The Jonas Brothers are an American pop-rock band from Wyckoff, New Jersey made up of three brothers: Kevin, Joe, and Nick Jonas. They have released two albums - It’s About Time in 2006, and Jonas Brothers in 2007, and will release A Little Bit Longer in 2008
It all started when the youngest of the trio, Nicholas Jonas, was just six years old. He was discovered singing in a Barber Shop and began performing on Broadway. After creating two singles, ”Dear God,” and, “Joy to the World (A Christmas Prayer),” an executive from Columbia Records heard him and got him to sign jointly to INO Records and Columbia Records.
Nick was supposed to release a self-titled album in December 2004 but the album only got a limited release. In early 2005 the Columbia Records president heard Nick’s album but didn’t like it. He did like Nick’s voice though, and after hearing songs that the brothers had made decided to sign them on as a group. They named themselves the Jonas Brothers. The Jonas brothers went on many tours, including Kelly Clarkson, Jesse McCartney and the Backstreet Boys.
Their first album, “It’s About Time,” was supposed to be released in February 2006 but it was delayed. The Jonas Brothers covered two of U.K. band, Busted’s, hit songs – “Year 3000” and “What I go to School For.” Their first single, Mandy reached No. 4 on MTV’s Total Request Live show. They also released “Time for Me to Fly,” on the Aquamarine soundtrack. Disney picked up interest in the band and got them to cover “Yo Ho (A Pirate’s Life for Me)” from Pirates of the Caribbean for their DisneyMania 4 album. The brothers went on tour again with Aly & AJ in the summer of 2006 after creating the theme song for the second season of American Dragon Jake Long.
“It’s About Time,” was eventually released in August 2006 but according to the bands manager it only received a limited release of 50,000 copies. “Year 3000,” became very popular on Radio Disney and the Disney Channel aired their music video in January 2007. Soon after Columbia records dropped the band. But their lack of a contract was short lived as they signed with Hollywood Records in February 2007.
After releasing singles for Disney Mania 5, “I Wanna Be Like You,” and Meet the Robinsons, “Kids of the future” the Jonas brothers released their self titled album in August 2007. The album soared to number five on The Billboard Hot 200 chart in its first week. They released music videos for, “Hold On,” and, “SOS,” shortly after. In the same month the brothers made television appearances on Hanna Montana, Miss Teen USA and the Disney Channel Games aired their final which had been recorded in April. They then co-presented at the Teen Choice awards with Miley Cyrus and later performed at the American Music Awards in November. Their, “Look Me In The Eyes,” Tour ran from December through to March and featured seven new songs from the brother’s, “A Little Bit Longer,” Album.
After their tour had ended the brothers announced that they would be opening for Avril Lavigne with Boys Like Girls during the second leg of the tour inEurope. The Jonas Brothers’ third studio album, “A Little Bit Longer,” is set for release in the USA on August 12th, 2008. The Disney Channel film Camp Rock stars the three brothers and is set for a June 17th release in the states.
In the summer, the Jonas Brothers will start their North American tour, the Burning Up Tour, promoting, “A Little Bit Longer.” A Disney Digital 3D production crew will be filming the two shows which will be made into a theatrical movie and will be released in theatres as a 3D concert movie in late January or early February 2009.
Discussing their second album release Kevin said, “When we signed to Hollywood we told the label, ‘Hey, we have some demos of songs we’ve been writing for the past year and a half.’ We thought it’d be so funny to just record those songs for the album to see what we could get away with. But those turned out to be the songs on the record!”
“This album is so us,” says Joe. “The first one was us kind of coming into what the Jonas Brothers could be,” Kevin adds. “Whereas this one really shows off where we’re at right now.” The youngest Jonas but perhaps the wisest, Nick concludes thus: “We love what we’re doing and we want to do it for a while.”
Sources: Wikipedia and www.jonasbrothers.com
American Idol has become one of the biggest shows in Television history, launching people from obscurity to international fame in just a few short months. It could easily be argued that many of these people may never have been able to pursue their dreams if it hadn’t been for the show. Stars like Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Daughtry, Kris Allen and Jennifer Hudson may have never seen their dreams become reality. The biggest star of the show, however, has to be Simon Cowell.
