Collabro were a group of opera singers from Leeds who won Series 8 of Britain's Got Talent. They were introduced in the auditions in a similar way to a 'Typical boyband', and received exasperated looks from the Judges after saying they had only been together for a month. The group consisted of Michael Auger, Jamie Lambert, Matthew Pagan, Thomas J. Redgrave & Richard Hadfield.
In their audition, they sang 'Stars' from Les Miserables. Amanda commented that they 'Reduced [her] to tears', whilst Simon described their performance as an 'Absolutely brilliant audition', after revealing he thought they 'Were going to be awful'.
In the Semi-Finals, they performed 'Bring Him Home', also from Les Misérables. David described the groups performance as 'Perfection', whilst Alesha added 'You have made your mark here'. They won the Public Vote and advanced directly onto the Final.
In the Final, they again performed 'Stars'. David remarked ‘You couldn't fault it', with Amanda adding 'The arrangement was stunning, the key change was perfect, and I think you could win the show'. They were announced as the winners of the series, finishing first in the public vote.
After BGT[]
In June 2014, Collabro signed a contract with Syco Music, and their debut album, ‘Stars’, reached #1 in the Official Albums Chart. Their second album, ‘Act Two’, was released in June 2015 and reached #2.
Additionally in 2015, they returned to BGT as guest performers during the fifth Semi-Final of the following series, and additionally returned as guest performers once again as part of a group of guest performing acts in 2016.
In 2016, Richard Hadfield left the group as a direct result of a feud, allowing him to pursue his solo career. He stated that he would often feel 'Isolated' when with the band.
The band's first album as a four-piece, ‘Home’, was released in March 2017 and peaked at #7 in the UK Chart.
In August 2018, they released an album entitled ‘Road to the Royal Albert Hall’, which peaked at #19.
In early 2019, Michael Auger became a new member of 'The 100' judges on BBC Show 'All Together Now' during the shows 2nd Series.
In the spring of 2019, they represented Great Britain on BGT: The Champions (Series 1). They sang ‘Who Wants to Live Forever’ by Queen beneath a spotlight each. Alesha remarked that the performance was 'Faultless', with Simon adding that he believed that the performance embodied the reason he created BGT citing 'This is the reason we made the show'. They reached the top three in a vote of super fans for the ability to progress further, yet they came third in said vote so they therefore did not advance any further in the competition.
The band later announced that they had signed a new record deal with BMG. In November 2019, they released a new cover album entitled ‘Love Like This’ which saw them cover several songs from new and famous musical, which peaked at #22 in the Official Albums Chart. In October 2019, the band announced a UK tour for October 2020. In April 2020, the band had to postpone the tour due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and thus rescheduled the tour to take place between October and November 2021.
In early January 2020, they competed on the second series of ‘America's Got Talent: The Champions’, where they were eliminated in the preliminaries. Within the same year the band also appeared on Jane McDonald's Channel 5 show 'Jane & Friends' and as guest performers on an episode of 'Love Your Weekend with Alan Titchmarsh'.
In November 2020, they released their sixth studio album entitled 'Christmas Is Here' alongside their production company Peak Productions, which included the groups second original single entitled 'Christmas Is Here', written by Collabro & co-written by Ben Adams. The album peaked at #80 on the Official Albums Chart.
In Winter 2020, they performed 'Home For Christmas' by Amanda Holden, alongside Holden herself as part of the Britain's Got Talent Christmas Spectacular.
In August 2022, Collabro announced that they would be disbanding after 8 years and that they subsequently made the decision to change their 'Christmas Is Here' tour to their 'Farewell' tour.[1]
In September 2022, Richard Hadfield auditioned for the 11th season of 'The Voice UK' wherein he performed 'I (Who Have Nothing)' by Tom Jones, yet he failed to get any of the coaches to turn, this was widely labelled a fix by fans of the show due to the fact that he were part of a band who won BGT, yet he couldn't manage to get any of the coaches on The Voice UK to turn for him during the Blind Auditions.[2]