Alliage was a French

boy band A boy band is a vocal group consisting of young male singers, usually in their Teenage, teenage years or in their twenties at the time of formation. Generally, boy bands perform love songs marketed towards girls and young women. Many boy bands ...

active from 1996 to 2000.

History

Alliage was assembled during the

1990s File:1990s decade montage.png, From top left, clockwise: The Hubble Space Telescope orbits the Earth after it was launched in 1990; American jets fly over burning oil fields in the 1991 Gulf War; the Oslo Accords on 13 September 1993; the World ...

craze. The musical group was met with the most commercial success in France alongside fellow boy acts like Worlds Apart,

2Be3 2Be3 was a French boy band that was active from 1996 to 2001. History 2Be3 was formed in 1996 and comprised three childhood friends from Longjumeau (a suburb of Paris): Filip Nikolic, Adel Kachermi and Frank Delay. Inspired by English bands lik ...

and G-Squad. The band included four young men; Steven Gunnell, Roman Lata Ares, Brian Torres and

lead singer The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of the ...

Quentin Elias Quentin Elias (10 May 1974 – 25 February 2014) was a French singer, actor and model. Of Algerian heritage, he was the original lead singer of the French boy band Alliage with Steven Gunnell, Roman Lata Ares and Brian Torres from 1996 to 2000. ...

. Alliage, whose name translates as "mixture," was marketed as a

multicultural Multiculturalism is the coexistence of multiple cultures. The word is used in sociology, in political philosophy, and colloquially. In sociology and everyday usage, it is usually a synonym for ''ethnic'' or cultural pluralism in which various e ...

fusion of several different ethnic origins:

Corsica Corsica ( , , ; ; ) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the Regions of France, 18 regions of France. It is the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of the Metro ...

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

, American, and

Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

, respectively. Some of their songs were " alliages" of several languages such as "Baila" and "Lucy". The group's breakthrough hit was their first single "Baila" ("''Dance, I love you, your memory still follows me''") which sold more than 450,000 copies. Their first album titled ''Alliage, l'album'' was released in 1997, selling more than 500,000 copies. At the peak of their success, ''Alliage'' collaborated with Irish boy band

Boyzone Boyzone were an Irish boy band created in 1993 by the talent manager Louis Walsh. Before even recording any material, Boyzone made an appearance on RTÉ's ''The Late Late Show (Ireland), The Late Late Show''. Its most successful line-up was co ...

on " Te garder près de moi" and

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

band

Ace of Base Ace of Base is a Swedish pop group formed in 1987, originally consisting of siblings Jonas, Linn, and Jenny Berggren, with Ulf Ekberg. They achieved worldwide success following the release of their debut album, '' Happy Nation'', in 1992. L ...

on " Cruel Summer".

Break up and later

By the end of the 1990s Alliage's record sales declined as boy bands fell out of favor with the public.

was the first to leave the group and embark on a solo career in 1999. Elias was based in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. He remained active as a recording artist, model and actor in films, television and theater until his sudden death in 2014. Gunnell also become soloist and recorded an album of

Catholic music Catholic music may refer to: *Gregorian chant *Contemporary Catholic liturgical music Contemporary Catholic liturgical music encompasses a comprehensive variety of styles of music for Catholic liturgy that grew both before and after the reforms ...

called ''In terra'', having rediscovered his creed and passion for the

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

. Ares began a career in

photography Photography is the visual arts, art, application, and practice of creating images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is empl ...

and became the editor of the Spanish edition of '' V Magazine''. Torres became a

male model A model is a person with a role either to display commercial products (notably fashion clothing in fashion shows) or to serve as an artist's model. Modelling ("modeling" in American English) entails using one's body to represent someone e ...

and actor.

Discography

Albums

Singles

External links

{{Use dmy dates, date=May 2020 French boy bands French pop music groups Musical groups established in 1996 Musical groups disestablished in 2000