Former choirboy Seán Hayden is hoping to following the footsteps of Westlife and Boyzone
Seán Hayden
A Dublin choirboy has landed a dream spot as one of seven members of a brand new boy band formed by music mogul Simon Cowell.
Seán Hayden, 19, started off singing in The Palestrina choir in the city centre, and from these hallowed beginnings has found his way onto Cowell’s new Netflix series, The Next Act.
The series follows the X-Factor recipe, with Seán now part of new seven-piece boyband December 10. The name is a nod to the date that the show about their formation was launched on the streaming service.
“I grew up in Dublin, Ireland, and I started singing kind of around the house. I was big into some pop acts, like Justin Bieber,” said Sean. “And then I kept singing, and my mom and dad like, we’ve got to do something with this fella, because he just doesn’t shut up! So they sent me to a choir in the city centre in Dublin and that’s kind of where I started.”
Ireland has a history of producing some of the world’s best boy bands, such as Westlife and Boyzone. Seán is following in the footsteps of plenty of other competition show success stories including One Direction and JLS by embarking on an auditions and bootcamp journey to become part of a brand new boy band through the new series.
Seán Hayden
Seán grew up in Glasnevin and his love of singing and performing was encouraged by his proud family. His family have been a huge part of his journey, and his mum, Christine, was the one who found out about the show and signed him up. Seán auditioned “to make mum proud.”
“My mum heard about the auditions and she was like Simon Cowell is holding auditions, and I’ve signed you up! And I was curious about it all, really. Especially as I hadn’t really heard about any new boy bands coming out Ireland or the UK for a long time.”
December 10 were formed on Simon Cowell’s new Netflix series, The Next Act
The singer was surprised to make it into the band, but said that advice from Cowell has stood to him as he embarks on his pop career with the rest of the band members – Cruz (19), Danny (17), Hendrick (19), John (17), Josh (17), and Nicolas (16).
“I was surprised. On the last day, I was definitely cacking it. I was like, Oh, I don’t know if I’m gonna make it,” said Sean. “Simon is lovely. Simon has given us lots of advice. I think one piece of advice he has taught us that has stuck with me is when you walk into a room, just always shake everyone’s hand, and make eye contact – eye contact is very important. I think he has aspirations for us to be massive, and so you kind of just have to trust him that way, as he’s obviously worked with a lot of bands globally, so he can visualise it, even if we can’t yet.”
The band has a bright future, and have signed to EMI/Universal. Seán hopes that the band gets to grow closer as they work together on this opportunity: “I hope that the band has loads of fun and we all become best mates, and we all are best men at each other’s weddings.”
The Next Act is now streaming on Netflix.
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