Clea

Formed by the losing finalists of ITV's Popstars: The Rivals, pure pop girl band Clea struggled to compete with the critical and commercial success of the show's winners, Girls Aloud. Lynsey Brown, Chloe Staines, Emma Beard, and Aimee Kearsley all auditioned for the TV talent contest in 2002. After being picked for the live final stages, they failed to reach the all-important final five, finishing 10th, 9th, 8th and 7th respectively. Sixth place finalist Javine decided to go solo, but the remaining four decided to form Clea, an acronym of the first letter of their forenames. After signing a deal with Warner offshoot 1967 Records, the band released debut single, "Download It" (number 21), but after second single "Stuck in the Middle" (number 23) also failed to reach the Top 20, their debut album Identity Crisis was shelved. It was eventually released in Eastern Europe and Japan but soon after the girls were dropped by their label. The same year, Chloe left the group due to a clash of personalities and the new trio signed to Upside Management. With a new Europop sound, they released "Clothes Off," (number 35) a collaboration with dance producers Da Playaz on a reworking of the Jermaine Stewart hit from the '80s. But fourth single, "Lucky Like That," (number 55) missed the Top 40 altogether and their album Trinity, featuring songs taken from their shelved debut plus brand new recordings, only reached number 258 in the album charts. In 2007, Lynsey became the second member to leave, and Emma and Aimee formed dance-pop act LoveShy. The girls made it through to the final six of BBC's Eurovision — Your Decision, a show designed to find the U.K. entrant for the Eurovision Song Contest. But after their track "Mr Gorgeous," failed to win, they decided to call it a day. ~ Jon O'Brien, Rovi