1992–1995: Formation, Always & Forever and Louise's departure Eternal were formed in 1992 by music manager Oliver Smallman of
First Avenue Management, after which
Eddie Gordon showed him how the success of
En Vogue was built in the United Kingdom. Eternal were quickly signed to
EMI Records and released their debut single, "
Stay", in September 1993. Easther and Vernie Bennett were scouted in a nightclub in London and eventually found Louise Nurding. The trio began working together and recording until Nurding introduced her longtime friend Kéllé Bryan to the management and joined the group. They were named Best Group at the
Smash Hits Poll Winners Party and were nominated for four
Brit Awards. Nurding decided to leave the group before the recording of Eternal's second album, and went on to pursue a
successful solo career. Easther & Vernie were thought to have recruited a new member, TJ Arlette, but this now seems firmly disputed by Vernie in this instagram comment asking 'who is this Tj'. The sisters carried on as a duo. "What'Cha Gonna Do" was released from their fourth album
Eternal and hit number 16. With lack of promotion, the album charted at number 87. The next single "I Cry Real Tears" was expected to be released in April 2000, with a new version of the song; however, the single was scrapped due to poor sales of the album and Eternal were released from their recording deal with
EMI. Internationally, the track "Free to Live" was released and translated to "Libre para vivir", which had moderate success in some European countries. The last televised performance by Eternal was on
Songs of Praise in 2000 where the Bennett sisters performed the track "He Is".
2013–2014: The Big Reunion In 2006, it was announced that Eternal would be reforming for a live reunion tour alongside other acts including
Boyz II Men. Although only Kéllé Bryan and Easther Bennett would be part of the project (Vernie Bennett was pregnant at the time and Nurding — now known as
Louise Redknapp following her marriage to
Jamie Redknapp — was busy with her solo career). In an interview around the time, Bryan claimed that the group had been offered numerous record deals over the past few years since the group had split up. Due to unforeseen circumstances, the tour was cancelled. In 2011, Vernie joined online social networking site Twitter. This news gave hope to many fans that eventually Eternal would be making a comeback at some point in the future. Eternal officially confirmed in late 2013 that they would be reforming for the
ITV2 documentary
The Big Reunion, although Louise Redknapp would not be rejoining the group. Redknapp confirmed in an interview with
The Times that Eternal was reforming without her. Following the announcement of the group's reformation, their 1997
Greatest Hits album climbed to number 1 on the
iTunes hip-hop chart in January 2014. Following the group's episode airing, their
Greatest Hits album entered at number 27 on the official iTunes chart. The group reformed to perform a concert at the
Hammersmith Apollo in March 2014, where they performed alongside
BeBe Winans for their hit single "
I Wanna Be the Only One".
2023–2024: Second reunion; new lineup On 23 September 2023, the
Daily Mirror reported that the group had planned to reunite for a tour in 2024. This would have been the first time that the group's original line-up had played together since Redknapp left the group to begin her solo career. However, Bryan and Redknapp pulled out of the reunion tour, reportedly due to the Bennett sisters' refusal to perform at LGBTQ Pride events and their negative posts about trans people on social media. In March 2024, it was announced that singer Christel Lakhdar would be joining the Bennett sisters as the new member of Eternal and carrying on with the reunion plans. On 6 July, the new lineup of Eternal made their official return at the SuperBoxx festival, marking the group's first performance in over a decade. On their official Instagram page, the group announced various upcoming gigs for 2025, with a one-off live concert taking place in Scala, London on 30 April. ==Solo careers==