Big Time Rush & Cheetah Girls

Two bands (pop boy band and pop R&B girl group) loved by young audiences both started off from films, tv shows and would become actual bands. The Cheetah Girls is based on a best-selling novel to a Disney Channel Original film series. Big Time Rush is based on the Nickelodeon television sitcom. Two bands have made themselves gaining popularity from audiences young and old becoming the most profitable popular bands in both children's networks.

Here's How it all started

As I said, The Cheetah Girls wasn't just based on the Disney Original film. It was actually based on a novel by author Deborah Gregory.

Gregory was a writer and a from Brooklyn, New York. As a teenager, she started designing her own clothes and fantasized about a singing career. At the age of eighteen, she attended the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) and received her A.A.S. She graduated in 1986 with a BS in Cultural Studies from Empire State College (Metropolitan Center, NYC). She started writing for various magazines including Grace, More, US, and Entertainment Weekly. She has won awards, acknowledging her contributions to "Essence Magazine" since 1992. During the 90s, Gregory started writing her novel The Cheetah Girls about five best friends (Galleria, Chanel, Dorinda, Anginette, and Aquanette) in a girl group trying to go after their dreams of becoming superstars.

Writer and Television Creator behind Johnny Test and Scott Fellows who created Ned's Declassified School contacted Nickelodeon on creating a tv sitcom about a group of young boys from Minnesota who travel to L.A. to become a boy band. Fellows says his inspiration for the show was the musical comedy show, The Monkees, a popular sitcom about a group of four young men (Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith, Peter Tork, and Davy Jones) trying to make a name for themselves as rock 'n roll band.

Making of the Band (Casting)

During the casting process, Gregory wanted Tia and Tamera to portray Anginette and Aquanette. However, during casting auditions for the film, executives at Disney thought it would be best to drop the character Anginette Walker from the books because they couldn't find the right twin girls to play both her and Aqua. So they kept Aqua for the film. Raven Symone who was starring in That's So Raven was cast as Gabriella. According to Bailon, while she was auditioning for the Cheetah Girls she messed up her audition.

Sabrina Bryan was a dancer and actress auditioning for the Cheetah Girls she had no idea that the audition required singing but she gave it a go. Solange Knowles was cast as Aqua in the film unfortunately Knowles bailed on the film to focus on her music career. The role was then given to Kiely Williams, who was in the girl group 3LW with fellow bandmate Adrienne Bailon at the time.

Fun fact: Dorinda's character was inspired by Gregory. Gregory was actually a foster child while her biological mother was in the mental institution.

More than 1,500 teen boys auditioned to be on the sitcom including Kendall Schmidt, Curt Hansen, Carlos PenaVega aka Carlos Vega (before he changed it while he was married to actress Alexa Vega), James Maslow, and Logan Henderson.

Fun Fact: James and Carlos already had Nickelodeon credit before. James starred on iCarly as Shane while Carlos starred in Ned's Declassified School as King Bee.

James and Logan were cast in the show. Carlos was enrolled at the Boston Conservatory to study musical theatre, Pena was reluctant to audition but sent in a tape at the encouragement of his manager. Curt Hansen was cast as a member of the group until he was replaced by Kendall. Four boys (Kendall, Carlos, James, and Logan) were cast and formed the band Big Time Rush.

The Debut

The film premiered on August 15, 2003, on Disney Channel. The film garnered favorable reviews.

Big Time Rush premiered their hour-long pilot episode, "Big Time Audition" focusing on four hockey-playing best friends from Minnesota, Kendall Knight, James Diamond, Carlos Garcia, and Logan Mitchell, after they are selected to form a boy band by fictional mega music producer Gustavo Rocque. The episode premiered on November 28, 2009, earning 6.8 million viewers, making it Nickelodeon's highest-rated live-action series debut ever. Nickelodeon signed Big Time Rush to a record deal in 2009 simultaneously with the television series, Big Time Rush. Then, Nickelodeon partnered with Columbia/Epic Label Group to produce the show and include the original music in the show.

Debut Albums/Soundtracks

Although there had been music recorded for The Cheetah Girls film, there were originally no plans to release said music commercially since Disney Channel's previous original films never had soundtracks before. Debra Martin Chase was able to convince Disney to create new contracts for the film's actresses and release the film's music as a soundtrack since Rodger & Hammerstein’s Cinderella never got a chance.

In the soundtrack, some songs from Hope 7, most from the Cheetah Girls, Char, and Sonic Chaos. The album was certified Double Platinum selling more than 2 million copies becoming the best-selling album from Walt Disney Records along with High School Musical soundtrack and Hannah Montana soundtrack.

After the first season premiered, Big Time Rush's debut album/soundtrack was released on October 11, 2010. The album debuted at number one on the US Kid and Soundtrack Billboard charts receiving positive reviews.

Back by Popular Demand

Though it received mixed critics, it gained a huge fan following. The Cheetah Girls came back for a sequel. Around the time the Cheetah Girls were about to return, Adrienne Bailon had breast implants and they were shocked by her implants. Immediately, Bailon had to get her implants removed.

The film was choreographed and directed by Kenny Ortega, new music for the second film soundtrack, and the location was taken place at Barcelona, Spain. The sequel didn't disappoint. The Cheetah Girls 2 premiered on the Disney Channel on August 25, 2006. Its premiere received the highest ratings of all Disney Channel Movies at its time, bringing in a total of over 8.1 million viewers beating High School Musical and Cadet Kelly.

Fun Fact: Disney Channel was about to be a Disney series unfortunately because of Symone's show schedule and there's no point so it was better off that it as a film franchise.

The sequel film's soundtrack topped the charts as well. The Cheetah Girls 2 debuted at number five on the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 87,000 copies, becoming the group's highest-peaking album than the first soundtrack. Following the film's premiere, the group embarked on The Party's Just Begun Tour from September 2006 to March 2007. They also performed at the Disney Channel Games on April 24, 2007.

BTR continued on for four seasons with 74 episodes plus two films with celebrity special guests like Miranda Cosgrove, Russell Brand, Snoop Dogg, Etc.

Marketing & Concerts

The Cheetah Girls sold t-shirts, backpacks, video games, dolls, and toys. In 2006, Bailon announced the Cheetah Girls working on their album this time not as a soundtrack. The album TCG was released on September 25, 2007, and debuted at number 44 on the Billboard 200 albums chart with 19,000 copies sold in its first week. It has sold 126,000 copies to date.

Their clothing line was made available in Sears stores, and its launch was the most successful in Sears's history. In 2006, Tooth Tunes released a toothbrush featuring a picture of The Cheetah Girls and plays a clip of their single "Shake a Tail Feather". It was one of the most popular toothbrushes for all girls in 2006. The group has had three nationwide tours that grossed $43 million dollars. Girls had sold altogether 11 million dollars of merchandise.

As for BTR, the same thing only different than the Cheetah Girls. Their second album, Elevate was released on November 21, 2011, and debuted at number 12 on the Billboard 200, selling over 70,000 copies in its first week. Though the album had a lower peak position than their previous debut, Elevate sold far more copies its first week respectively than the previous album did. The first single, "Music Sounds Better with U", written by the band and Ryan Tedder from OneRepublic, was released on November 1, 2011. The song peaked at number twenty-six on the U.S. Mainstream Top 40. The second and last single, "Windows Down", was released on June 25, 2012, and peaked at number ninety-seven on the Billboard Hot 100 and at number thirty-five on the Mainstream Top 40, making their third top forty entrance in the chart. To promote the release of their second album, the group had their first headlining tour, the Better With U Tour, which took place over sixteen dates in several big cities in North America in February and March 2012. They had six nationwide tours sold over 300,000 tickets including sold-out shows. BTR merch is still selling on their website.

The Finale

The Cheetah Girls continued on but this time as a trio. Symone decides not to continue the Cheetah Girls project and considered herself a solo artist. While Bailon, Bryan, and Williams were continuing on the Cheetah Girls' journey, Synome continued working on her show That's So Raven until 2007, her fourth self-titled album, and filming her film College Road Trip along with comedian Martin Lawrence. The Cheetah Girls trio in the film Cheetah Girls: One World are in college while still trying to stay together as a group auditioning to get a gig until they audition for the film director giving them an opportunity and travel to India.

The Cheetah Girls: One World premiered on August 22, 2008. The film premiered on August 22, 2008, receiving low solid ratings. However, the film's soundtrack topped the Billboard charts. The trio embarks on the One World tour. After the tour, the group disbanded in 2008.

The band dissolved in 2014 but the band still remained friends and continued working on their own solo projects.

Reunions

In 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic, Big Time Rush reunited virtually. On December 2020, member James Maslow uploaded a video of the band performing their song "Beautiful Christmas" via YouTube.

On February 21, 2022, the band announced on Good Morning America that they would be holding a reunion tour throughout 2022. As for the Cheetah Girls, Symone reunited with Bailon whose the co-host of The Real (an Emmy-Winning daytime talk television show) in 2015.

Raven and Adrienne would reunite this time as Raven's son Booker (played by Isa Ryan Brown) as Alana, Raven's former school bully, the school principal, and the mother of Cami whose dating Booker. Sabrina Bryan and Kiely Williams have kept in contact had done projects together for Kiely's YouTube Channel. The two former Cheetah Girls starred in the web series "Dinner With Friends", "March Moms", and "Bad Sex With Good People". Williams told Madame Noire interview that she had no contact with Symone and Bailon until she got in touch with Raven after years of no contact clarifying on Instagram Live about their "alleged" messy feud.

Symone and Bailon have hinted at a possible reunion so who knows if they will ever get back together to do another possible 4th film. But we'll see.....

Source

Wikipedia

https://bigtimerush.fandom.com/wiki/Big_Time_Audition

YouTube

Are you a Cheetah Girls fan or a Big Time Rush fan?????

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