2009–2010: Formation and debut album The Wanted were formed in 2009 through mass auditions held by Jayne Collins, who also put together
the Saturdays and
Parade. The audition process, which saw more than 1,000 people attend, took over nine months. Just George, Parker and Sykes were involved at the start, and Kaneswaran and McGuiness joined later through the process. The group revealed in their autobiography that after they were informed of the line-up, seven more people were re-auditioned before they were signed to Maximum Artist Management and Geffen Records. The group were credited with co-writing five of the thirteen tracks on the album. On 25 July 2010, they released their debut single, "
All Time Low". The song was co-written by
Steve Mac (who also produced it),
Wayne Hector and
Ed Drewett. It hit number one in the UK and spent 17 weeks in the UK top 40. The second single "
Heart Vacancy", again written with Hector, was released on 17 October 2010. It peaked at number two on the
UK Singles Chart. The group's third single from the album was "
Lose My Mind", which reached number 19 on the UK Singles Chart following a performance on
The X Factor. The group's eponymous debut album was released on 25 October 2010 and peaked at number four in the UK and has since been certified Platinum in the UK. Between 28 March and 15 April 2010, the group embarked on the fifteen-date Behind Bars theatre tour, which saw them play in twelve UK cities. They were supported by
Lawson,
Twenty Twenty and
Starboy Nathan.
2011–2012: Battleground and The Wanted: The EP In January 2011, the group began to work on their second studio album. The album featured writing credits from the band members on ten of the fifteen tracks, and contributions from
Steve Mac,
Wayne Hector,
Ed Drewett,
Diane Warren and
Guy Chambers. The album's lead single, "Gold Forever", was released in aid of
Comic Relief and debuted at number three on the UK Singles Chart. In July 2011, the group released the album's second single, "
Glad You Came", which became their second number-one single. It was number one for two weeks, and stayed in the top ten of the chart for six weeks. The single also reached number one in Ireland and remained there for five weeks. Following their promotional tour of Australia, the group headed to the US for a number of promotional concerts.
2012–2014: Word of Mouth, The Wanted Life and indefinite hiatus The Wanted began working on their third studio album shortly after the release of
Battleground on 4 November 2011. In May 2012, "
Chasing the Sun" was released as the album's lead single, and the third single from the band's
The Wanted: The EP in the United States. Around this time, the band also premiered a brand new track called "Satellite", which was co-written by
Ryan Tedder of
OneRepublic. In August 2012, the band filmed a music video in Los Angeles, reportedly for their brand new single, "
I Found You". However, when the video for "I Found You" was released in October 2012, it was a different one. The band later revealed that they had reshot the video in London, not being satisfied with the first one. The original was later released as the "fan version" on
Vevo. "I Found You" was released on 5 November 2012 as the album's second single. The band confirmed in September 2012 that the album would contain a number of collaborations, including tracks with
Pitbull,
LMFAO,
Chris Brown,
Rita Ora and
Dappy. In November 2012, the band announced that the album had been pushed back from the original release of 3 December 2012 to February 2013 at their request; the reason stated for this delay was to perfect the album, and "tweak out a few insecurities involving certain tracks". It was confirmed that the album would feature a track co-written by fellow label-mate Justin Bieber. In early February 2013, it was announced that the Wanted would star in their own reality series called
The Wanted Life, produced by
Ryan Seacrest. In the United States, it premiered on
E! on 2 June 2013. In April 2013, the band announced the release of the third single from their third album, titled "
Walks Like Rihanna", named after
Barbadian singer
Rihanna. It was released on 23 June 2013 and debuted and peaked at number 4 on the
UK Singles Chart. On 9 September 2013, the band announced that their new album
Word of Mouth would be released on 4 November. It was preceded by the release of "
We Own the Night" and "
Show Me Love (America)". On 25 July 2013 the group was spoken to by police after champagne was thrown out of a hotel window, soaking poet
Todd Swift. A police statement said "Police were called at around 12.20pm on Thursday, July 25, to a report of a man having been verbally threatened and having had a liquid substance thrown over him at a hotel in Marylebone." On 7 October 2013, it was announced that the Wanted would embark on their first world tour, the
Word of Mouth World Tour, in 2014. The tour included shows in the UK, mainland Europe, the US, and Canada. The band originally announced in January 2014 that they were taking a hiatus in order to pursue individual solo projects. In a 2014 interview with
The Sun, George stated that part of the group's reasoning for taking a hiatus was due to the success of
One Direction, saying "One Direction are a phenomenon that no one else can compete with. They've taken over the market. We have our own fans, who we love, but we couldn't stop things from happening". Parker later echoed George's statements in an interview with
Digital Spy, stating "For The Wanted to try and compete against one of the biggest bands in the world ... it's almost impossible. I don't think any band out there can compete with them at the moment".
2021–present: Reunion, Most Wanted: The Greatest Hits and Parker's death Since 2020, the band had been teasing a reunion. On 5 September 2021, it was reported that a reunion would be officially announced on 8 September, with new music and performances announced, including raising money for cancer charities in support of band member Tom Parker, who was diagnosed with an inoperable stage 4
glioblastoma in late 2020. On 13 October 2021, the band released "Rule The World", co-written by
Max George, their first single in seven years. This was closely followed by their greatest hits album,
Most Wanted: The Greatest Hits, on 12 November 2021, which included another new song titled "Colours", co-written by
Nathan Sykes, alongside all the fan favourites and some newly recorded acoustic tracks. Their Christmas single, a cover of
East 17's "
Stay Another Day", was released 5 November 2021 and also features on the deluxe version of
Most Wanted. An acoustic cover of "
Remember" by
Becky Hill and
David Guetta was released as the first promotional single off the album. They kicked off their twelve-date Most Wanted: The Greatest Hits Tour on 3 March 2022 in Glasgow, which saw them travel up and down the UK performing to all their fans before finishing on 17 March 2022, in Liverpool. They were joined by special guest
Hrvy across all twelve dates. The band teamed up with the iPledge charity, where they donated £1 from every single ticket sale in aid of
The Brain Tumour Charity. Parker died on 30 March 2022, as stated by his wife. On 27 April 2022, the Wanted released a new version of the song, titled "Gold Forever (For Tom)" in tribute. All proceeds of the single sales will be donated to The Brain Tumour Charity. ==Members==