
of the Luther Vandross song on 14 May.[3] It was well received by
radio and added to the A-List on BBC Radio 1, peaking at Number 17
on the UK Airplay Chart. In its first week of release, "Shine" entered
the UK Singles Chart at Number 25 on downloads alone, and became
the group's second top ten single the following week when it jumped
15 places to Number 10 following its physical release, spending an
eventual seven weeks inside the UK Top 40. It also managed to hit
the top spot on the UK Dance Charts.
Their debut album Boogie 2nite was released 17 September 2007, one
week after third single "Don't Mess With My Man" (a cover
of a Lucy Pearl song) made the UK Top 20 at Number 11, and the UK
Dance Charts at Number 1, taking their number of UK Dance Number
1 singles to three. The album features the three hit singles "Boogie
2nite", "Shine" and "Don't Mess with My Man",
a new cover as well as five original songs, including the final UK
Top 20 hit from the album, Some Kinda Rush. The album is co-written
by Booty Luv and two co-writers. On 24 September 2007, Boogie 2nite
entered the UK Albums Chart at a respectable Number 11 and just missed
the top twenty the next week, falling to Number 26. It was officially
certified as Silver by the BPI in late 2008, denoting 70,000+ copies
sold.
The fourth single to be released from the album was "Some Kinda
Rush", the first original release by the group.[4] On the week
commencing 28 November 2007, the song had a surge in download sales
solely from the album following the song's early promotion, when
it entered the UK Top 100 at Number 93, four weeks before its official
download release. It continued to hold inside the UK Top 100 before
becoming Booty Luv's fourth consecutive UK Top 20 hit when it rose
to Number 19 following its combined physical and download sales.
On the week commencing 28 January 2008, the single outlasted "Don't
Mess With My Man" in the UK Top 40 despite its lower peak, with "Some
Kinda Rush" spending seven weeks on the chart, and "Don't
Mess With My Man" spending only four. Their debut album Boogie
2nite also experienced a resurgence into the UK Top 100 following
the success of "Some Kinda Rush". It re-entered the UK
Top 100 Albums at Number 96, before climbing as high as 87. The album
has so far spent four weeks inside the UK Top 100 following the release
of "Some Kinda Rush", and eight weeks in total. In late
2007 iTunes offered fans the chance to download one of the original
songs from the album - "Something To Talk About" free of
cost, since it was the 'Free Single Of The Week'.
A fifth single from the album, "Dance Dance", was given
a limited release across Europe in 2008, managing to achieve Top
5 success in the Netherlands' Dance Chart. It furthered this success
onto the official Netherlands chart, peaking at number 27. The CD
tracklisting included two new remixes and a megamix of the group's
singles so far.
[edit] 2009–10: Say It Now
Roberts and Shepherd confirmed in an interview with Digital Spy
in 2007 that they planned to begin work on their second album in
2008. They also mentioned that they were talking about future plans
with Hed Kandi and didn't want the next album to feature any cover
versions, but for the new album to contain only original songs.[5]
In an interview with Digital Spy in July 2009, Nadia revealed that
the band had been working with multiple producers, whereas with Boogie
2nite they only worked with one. It was thus revealed that the album
had a "an edgier style", as described by Shepherd. She
also commented that "some tracks have a real R&B vibe to
them, others are proper dance tracks and some are typical poppier
tracks. It's a really exciting mixture of sounds." Bandmate
Cherise also stated that they had been working with Fraser T. Smith,
the producer behind Tinchy Stryder's number one hit "Number
One". The track they worked on with him is apparently entitled "One
Dance".[6]
The first single from the new album is titled "Say It",
and was premiered on Friday 10 April 2009.[7] The first performance
of the single was at Sony Ericsson's Dance Nation Festival where
the girls did a set. The musicality of the song differs slightly
from the previous material released by the band, having more of an
electro feel to it. The single was released on 31 August 2009, and
was premiered on the official Hed Kandi website and the video sharing
site YouTube. The single was Popjustice's 'Single of the Day' on
10 April 2009. It was added to BBC Radio 1's B-List at the start
of August, moving up to the much-coveted A-List during the successful
week of release.
The single continued the band's run of UK Top 20 hits, debuting
at number 16 on Sunday 6 September 2009, the week's fourth highest
new entry.
Although very quiet since the release of "Say It" in 2009,
it seems Booty Luv have been working hard in the studio. With recent
updates on their Twitter page stating that "patience is such
a virtue, new music coming your way VERY soon."
Booty luv now have a new official website at www.cheriseandnadia.com
and facebook page and state they are working on new music and will
be performing across different venues this year including Nottingham
Pride on 30 July 2011 and Cardiff Pride on 3 September 2011.
According to latest news, Cherise and Nadia have been signed to
the Industry Sound record label and will release a brand new single
entitled "This Night" with the release date expected to
be sometime in September 2011. The video for the release is now available
to view on youtube. At this point in time, it is unclear as to whether
the single will be released under the Booty Luv alias or whether
the act has now changed its name to Cherise and Nadia.
[edit] Discography
[edit] Studio albums
Year Album details Peak chart positions Certifications
UK[8]
2007 Boogie 2nite
Released: 17 September 2007
Label: Hedkandi
Format: CD, digital download
11
UK: Silver[9]
2009 Say It Now
November 2009
Label: Hedkandi
Format: CD, digital download
Cancelled
[edit] Singles
Year Title Peak chart positions[10] Album
UK[8] BEL (FLA) FIN GER IRE NL EU
2006 "Boogie 2Nite"
2
38
8
76
22
7
11
Boogie 2Nite
2007 "Shine"
10
—
6
—
28
13
—
"
Don't Mess with My Man"
11
—
9
—
26
28
—
"
Some Kinda Rush"
19
—
—
—
47
10
—
2008 "Dance Dance" 1
—
—
—
—
—
27
—
2009 "Say It"
16
—
—
—
—
—
—
2011 "This Night"
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
1 Dance, Dance was exclusively released in the Netherlands.
[edit] Music videos
Year Video Director(s)
2006 "Boogie 2Nite" Jonny Mourgue[11]
2007 "Shine"
"
Don't Mess With My Man"
"
Some Kinda Rush"
2008 "Dance Dance"
2009 "Say It" Emile Nava