Fascination Records

Fascination Records are a UK based record label which is owned by Universal Music Group, and operated as an imprint of Polydor Records. The label was launched in spring 2006, and is managed by former TOTP Magazine editor Peter Loraine. It concentrates on a relatively small number of pop acts and will complement the re-activated Fiction rock imprint.

Here are some examples of established acts owned by Fascination Records:

Obviously The Saturdays!
A five piece girl group, The Saturdays consist of Frankie Sandford and Rochelle Wiseman, formerly of S Club 8, along with Mollie King, Una Healy and Vanessa White. They have supported Girls Aloud on the tour for their Tangled Up album and fellow label mates Jonas Brothers at one of their recent live dates in London. Their first single, "If This Is Love" was released on 28 July 2008 and peaked at no. 8 in the UK singles chart. The follow up single, "Up" was released on 13 October 2008 and peaked at no. 5 in the UK singles chart. Up has become their best selling single, shifting over 300,000 copies.

Sophie Ellis-Bexter
Shooting to fame as the singer of Spiller's "Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)", Sophie went on to score a string of Top 10 singles. Her multi-platinum album Read My Lips peaked straightly to the UK Top and was a success throughout many European Countries and Australia.

Girls Aloud

Having become the first all-girl group ever to score 20 consecutive Top 10 hits with their first set of releases (as part of Polydor), taking the record from Destiny's Child who had 11 to their name, Girls Aloud are one of the most successful girls bands in the UK with all albums being certified platinum and having 4 number one singles. Girls Aloud moved to Fascination for the release of their greatest hits album The Sound of Girls Aloud which went triple platinum and selling over1 million copies the UK.

Cheryl Cole
In the hiatus of Girls Aloud, Cole released a solo album, 3 Words, which charted at number 2 in Ireland and at number 1 in the United Kingdom. Also her debut single charted at number one in the UK and also in Ireland. The single "3 Words" has been released under the Fascination label in the UK and under the Polydor label in Ireland.

Fascination handles the UK releases of several acts who are signed to USA label Hollywood Records

Here are some examples of artists from America:

Demi Lovato
The Camp Rock star is releasing her music in the UK with Fascination. Her first UK release was "La La Land" from Don't Forget, it peaked at 36 on the UK Top 40. She released her second album on the 5th October 2009 called Here We Go Again.

Miley Cyrus
The Hannah Montana star released her debut album Breakout in the UK with Fascination in 2008. On the 9th November 2009 she released her new album The Time of Our Lives, with the lead single being "Party in the USA".

Jonas Brothers
Fascination are releasing the UK singles and albums for the three piece American pop rock group. Their debut UK single, "SOS" was released in June 2008 and peaked inside the UK top 20 at no. 14.rs

 Selena Gomez
The multi-talented star's band released their hit single "Naturally" on April 12, 2010 and their album Kiss & Tell the following week , the single debuted and peaked at 7 on the UK Top 40 and the album at no. 12.

Here are some examples of the sound tracks and complications:

St Trinians

The soundtrack to this film (which featured the label's own Girls Aloud singing the theme from the film) was released through Fascination in December 2007. Fascination also released the soundtrack for its 2009 sequel, St. Trinian's 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold, which featured contributions from Fascination artists such as The Saturdays and Girls Aloud's Sarah Harding and five new songs produced by Xenomania from The "Banned" of St. Trinian's - who released their debut and only single, Up & Away for digital download on 30 November 2009.

Mamma Mia

The soundtrack to the film version of the Abba musical was released through Fascination in July 2008.

Skins

The soundtrack to the Channel 4 drama series was released on this label in September 2007.

Britannia High

Fascination in collaboration with Globe (the TV production arm of Universal Music Group) and ITV1 released the soundtrack to this new Fame-style TV series, that went to air in the UK on 26 October 2008.

Re-formed Artists:

Bananarama

Bananarama have signed a deal for a new album titled Viva. Viva is the tenth studio album recorded by the British vocal duo Bananarama. It was released by Fascination Records on 14 September 2009 in the UK.

Former Artists:

Tokio Hotel

The German punk pop band released their debut UK single "Ready, Set, Go!" under the label on 27 August 2007 but could only reach no. 77, and were dropped from their label in April 2008.

Girls Cant Catch

Girls Can't Catch are the newest artists to join Fascination Records. They have released a song, "Keep Your Head Up", on August 3, 2009, and peaked at no. 26 on the UK Singles Chart, their second single "Echo" peaked in the top 20. It was reported on 12 July 2010 that the band had been dropped by their record label

Rumoured Artists:

It is rumored Rachel Stevens is set to relaunch on the Fascination label.

Television Tie-ins:

Connie Fisher
The winner of the BBC1 show How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? released her debut album Favourite Things on Fascination on October 9, 2006. Her debut album peaked no. 14 on the UK Albums Charts

Lee Mead

As with Connie, Lee, the winner of BBC1's Any Dream Will Do has been signed to this label. His debut single of the same name entered on downloads at no. 18 before peaking at no. 2 the following week behind "Umbrella" by Rhianna feat. Jay Z.

Facts About Fascination Records:

1. Fascination Records is Polydor Records' boutique pop division, which basically means it's on the same floor as Polydor but has its own logo (and some other more complicated things but that's the long and short of it).
2. Fascination was invented four years ago (it is 2009 at the time of writing) by Peter Loraine, who'd overseen Girls Aloud's career from its very beginning and at Fascination helped steer their career to a record-breaking run of 20 consecutive Top 10 hits. In his previous role as Polydor's Marketing Director Loraine helped drive the successful careers of many artists including S Club and Boyzone, having joined the label several years earlier following his editorship of BBC Worldwide's phenomenally successful Top Of The Pops magazine. He knows pop inside and out, from its top to its wonderfully pert bottom.
3. By the fall of 2009 Fascination had clocked up sixteen top 10 singles and twelve top 10 albums, having opened for business in 2006 with only two acts in the shape of Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Girls Aloud. Both those acts are still a huge part of Fascination and jolly good they are too.
4. Perhaps rather more by accident than design, Fascination has also become the UK's unofficial home of the girlband with Girls Aloud, The Saturdays, Girls Can't Catch and even Bananarama on its roster. This, ladies and gentlemen, is surely what all those women threw themselves under horses for.
5. Fascination are in charge of the terribly important business of looking after the work of LITERALLY THE GREATEST POP BAND OF ALL TIME. The label oversees all Abba's UK music comings and goings, from ‘Mamma Mia!' and 2006's ‘Number Ones' album through to the more recent tunes from The Benny Andersson Band. Unfortunately Fascination is not in charge of bullying the band into making a comeback. It's never going to happen, is it? Very sad. Very sad indeed. But what wonderful songs they gave us in their time together. *Dissolve to late-1970s footage of Abba strutting around on stage, fans a-wailing etc*