4, December 2017
Cameroonian Ashley Fongho in UK boy band that won the 2017 X Factor 0
Before Rak-Su were famous: These fresh-faced young lads grew up to become a financier, a client manager, a physio and a street dance teacher and are now on their way to £200m fortune after conquering The X Factor
- Rak-Su last night became the first boy band to ever win the X-Factor
- Simon Cowell has predicted they will be bigger than One Direction
- Watford’s Myles Stephenson, Jamaal Shurland, Mustafa Rahimtulla and Ashley Fongho, all had humble upbringings and typical jobs before winning the show
Watford’s Myles Stephenson, Jamaal Shurland, Mustafa Rahimtulla and Ashley Fongho, all 25 and 26, were crowned winners of the show last night, beating Lancashire-born singer Grace Davies in the final.
If Cowell’s prediction is right and the band outperform One Direction, the foursome could earn as much as £200million – a far cry from their white collar jobs in the Hertfordshire town.
The boys have already shown their financial know-how as they set up a company to handle future earnings weeks before they appeared on the X Factor.
Watford boys Rak-Su were crowned the X Factor 2017 winners and Simon Cowell has predicted they could be even more successful than One Direction
Myles Stephenson, Jamaal Shurland, Ashley Fongho and Mustafa Rahimtulla (left to right) appear on Lorraine after winning the X Factor
Stephenson, 26, the band’s rapper and producer, was a client manager for Concept Care Solutions which involved recruiting and booking all types of health care professionals in NHS, before his success on the show.
He recently split from his long-term girlfriend Rebecca Bignel and reportedly grew close to researcher Demi Kaye while on the show – much to the anger of the X Factor bosses.
Stephenson admitted he had a crush on Cheryl at Judges Houses, which led ex-One Direction star Liam Payne to warn him off his girlfriend during the first live show when he quipped: ‘He fancies my missus so I’ve got to keep an eye on him!’
Myles Stephenson, 26, the band’s rapper and producer, pictured as a young boy
Stephenson pictured last night during the X Factor final which saw Rak-Su emerge victorious
Jamaal, who arrived in England from Barbados when he was 12, pictured as a boy
The Rak-Su boys Myles (pictured second right) Mustafa (centre) are pictured with friends
Ashley Fongho is pictured with his parents at his graduation ceremony at Loughborough University
X Factor winners Ashley and Mustafa are pictured together before their fame and fortune
Hertfordshire boys Ashley (left) and Myles (right) are pictured in their finest get-up
Shurland, who is the lead singer of the band, was previously a physiotherapy assistant
Barbadian Jamaal Shurland, 25, lead singer of the band, arrived in England when he was 12.
He is currently in a relationship with girlfriend Lara Rose McCabe and was previously a physiotherapy assistant.
Mustafa Rahimtulla, 25, also known as ‘Pharoahcious’, teaches street dance classes and is listed as having won competitions nationally and internationally.
Stephenson, Shurland and Rahimtulla all attended Westfield Academy in Watford, a coeducational secondary school and sixth form with academy status.
The fourth member of the band, rapper and songwriter Ashley Fongho, 26, attended Bushey Meads School and then Queens School for sixth-form, and is a psychology graduate who went to Loughborough University.
According to his LinkedIn page he’s a ‘business manager’ and is also a talented footballer having had trials at Tottenham Hotspur, Cardiff City and Bristol City.
Mustafa Rahimtulla, 25, pictured as a boy, is the band’s dancer and beatboxer
Rahimtulla taught street dance classes before his success on the X Factor
Prior to the airing of this year’s X Factor the band formed a company to handle future earnings.
Rak-Su created a limited company – called About Ours Ltd – to handle any cash they make from performing.
According to records submitted to Companies House the firm’s aims are ‘artistic creation’ and ‘performing arts’.
All four members of the band are listed as directors of the company that was created on September 22.
Rak-Su previously had songs played by BBC Introducing before auditioning for the X Factor.
They will release debut single Dimelo, one of their original tracks, with Naughty Boy and Wyclef Jean after performing it with them on the show.
X Factor boss Simon, 58, told them after their victory at ExCeL London: ‘You are gentlemen. You are stars.’
And he said the childhood friends can go on to great things as they share the same ‘certain class’ as Harry Styles and Co.
One Direction, who came third in the 2010 series of the show, have gone on to sell more than 70 million records.
Cowell said: ‘There’s an awful lot of artists in entertainment who appear nice in front of the cameras, but behind them, they’re monsters.
‘Not these guys. These guys have that same thing as 1D, it’s a certain class.
‘The group is so important to the show for that reason. There’s so many s****y things going on in the world.
‘When you have people like these guys who have ambition, it’s great and there’s this wonderful afterglow.’
Rak-Su ‘rapper and songwriter’ Ashley Fongho, 26, pictured as a child
The 26-year-old is a psychology graduate who attended Loughborough University
Source: DailyMail.Co
6, December 2017
Veteran French pop singer Johnny Hallyday dies aged 74 after cancer battle 0
Veteran French rocker Johnny Hallyday has died after a battle with lung cancer. He was 74.
The death of Hallyday, a rock and roll giant in France with a career that lasted more than 50 years, was announced by the office of the French president. “He brought a part of America into our national pantheon,” French President Emmanuel Macron’s office said early on Wednesday.
Macron, who spoke with Hallyday’s family after the news, said “we all have something of Johnny Hallyday in us.” Hallyday had announced in March that he was being treated for cancer but had played down the severity of his condition.
“Johnny Hallyday has left us,” the singer’s wife, Laeticia, said in a statement to Agence France Presse. “I write these words without believing them. But yet, it’s true. My man is no longer with us.”
Known simply as “Johnny” to his fans, Hallyday was the closest France got to Elvis and was once dubbed “the biggest star you’ve never heard of” by USA Today. Hallyday enjoyed a huge following in France, having sold more than 100 million records in his decades-long career.
In a sign of his standing in the country, Former President Nicolas Sarkozy, as mayor of the rich enclave of Neuilly-sur-Seine on the western edge of Paris, presided in 1996 over the entertainer’s marriage to his fourth wife, Laeticia.
His health had been the subject of media speculation since he was hospitalised in 2009 in the United States for complications following a hernia operation, and was put in an artificial coma.
“For each of us, he means something personal. Memories, happy moments, songs and music,” Sarkozy said at the time. Hallyday was a colourful character loved for hits such as “Allumez le Feu”, but also home-grown versions of rock standards such as Elvis Presley’s Hound Dog and Bebop a Lula by Gene Vincent.
But he had also sparked considerable controversy, in particular for choosing to dodge French taxes by taking up residence in Switzerland, saying he had had enough of being “fleeced” back home.
Part of the “Ye Ye” generation, Hallyday’s career took off in 1960, where he prompted the same scenes of hysteria in France as the Beatles or the Rolling Stones.
With his square-jawed good looks and piercing blue eyes, Hallyday was often sought-out for the cinema, playing in French director Jean-Luc Godard’s “Detective” (1984) and with other illustrious directors including Costa-Gavras.
More recently, Hallyday appeared in Johnnie To’s “Vengeance” (2009) and had talked about giving film a bigger role in his life.
However, it was the rocker’s sentimental life, and his marriage to Laeticia that gave him a mellow edge. He spoke lovingly of daughters Jade and Joy, who were adopted from Vietnam. “I’m not a star. I’m just a simple man,” he said in a 2006 interview on France 3.
Hallyday is also survived by two other children, Dave, a singer fathered with Vartan, and Laura Smet, whom he had with noted French actress Nathalie Baye.
Source: Telegraph.Co.UK