Sean Kieran Conlon (born 20 May 1981) is an English singer and songwriter. He is best known as a member of

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 ...

Five.

Early life

Conlon was born in

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a Metropolitan counties of England, metropolitan and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and east, South Yorkshire and De ...

, of Irish and

Trinidadian Trinidadians and Tobagonians, colloquially known as Trinis or Trinbagonians, are the people who are identified with the country of Trinidad and Tobago. The population of Trinidad is notably diverse, with approximately 35% Indo-Trinidadian, 34% ...

descent and has a brother and two sisters. He grew up in

Horsforth Horsforth is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the City of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, five miles north-west of Leeds city centre. Historically a village within the West Riding of Yorkshire, it had a population of 18,895 ...

and attended St Mary's RC Primary School and St. Mary's Catholic High School, Menston. As a child, his interests lay in becoming a record producer of

soul music Soul music is a popular music genre that originated in African-American culture, African-American African-American neighborhood, communities throughout the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Catchy rhythms, stressed by handclaps ...

or playing rugby. He had his first

recording A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, re ...

session aged eleven and, at the age of thirteen, performed for Harvey Goldsmith, Richard Skinner and

Phil Collins Philip David Charles Collins (born 30 January 1951) is an English musician, songwriter, record producer and actor. He was the drummer and later became the lead singer of the rock band Genesis (band), Genesis and had a successful solo career, ac ...

after winning Yamaha's Young Composer Competition.

Career

In 1997, Conlon auditioned for Five, a new boy band-style group with "attitude and edge". He was eventually selected to be part of the band along with Abz Love, Ritchie Neville, Scott Robinson and Jason "J" Brown. Five subsequently were signed by

Simon Cowell Simon Phillip Cowell (; born 7 October 1959) is an English television personality and businessman. He has judged on the British television talent competition shows ''Pop Idol'' (2001–2003), ''The X Factor (British TV series), The X Factor UK ...

and BMG/

RCA RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded in 1919 as the Radio Corporation of America. It was initially a patent pool, patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Westinghou ...

for a six-album deal. Five went on to enjoy massive success worldwide, selling over 20 million records in their four years. During the release of the third album, '' Kingsize'', Conlon had a mental breakdown from stress and depression; the music video for the single " Let's Dance" featured a cardboard cutout of him. He later admitted that having originally been "very confident and very outgoing" when the band started, he "became the insecure one" and "let the external environment destroy im. On 27 September 2001, the group announced that they would be splitting. Afterwards, Conlon took a long hiatus from his artistic career, turning down the chance to be part of Five's attempted reunion in 2006, which was aborted after eight months. In March 2012, Conlon auditioned for the first series of ''

The Voice UK ''The Voice UK'' is a British singing reality competition television series. Created by John de Mol and Roel van Velzen, it premiered on BBC One on 24 March 2012. Based on the original Dutch singing competition '' The Voice of Holland'', and ...

'', but he did not make it through to the next round as no coach chose him. In January 2013, Five returned to star the

ITV2 ITV2 is a Television in the United Kingdom, British free-to-air television channel owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc. It was launched on 7 December 1998. For a number of years, it had the largest audience share after the fiv ...

's reality show '' The Big Reunion''. Brown didn't want to rejoin the group and Five announced that they were considering a new fifth member for the comeback, but withdrew to continue with the original four-member lineup. Love later quit the band as well, leaving Conlon, Neville and Robinson as a trio. In February 2025, Brown and Love both rejoined Five, marking the return of the original lineup for the first time in 24 years.

Personal life

In Five's earlier days, Conlon was briefly engaged to dancer Suzanne Mole, who toured with the group. In 2013, Conlon stated that he was married to a woman who prefers to remain anonymous. On 15 January 2014, it was announced that they were expecting their first child "any time soon". The following week, they welcomed their first child, a daughter. In an interview with the Daily Mail in March 2025, Conlon stated that he and his wife had separated and that he is now a single father of two. Conlon’s father Dennis passed away on 28 April 2023.

Songwriting credits

References

External links

Biography on Sean Conlon
— retrieved 10 January 2006 {{DEFAULTSORT:Conlon, Sean 1981 births Living people English people of Irish descent English people of Trinidad and Tobago descent 21st-century Black British male singers 21st-century British male singers 20th-century Black British male singers 20th-century British male singers Five (band) members Musicians from Leeds People educated at St. Mary's Catholic High School, Menston The Voice UK contestants People from Horsforth