The Look - Now United's The Musical: Welcome to the Night of Your Life

 NOTES:  This Post Contains Spoilers for Some Readers; please read with caution if you haven't watched the film yet. For the interest of Now United's global fanbase outside of the United States, you can read this post in your own native language by using the "translate" feature in your browser, where available.

BY DC CUEVA 

■ linktr.ee/dc408dxtr

ESTIMATED READING TIME: 27 MINS.

All Photos Courtesy: XIX Entertainment, NU & members' socials

Music is no doubt among my biggest personal passions (one of the big four in fact -- alongside sports, MTV reality shows and Las Vegas)... and if you just glimpse into the many playlists of what's playing in my plugs offers a good idea of how diverse a music fan I am. Whether it's the album Meteora by a band I was lucky enough to meet two decades ago in Linkin Park, another artist I discovered before most Americans in first hearing about the Backstreet Boys while spending Christmas overseas, or those hundreds of songs that are topping the charts and even beyond that... music has helped me through both the good and bad times in my life, and through my each and every single day too.

The year that shall not be named of a few years back saw me discover what's become a current favorite of the DC Playlist during these times, and molded together music with something I know well as a sports fan who loves watching relatively obscure events happening outside this country as much as those here at home. That would be the idea of different nations coming together in one big music supergroup just as they do at the Olympics and the World Cup: different singers and dancers from the world's six continents into the global pop collective Now United. Though they're not as big as other acts in this country as they are in others -- and despite me being right up there in age and where its target audience is those the age of my niece & nephew, I can still have them as one of my favorites.

Two years ago, Now United were the subjects of an introductory post and a follow-up... it was caused by them calling home for a week the same house used in one of the many MTV shows I've blogged on here the past decade (I'd normally cover that world of trashy guilty pleasure entertainment on a regular basis on this site) to film one of their many music videos. But last fall saw the end of their first generation when the group in its original formation went on one final tour together and released a last set of songs & videos before most of them began pursuing solo endeavors after five unforgettable years traveling the globe and offering inspiration to a world that has been in need of some feel-good moments when we have had to go through so much during a tumultuous period we've just been through.

And to close it all out, there was something very special that brought this well-traveled group of artists from different nations of the world's six continents to a global melting pot in a concrete jungle in the American Northeast. There, they turned their attention to fulfilling one of the greatest dreams that there is in the world: the opportunity to grace the greatest stage of all -- center stage of a Broadway musical.

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

 FOLLOW-UP  The Biggest Pop

 Group You've Never Heard Of

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

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.

Someone You Should Know: Now United - The Biggest Pop Group You've Never Heard Of

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

In the mind of yours truly, there are four passions that matter the most to me: MTV Reality shows, sports, music and Las Vegas. The first choice is the one that is covered wall-to-wall on this DCBLOG website like no other in the blogosphere, and if you get to see what I'm like in my ideal environment perfecting this craft then typically I'll be hunkered down in my desktop or laptop having the earphones on and plugged to that fourth option.

The music world is something that I have a tremendous interest in, and not just because I've been loving the song choices on recent seasons of MTV shows. Across my slew of choices to hear those tunes -- iPhone, FOUR iPod's and my CD collection, the amount of songs I have are limitless... and that doesn't account for the current craze of streaming services. And if you're curious of what I have, if there is someone who is on the top of the charts chances are they are in my playlist, but so are artists from the entire musical spectrum -- both known to us here in America and those who you don't know about.

But if there's a choice of those artists who stood out to me in my DC Playlist in the past year, then it's something that taps into me being a fan of the one event I look forward to most in the sports world, and brings that idea into the world of music. And this week, that artist (or artists) got to visit a place familiar to me and those who watch TV's most exciting reality programming, which gave me reason to introduce you, the visitors of this blog, to perhaps the biggest global pop you've never heard of: Now United.