Booty Luv

Booty Luv
File:Black Widow Promo Shot 001.jpeg Cherise & Nadia on the set of the Black Widow music video (2012)
Background information
Also known as	Cherise & Nadia
Origin	London, England
Genres	R&B dance house electronica
Years active	2006 – present
Labels	Hed Kandi Ministry of Sound Pierce Entertainment
Associated acts	Big Brovaz
Website	bootyluvofficial.com
Members	Cherise Roberts Nadia Shepherd

Booty Luv (originally called Booty Luv and Cherise & Nadia), are a British dance group formed in June 2006 via the Hed Kandi label. The group comprises two R&B vocalists, Cherise Roberts and Nadia Shepherd, both of whom were in the original line-up of the successful hip hop and R&B group Big Brovaz. To date, they have released one BPI Silver-certified studio solo album as a twosome, and have had five top twenty hits in the UK. They have also achieved international success, gaining hits in Ireland, Poland, the Netherlands and Germany.

The duo decided to take a hiatus in 2009 to concentrate on solo projects after the release of their single "Say It", which was meant to be taken as the lead single from their second studio album. In late 2011 following a two-year break the duo announced they had changed their name to "Cherise & Nadia" and went on a mini-tour in Australia to promote material from their debut album. In October 2011 the duo released their first promotional single "This Night". In November 2012 the duo changed their name back to Booty Luv and announced that they would be releasing their comeback single "Black Widow" on 3 February 2013.

History

2002–05: Big Brovaz and formation

Roberts and Shepherd both began their career in the R&B and hip hop group Big Brovaz, who had considerable success following their launch in 2002. Roberts was an established singer before the group's success, recording a solo album - Look Inside and single "2nd Best". The album was much praised and won a MOBO Award. After scoring top five hits with songs such as "Favourite Things" and "Nu Flow", Big Brovaz received rave reviews from fans and critics for their unique style, and received comparisons with other groups such as Outkast and solo artists such as Eminem, Nelly and Jamelia. After a lengthy hiatus following one member's drug addiction being revealed, Big Brovaz re-instated their career in 2004 with new single "Yours Fatally". Expectations were high following their previous string of top ten hits, although the single disappointingly stalled at number 15 in the UK Singles Chart and third female member Dionne left the band. Subsequently, the band were dropped by their record label. In April 2007, a third album, Re-Entry, was released, although it failed to chart.

Booty Luv was created during early recordings of Re-Entry, when music executives offered Roberts and Shepherd the chance to record and promote a new version of R&B/soul singer Tweet's club hit "Boogie 2nite" with normal version and a DJ remix version. Following the poor sales of early singles from Re-Entry in mid-2006, the girls accepted the offer and began recording their new version of the song, initially only as a promotional track for the record label Hed Kandi. Six months later in December, however, Booty Luv's version of "Boogie 2nite" was decided to be released as an actual single in the UK and mainland Europe following positive reviews from club DJs on the dance scene.

2006–09: Boogie 2nite and Hiatus

In late 2006, the video for "Boogie 2nite" was sent to top music channels and the song was heavily promoted. The original dance remix by Seamus Haji was chosen for the song's download and physical releases, while the video was chosen to feature the remix by the group DB Boulevard. The song became their first number-one single in the UK Dance Chart. Spending 17 weeks inside the UK Top 75, "Boogie 2nite" resulted in Booty Luv extending their contract with Hed Kandi to four follow-up singles and an album.

In May 2007, after taking several months to record their debut album, Booty Luv released the follow-up single "Shine", a cover of the Luther Vandross song. It was well received by radio and became the group's second top ten single, spending an eventual seven weeks inside the UK Top 40. It also hit the top spot on the UK Dance Chart.

Their debut album, Boogie 2nite, was released in September 2007, one week after third single "Don't Mess with My Man" (a cover of a Lucy Pearl song) peaked at number 11 on the UK Singles Chart and became their third number-one dance hit. The album featured five original tracks co-written by Booty Luv, including the fourth single, "Some Kinda Rush" (a number 19 hit in December 2007). Boogie 2nite entered the UK Albums Chart at number 11 and was certified Silver by the BPI in late 2008, denoting 60,000 copies sold. In late 2007, the UK iTunes Store offered the track "Something to Talk About" as its 'Free Single of the Week'. A fifth single from the album, "Dance Dance", was given a limited release across Europe in 2008, and reached the top five on the Netherlands dance chart (peaking at number 27 on the main chart).

Roberts and Shepherd confirmed in an interview with Digital Spy in 2007 that they planned to begin work on their second album in 2008. They also mentioned that they were talking about future plans with Hed Kandi and wanted the album to contain only original songs. In an interview with Digital Spy in July 2009, Shepherd revealed that the band had been working with multiple producers and that the album had "an edgier style". She also commented that "some tracks have a real R&B vibe to them, others are proper dance tracks and some are typical poppier tracks. It's a really exciting mixture of sounds." Roberts stated that they had been working with Fraser T Smith.

The duo released their first single in over two years "Say It", which premiered on Friday 10 April 2009.The first performance of the single was at Sony Ericsson's Dance Nation Festival where the girls performed a set. The musicality of the song differs slightly from the previous material released by the band, having more of an electro feel to it. The single was released on 31 August 2009, and was premiered on the official Hed Kandi website and the video sharing site YouTube. The single was Popjustice's 'Single of the Day' on 10 April 2009. It was added to BBC Radio 1's B-List at the start of August, moving up to the much-coveted A-List during the successful week of release. The single continued the band's run of UK Top 20 hits, debuting at number 16 on Sunday 6 September 2009, the week's fourth highest new entry.

2011–present: Name change and Black Widow

Booty Luv returned from their two-year hiatus when they performed in 2011 at Nottingham Pride and Cardiff's Pulse Street Party. They have been signed to Pierce Entertainment record label and released promo single entitled "This Night", which was officially released for a limited time to coincide with their Australian Tour in May 2012 via iTunes. The duo released their official music video for Black Widow on 12 November 2012, they released the single on 3 February 2013, which made the top 5 in the official Dance & Urban Club Charts. On 14 March the duo presented a segment on The Vault talking about their career as part of Big Brovaz and Booty Luv. During the following summer, the girls headlined the 'Oxford Pride' festival, on Saturday 8 June 2013.

Discography

Main article: Booty Luv discography

Studio albums

• Boogie 2nite (2007)