The Cheetah Girls (group)

The Cheetah Girls

Background information
Origin United States
Genres
Years active 2003–2008
Labels
Associated acts 3LW, Raven-Symoné
Website myspace.com/thecheetahgirls
Past members

The Cheetah Girls were an American girl group consisting of Adrienne Bailon, Kiely Williams, Sabrina Bryan, and Raven-Symoné. The group was created by Disney, and were made famous by the eponymous Disney Channel original film and its sequels, The Cheetah Girls 2 and The Cheetah Girls: One World. The group has released three studio albums, Cheetah-licious Christmas, In Concert: The Party's Just Begun Tour, and TCG and several RIAA certified Platinum albums including, The Cheetah Girls, The Cheetah Girls 2, and The Cheetah Girls: One World. All of their albums and soundtracks have debuted in the Billboard 200. The soundtrack to their first movie sold over 2 million copies.

The group has launched a clothing line, several perfume collections, doll lines, room decor, a book series and a video games line. The group has had three nationwide tours, Cheetah-licious Christmas Tour, The Party's Just Begun Tour and One World Tour. The Cheetah Girls grossed over US$43 million from their second tour.[1][2] They have sold over 3.6 million records worldwide with the help of producer Brennan Mills.

Career

2003–2005: The Cheetah Girls film, breakthrough and Cheetah-licious Christmas

The Cheetah Girls performing during their Christmas tour in 2005

The Cheetah Girls had a television movie, based on a best-selling series of young adult books of the same name by Deborah Gregory, which debuted on August 15, 2003. The movie's DVD sold over 800,000 copies.[3] The film received over 84 million viewers worldwide and remained a hit in the ratings for months afterwards. The Cheetah Girls were also supposed to be a TV series for ABC in their 2004–2005 season.[4] The show was to begin production in early 2004, according to an article on the MTV news site, but according to another article on MTV News website in February 2004, it said The Cheetah Girls sitcom had been delayed, due to the success of That's So Raven.[5] Therefore, Raven would not be able to do the series. Although a pilot was shot in late 2003, ABC decided not to pick up the series.

Due to her busy schedule, as well as already being signed to the same label (Hollywood Records) as a solo act, Raven-Symoné decided not to be a part of the actual recording act and only participate in the films, leaving the trio of just Bailon, Bryan and Williams.

In 2005, the girls recorded for the first time as a trio and recording act for the Disneymania 3 album, remaking the song "I Won't Say (I'm in Love)" from the Hercules soundtrack.

The girls released their first recording in October 2005 under Walt Disney Records, Cheetah-licious Christmas, the holiday album included classic Christmas songs, as well as several original songs, one of which was co-written by all three girls. The album peaked at number 74 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. The lead single, "Cheetah-licious Christmas", was rotated on Radio Disney and a music video for the song was shown on Disney Channel. A second single from the album, "Five More Days 'Til Christmas" was released as a Radio Disney-only single. The girls went on tour to support the album that fall, along with Aly & AJ as the opening act and the Jonas Brothers as special guests.

2006–2007:The Cheetah Girls 2 and TCG

The Cheetah Girls began work on their debut album in January 2006. However, when filming and recording for The Cheetah Girls 2 came up, the album was put on hold. "We'll be making a real album, not a soundtrack," Adrienne Bailon says. "Some of the music on there will be produced by will.i.am from The Black Eyed Peas," she says. "It's important for people to see us as a real musical group. We have all this great marketing around us, with the movies and other things. But we are a musical group."

The Cheetah Girls 2 premiere received a total of over 8.1 million viewers, making it the highest rated premiere for a Disney Channel Original Movie at the time.

In an interview with Billboard about the postponed album, Sabrina Bryan stated that the girls worked on writing for the album on their Party's Just Begun tour and that they hoped to gather an audience of older fans while simultaneously staying true to their younger fan base.[6] Bryan also stated that the girls would work with producers they've worked with in the past as well as exploring new producers, such as Timbaland.[6]

The album was originally titled Who We Are,[7] and set to be released on June 19, 2007[8] but this was postponed to September 25, 2007, with a release name of TCG. The track "So Bring It On" was released as the album's first single. "Fuego" was released as the second single from the album.

2008: The Cheetah Girls: One World and break up

The Cheetah Girls performing at The Magnificent Mile in 2008

The girls began filming their third Cheetah Girls movie, entitled The Cheetah Girls: One World, in March 2008. It is the only movie not to feature Raven-Symoné and premiered on August 22, with its soundtrack released on August 19. The movie debuted with 6.2 million viewers, the lowest-ever rated premiere for the series. In the fall of 2008, the group went on tour to support the One World movie, which would be their last tour together. In December 2008, the group disbanded.

Aftermath

All three girls are currently working on solo projects. Bryan released a book titled Princess of Gossip in 2009, had a small supporting role in the straight-to-DVD film Mostly Ghostly, released another fitness DVD called Byou 2, and had a part in the indie film If It Ain't Broke, Break It.[9] Both Williams and Bailon had small roles in 2008 film The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, with Bryan making a cameo in the form of a set of her Byou DVDs on display. Williams played a supporting role in the film The House Bunny starring Anna Faris. Williams filmed the music video for her first single Make Me A Drink in New York City in November 2008,[10] which was later scrapped in favor of a promotional single titled Spectacular, released in the spring of 2010.[11] In early 2009, Williams and Bryan talked about collaborating on a talk show together, which Williams described as "a young version of The View".[12] The pilot for Dinner with Friends was filmed in May 2011 and was released on YouTube two months later. Currently, Bailon is one of the hosts of syndicated talk show The Real along with former fellow Disney Channel stars Tamera Mowry, Jeannie Mai, and Loni Love, which premiered on July 15, 2013.[13]

Filmography

Year Title Role Notes
2003 The Cheetah Girls The Cheetah Girls (Raven-Symoné as Galleria Garibaldi, Adrienne Bailon as Chanel Simmons, Sabrina Bryan as Dorinda Thomas and Kiely Williams as Aquanetta Walker) Filmed in Toronto, Canada and Manhattan, New York City.
2006 The Cheetah Girls 2 The Cheetah Girls (Raven-Symoné as Galleria Garibaldi, Adrienne Bailon as Chanel Simmons, Sabrina Bryan as Dorinda Thomas and Kiely Williams as Aquanetta Walker) Filmed in Barcelona, Spain.
2008 The Cheetah Girls: One World The Cheetah Girls (Adrienne Bailon as Chanel Simmons, Sabrina Bryan as Dorinda Thomas and Kiely Williams as Aquanetta Walker) Filmed in Udaipur, India.

Discography

Merchandise

There are Cheetah Girl based clothing lines, toys, and video games. The clothing line was made available in Sears stores, and its launch was the most successful in Sears history.

Videos games have been produced for GBA and Nintendo DS, as well as a dancemat game. Toy instruments have been produced for the children's market.

The Cheetah Girls also have a doll line, released in 2007, inspired by the Disney Channel Original Movies (DCOMs). There are several versions of the dolls and the three members. The dolls were sold at Sears stores nationwide and several other retailers.

Miscellaneous

Book series

The Cheetah Girls started as a book series that was written by Deborah Gregory. There are two versions of the Cheetah Girls book series. The original, which was the inspiration for the first movie, and the other by Disney authors released as movie tie-ins.

DVDs The Disney Channel Original Movies, and the concert DVD, are released with The Cheetah Girls 2 Special Edition Soundtrack. A 20-minute highlights DVD of the Girls' The Party's Just Begun Tour was released on July 10, 2007 along with a live audio CD of the tour. The first DVD released has sold over 800,000 copies.[14] The Cheetah Girls have also released a California Adventures DVD and two compilation DVDs, DisneyMania 3 in Concert and Radio Disney's Totally 15th Birthday.

Toothbrushes 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.

Tours

Cheetah-licious Christmas Tour In the winter of 2005, the Cheetah Girls went on tour to support their Christmas album Cheetah-licious Christmas. Aly & AJ went along with them, as the opening act, to support their own album Into the Rush, although the Jonas Brothers performed as surprise guests opening for both the Cheetah Girls and Aly & AJ for a total of 10 shows of the tour, promoting It's About Time, their first album. The holiday theme of the concert included giant presents (in which the Cheetah Girls performed in), winter clothes, and even a tropical theme for their song "Christmas in California", which included surf boards with the girls' names on them. The Cheetah Girls also sang songs from the first Cheetah Girls soundtrack, their song "I Won't Say (I'm in Love)" (from Disneymania 3), and their version of "Shake a Tail Feather" (from the Chicken Little soundtrack).

The Party's Just Begun Tour In July 2006, the girls stated to Disney 365, a brief Disney Channel So Hot Summer news program, that they would be hitting the road again in September 2006, however they didn't state whether or not Raven-Symoné would be joining them. However, in a later interview they confirmed that Raven would not be going with them. An ad inside of the Cheetah Girls 2 soundtrack confirmed the name of the tour to be The Party's Just Begun Tour. The concert was released to a live CD and DVD combo on July 10, 2007. The opening acts for the tour were Miley Cyrus (as Hannah Montana) for the first 20 dates, Vanessa Hudgens for the next 20 dates, and Everlife for the last 40 dates. Jordan Pruitt was also a special guest on the tour for the first 40 cities. The preteen group T-Squad was also a special guest for 5 of the 58 dates. The concert tour sold out every date. For the tour's finale the group performed in Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas with Miley Cyrus as their opening act. Within 3 minutes, the concert had already sold 80,000 tickets.

The One World Tour The girls announced their third tour in the summer of 2008. The tour, entitled the One World Tour began in October 2008 and is in support of the trio's third soundtrack from their Disney Channel film The Cheetah Girls: One World. Bailon stated in an interview that it was likely that this tour would travel to various other countries as well as the United States. Corbin Bleu was originally announced as the opening act for the tour but due to his busy schedule could not continue with the duties. The Clique Girlz were announced as the official opening act for the tour just days before it began.

References

  1. ↑ 2007 most Powerful Girls list Archived March 6, 2008, at the Wayback Machine.
  2. ↑ "The Cheetah Girls 2 – Box Office Data, Movie News, Cast Information". The Numbers. November 28, 2006. Retrieved 2012-03-28.
  3. ↑ "'Cheetah Girls 2’ Aims to Be Next 'Musical’". Multichannel News. August 19, 2006. Retrieved 2012-03-28.
  4. ↑ Moss, Corey. (December 3, 2003) "3LW To Star In TV 'Cheetah Girls'" MTV News.
  5. ↑ Moss, Corey. (February 9, 2004) 3LW's "Adrienne Bailon In 'Coach Carter'" MTV Movie News.
  6. 1 2 Sabrina Bryan Interview. Billboard.
  7. ↑ Adrienne in Hip-Hop Weekly
  8. ↑ www.tommy2.net. www.tommy2.net.
  9. ↑ "Sabrina Bryan". Retrieved September 9, 2016.
  10. ↑ Kiely Williams Solo Single Announced. Little Cheetah Women blog (November 13, 2008).
  11. ↑ Music Video: Kiely Williams – Spectacular. Concreteloop.com (April 7, 2010).
  12. ↑ Kiely Williams EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW April 9, 2009. Youtube.com.
  13. ↑ "It’s Official: ‘The Real’ Talk Show Begins Four-Week Test Run July 15". Deadline.com. June 12, 2013. Retrieved July 28, 2013.
  14. ↑ Multi Channel Archived January 11, 2008, at the Wayback Machine.
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