Among the new contestant headed to ‘Love Island’ is one potential lothario who might look familiar to anyone who was following the charts back in the early 2000s.
Yes, Marcel Somerville is looking for love, and while he’s introduced himself as a 31-year-old “music professional”, you’ll probably remember him best as one-tenth of the part-pop group part-rap collective, Blazin’ Squad.
Although they’re oft-overlooked when reflecting on noughties chart music now, Blazin’ Squad had plenty of success during their heyday, reaching the UK top 10 on an impressive seven occasions during a relatively short period.
They burst onto the scene with ‘Crossroads’ in 2002, with hits like ‘We Just Be Dreamin’, ‘Love On The Line’ and ‘Flip Reverse’ (the latter of which is definitely worth a spin a decade on, even if the lyrics are fairly questionable).
This Blazin’ Squad reminder, courtesy of ‘Love Island’, has led us to ponder what the rest of the nine members of the group are up to in 2017, and it’s not unfair to say that there have been varying levels of success in recent years for the rest of the boys.
Among the 10 former Squad members’ careers since their heyday are Grammy nominations, arena tours, reality TV appearances and a few total job u-turns to slightly less glamorous professions than they were previously used to.
Here’s what each of them have been up to since they went their separate ways...
Catch Marcel and his fellow ‘Love Island’ stars in action when the new series kicks off on Monday 5 June at 9pm on ITV2.