Biography

'Jack the Lad Swing' - more commonly referred to as JLS - were a boy band consisting of members Aston Merrygold, Marvin Humes, Jonathan 'J.B.' Gill and Oritsé Williams, all from different areas of London (England) with the exception of Aston who is originally from Peterborough (but later moved to London).

JLS were originally known as 'UFO' (Unique Famous Outrageous), but changed their name to JLS when they entered the 2008 series of The X Factor UK (2004).

While in The X Factor JLS were mentored by Louis Walsh and were Walsh's last remaining group as other two groups Walsh mentored - Bad Lashes and Girlband - received the least votes were sent home in the first two weeks.

Along with the other 2008 X Factor finalists, JLS were included in the recording a cover version of Mariah Carey's 'Hero' which was released to support the Help for Heroes charity. The single went straight to number one in the first week of release and sold more copies than the remaining top 10 singles combined.

JLS performed numerous hits such as Michael Jackson's The Way You Make Me Feel, Rihanna's Umbrella and various other songs by artists such as Take That, Boyz II Men, Britney Spears etc. One of their most notable performances was Lonestar's I'm Already There which they performed on two nights - the semi-final and the final. During the final, JLS also performed Flying Without Wings as a duet with the original artists - Westlife.

JLS ended up in the bottom 2 once throughout the entire season while Simon Cowell stated that they did not deserve to be in the bottom two that week and were saved, sending Rachel Hylton home.

JLS came second, as the runners up to Alexandra Burke. Despite not winning The X Factor UK (2004), JLS went on to sign a record deal with Epic Records in 2009 and released their first single Beat Again for which the video premiered on June 2nd while the single wasn't officially released until 13th July 2009.
- IMDb mini biography by: Anonymous