DC Playlist: Now United's "Let the Music Move You", and the Eighteenth Member

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BY DC CUEVA                        

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Instagram @NowUnited

A couple weeks ago on here, this fanatic of reality TV took a break from covering that world to one of my other passions of music, and help introduce a group that might not be as well known in America as they are in much in the world, but they are one that's rapidly growing across our planet. Now United was created in summer 2017 by Spice Girls and American Idol creator Simon Fuller, comprised originally of fourteen singers & dancers from fourteen different countries, but whose roll call expanded last year to include three additional members from Australia, the Middle East and Africa.

Since our post on them back in mid-April, Now United has further spread its wings around the globe by adding its eighteenth member to their family, and also got to talk to MTV's YouTube channel back on its weekly Friday music livestream with host Kevan Kenney. The three members who joined the band last year were all girls -- Savannah Clarke, Nour Ardakani and Melanie Thomas. But if you were in the shoes of any of the five guys who are trumped by the group's twelve girls, then you must've been felt being in the minority of sorts... though all's not bad given the mania the Uniters fan base have for this collective.

It was after Melanie joined the group last fall than the process began once again for XIX Entertainment, and where this time the search for #NowUnited18 would turn to finding the sixth boy in the group to join this global supergroup. It was most especially true when the Philippines' Bailey May and Canada's Josh Beauchamp were the only two guys for most of the group's stay in Abu Dhabi and Dubai last fall, and after the group agreed that the ladies would take the lead in the global search, the process began when they left the Middle East and continued into the spring.

NowUnited.com

In the end, the search for Now United's eighteenth member would take them to one of the places they went to on their 2019 world tour: the summer of that year, they performed in Madrid, Spain as part of the pre-match festivities for the UEFA Champions League Final when Liverpool beat Tottenham Hotspur. Inside Atletico Madrid's new home ground, Metropolitano Stadium, the group met another musical heavyweight in Imagine Dragons, as Bailey - who once had aspirations on playing for the Philippine national team on the world stage before music took over - relished the atmosphere of the biggest annual match on the global football calendar.

And it is in Spain in mind that would eventually contribute to Now United that eighteenth member: Alex Mandon Rey will turn 16 years old this summer having grown up on the island of Mallorca, home to European summer hotspot Ibiza and a host of reality TV shows including Love Island UK and MTV's The Challenge. Being inspired by Michael Jackson and with his mom having attended dance school, Alex has been a dancer since he was 3 and loves to break dance... it's that love with what's called in Spain "baila" that has given him a 2.2 million TikTok following. And it was this week that Now United officially welcomed him into their family.

That Zoom call between Alex and his new Now United bandmates took place while the group was in Hawaii on the fourth stop of their North American tour -- but a different kind than what we're accustomed to. To offset the absence of concerts and live music, the group have spent most of the last nine months together away from family in the Middle East, Mexico and the U.S. creating music videos and recording music and content in a safe bubble environment. And as we brought up last time, the same modernistic mansion on the Hawaiian big island where Season 1 of the U.S. version of MTV's Ex On The Beach was filmed was where Now United spent their time in paradise, including their latest video.

One of the twenty-three(!) songs they released during their breakthrough year of 2020 was "Let the Music Move You," which sampled 1990 hit "Everybody Everybody" by Black Box and whose original music video featured animated versions of the group's fifteen members. To coincide with Alex's arrival at the eighteenth member, the group gave the Uniters a big surprise that a second clip for "Let the Music Move You" would be released, and it did yesterday as the group sang and danced in the same exact mansion as that memorable first season of the anti-love reality show... not to mention where Josh's fellow Canadian Justin Bieber also stayed at, too.

When compared with its animated version (which was created out of argumented reality app Zeputo), the new live-action "Let the Music Move You" was much better in many ways in using a continuous filming technique that brought fans around the entire house that's known to locals as the "Waterfalling Estate." But there was also one key and very important difference, too.

NowUnited.com

Since Now United was first formed, one member who hasn't been featured much in their music or their videos is the guy who represents the home nation of the group's founding father: when the time came to choose the band four years ago, Lamar Morris was the second one chosen. But outside of their debut single "Summer in the City" and a co-starring part in a cover of British singer James Morrison's "You Give Me Something" with Brazilian Any Gabrielly - as well as hitting that high note on the RedOne produced "Better," Lamar has largely been absent from the group's videos.

That all changed this spring when he went to Dubai to train with Nour and Russia's Sofya Plotnikova, and then flew to California to surprise his fellow members in Malibu. There (and at a different house than the one for EOTB Seasons 2 & 3), Lamar & his bandmates filmed a video for an upcoming song this summer that he wrote back home in Britain - one of the first forays into songwriting for any of its members. And when the new video version of "Let the Music Move You" dropped yesterday, the song was remixed to include Lamar's soulful vocals.

That came much to the delight of Now United fans everywhere... but even more so to who has no doubt become the group's biggest UK-based fan: when the pandemic shut down his nation last year, Alfie Whites began doing YouTube reaction videos from his bedroom. He owes much of his success and rapid growth to over 200,000 followers to reacting to Now United music videos once he discovered the group. But the biggest joy for Alfie comes from when he sees his favorite member either on screen or when he hears his voice... and the phrase "It's My Boy Lamar!" has become much a part of his identity as being YouTube's unofficial ambassador of the vibrant Brazilian lifestyle to the UK. You can only imagine what joy will be on his face when he reacts to Lamar's song from Malibu.

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