The Cheetah Girls (group)

The Cheetah Girls

The Cheetah Girls are an American girl group created by The Walt Disney Company, and made famous by the eponymous Disney Channel original film and its sequel. The group consists of three members: Adrienne Bailon, Sabrina Bryan, and Kiely Williams.

Formation

The trio met while filming the Disney Channel Original Movie, The Cheetah Girls, in 2003. The movie became an instant success for Disney Channel, garnering in, at that time, the most viewers for any of the channel's original movies. The soundtrack to the film, which included four songs recorded by the girls (alongside Raven-Symoné and as their characters from the film), also proved to be a success as it went on to sell over two million copies.

After the success of the movie and its soundtrack, the girls capitalized on their newfound fame. They were offered various other projects to work on, however due to other commitments including a television sitcom and solo singing career of her own, Raven-Symoné decided not to pursue a music career with the other three girls. Without an official record label, the girls released a cover version of the song "I Won't Say (I'm in Love)", which was included on the Disneymania 3 album, and a cover version of the song "If I Never Knew You", which was included on the Disneymania 4 album. Both of these songs found success on Radio Disney, the latter of which also had a music video featured on Disney Channel. The trio then lent their voices to the Chicken Little soundtrack, recording a cover version of Ray Charles' classic "Shake a Tail Feather". This song also went on to become a hit on Radio Disney and its accompanying music video was heavily rotated on Disney Channel. Hype Williams shoots the video at NYC on late September 2005 The girls released their first official full-length studio effort in October, 2005 under Walt Disney Records. Aptly titled Cheetah-licious Christmas, the holiday album included many classic Christmas songs, as well as several original songs, one of which was co-written by all three girls. The album peaked at number 74 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. The lead single, "Cheetah-licious Christmas", was rotated on Radio Disney and a music video for the song was shown on Disney Channel. A second single from the album, "Five More Days 'Til Christmas" was released as a Radio Disney-only single.

Following the release of their holiday album, the trio went on to film a second Cheetah Girls movie for Disney Channel. Again co-starring Raven-Symoné, The Cheetah Girls 2 opened with the channels highest ratings at the time. This movie and its accompanying soundtrack shadowed the success of the previous film and its soundtrack. Following the second film, the trio hit the road to promote the movie's soundtrack. With an itinerary of sold-out shows, the girls announced that they would be recording their official debut studio album after the tour had wrapped up.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2003	The Cheetah Girls	The Cheetah Girls (Adrienne Bailon as Chanel Simmons, Kiely Williams as Aquanette Walker and Sabrina Bryan as Dorinda Thomas)	Filmed in Toronto, Canada and Manhattan, New York, Co-starred Raven-Symoné as Galleria Garibaldi.
2006	The Cheetah Girls 2	The Cheetah Girls (Adrienne Bailon as Chanel Simmons, Kiely Williams as Aquanette Walker and Sabrina Bryan as Dorinda Thomas)	Filmed in Barcelona, Spain, Co-starred Raven-Symoné as Galleria Garibaldi.
2008	The Cheetah Girls 3	The Cheetah Girls (Adrienne Bailon as Chanel Simmons, Kiely Williams as Aquanette Walker and Sabrina Bryan as Dorinda Thomas)	First movie not to co-star Raven-Symoné. To be filmed in Mumbai, India.

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2005	The 2005 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade	Themselves	Performed their song Five More Days 'Til Christmas
	The 2005 ABC Christmas Day Parade	Themselves	Performed their song Cheetah-licous Christmas
2006	The 2006 Teen Choice Awards	Themselves	Presented an award to Fall Out Boy
	Arthur Ashe Kids' Day	Themselves	Performed Cheetah Sisters chorus acappella then The Party's Just Begun
	Good Day L.A.	Themselves	Guests, one episodes, talked via satellite
	Good Morning America	Themselves	Guests, one episodes, performed The Party's Just Begun with Raven-Symoné
	Live With Regis and Kelly	Themselves	Guests, only one episode, performed The Party's Just Begun
	The Cheetah Girls: In Concert	Themselves	Special concert performed at Disney's California Adventure.
	Martha	Themselves	Guests, only one episode, performed The Party's Just Begun
	The View	Themselves	Guests, only one episode, sang their hit single Strut
	The 2006 American Music Awards	Themselves	Presented an award to Nickelback
	The Tonight Show With Jay Leno	Themselves	Guests, only one episode, performed Step Up
	The Today Show	Themselves	Guests, only one episode
2007	Blue Peter	Themselves	Guests, only one episode, performed The Party's Just Begun
	2007 Disney Channel Games	Themselves	Adrienne on the red team, Sabrina on the yellow team, and Kiely on the blue team. Performed So Bring It On, Strut, and Girl Power at the closing ceremonies. Although, only Strut was shown during the televised concert special.
	The Cheetah Girls Chit Chat	Themselves	Small clips shown on the Disney Channel in which they talk about their music, fans and what they get up to backstage.
	Good Day L.A.	Themselves	Guests, one episode.
	Good Morning America	Themselves	Guests, one episodes, performed Fuego
	The Early Show	Themselves	Guests, one episode, performed Fuego and Break Out This Box.
	KTLA Morning Show	Themselves	Guests, one episode.
	Kristi Yamaguchi Friends & Family	Themselves	Performed Fuego, Step Up, Homesick and So Bring It On.
	The Grove Christmas Tree Lighting	Themselves	Performed Break Out This Box and Cheetah-licious Christmas.
	The Suite Life of Zack and Cody	Themselves	Guests, one episode - Doin' Time in Suite 2330.

Discography

For further information see: The Cheetah Girls discography

• 2005:Cheetah-licious Christmas
• 2007:In Concert: The Party's Just Begun Tour
• 2007:TCG

Concert tours

• 2005:Cheetah-licious Christmas Tour
• 2006-2007:The Party's Just Begun Tour
• 2008: TCG tour

TCG

The Cheetah Girls began work on their official debut album in January 2006. However, when filming and recording for The Cheetah Girls 2 came up, the album was put on hold. "We'll be making a real album, not a soundtrack", Adrienne Bailon says. "Some of the music on there will be produced by will.i.am from the Black Eyed Peas", she says. "It's important for people to see us as a real musical group. We have all this great marketing around us, with the movies and other things. But we are a musical group."

In an interview with Billboard about the album, Sabrina Bryan stated that the girls worked on writing for the album on their Party's Just Begun tour and that they hope to gather an audience of older fans while simultaneously staying true to their younger fan base.. Bryan also stated that the girls would work with producers they've worked with in the past as well as exploring new producers, such as Timbaland. It was also stated that the album would be released on Hollywood Records. Group member, Adrienne Bailon also announced that Girls Just Want to Have Fun will be their first single from the album. In an interview with teen magazine Bop, the girls confirmed that they had already recorded tracks for this album, although they declined to say which ones.

They have also performed songs Falling For You, Cheetah-licious ,Girls Just Want to Have Fun, Fuego, Do No Wrong and Fall Apart from this album on their The Party's Just Begun Tour. Videos of all of the above mentioned songs being performed at the concerts are all available on YouTube. However, all of the above mentioned songs have been cut from the album except for Do No Wrong, Fuego'.

As of April 2007, the album was untitled and the only confirmed tracks were Girls Just Want to Have Fun , Cheetah-licious and Falling For You. Also, the release date of the album was confirmed as June 19, 2007, however in late March 2007, the album was pushed back and is now set to be released on September 25, 2007 featuring production from J. R. Rotem of Britney Spears and Rihanna fame.

It was also announced in early spring of 2007, that the release of the Girls' version of Girls Just Want to Have Fun had been cancelled so they could instead release So This Is Love in its place.

The song is a cover from the 1950 Disney version of Cinderella and will appear on the album Disneymania 5. A music video was shot for the single in Los Angeles over two days. It was rumored to be added to the tracklisting of the new album, but this was later found to be false.

Recently in an issue of Hip-Hop Weekly Magazine, where Adrienne was being interviewed, the title of this album was confirmed to be Who We Are. However, the title was changed to TCG in August 2007.

The track "So Bring It On" will act as the album's first single. It was also performed at the closing ceremonies of the 2007 Disney Channel Games, however only the group's performance of Strut was aired on Disney Channel on August 25, 2007. The girls also stated in the DVD to their In Concert: The Party's Just Begun Tour CD/DVD combo that, with this album, the fans will get to know them as "Adrienne, Sabrina, and Kiely" and not as their characters from the films.

Also recently announced, Fuego will be the second single from the album. Kiely said she was interested in directing the video. The song samples Lionel Richie's "All Night Long," and the video will be a "destination video" with a luau theme and will be filmed in an "exotic" location.

Also, on August 23, 2007 the Girls launched their official MySpace page to promote the new album as well as So Bring It On.

Recently the Girls recorded their own version of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas for the holiday compilation album, A Disney Channel Holiday, which was released on October 16, 2007.

Singles

Year	Title	Album	Chart positions
			U.S.	UK	iTunes peak	Radio Disney
2003	"Cinderella"	The Cheetah Girls	—	—	—	1
	"Girl Power"		—	—	—	16
	"Cheetah Sisters"		—	—	—	11
2004	"I Won't Say (I'm in Love)"	DisneyMania 3	—	—	—	30
2005	"Shake a Tail Feather"	Chicken Little	—	—	—	—
	"Cheetah-licious Christmas"	Cheetah-licious Christmas	—	—	—	—
	"Five More Days 'Til Christmas"		—	—	—	—
	"I Won't Say (GRRL Power Remix)**"	DisneyRemixMania	—	—	—	—
2006	"If I Never Knew You"	DisneyMania 4	—	—	—	—
	"The Party's Just Begun"	The Cheetah Girls 2	85	53	15	3
	"Strut"		53	—	4	1
	"Step Up"		103*	—	45	14
	"Amigas Cheetahs"		121*	—	52	5
	"Route 66"	The Cheetah Girls 2 Re-Release Special Edition	—	118	—	22
2007	"So This Is Love"	Disneymania 5	—	—	—	12
	"So Bring It On"	TCG	TBR	TBR	TBR	21
	"Fuego"		TBR	TBR	TBR	13

• (*) means the song charted in bubbling under charts
• (**) means the song was released as a single only to Radio Disney

Merchandise

Main article: The Cheetah Girls merchandise

Awards

• Radio Disney's Song Of The Year Award (2003, Cinderella)
• Radio Disney's best song from a TV-movie (2003, Cinderella)
• National Association for Multi-ethnicity in Communications Awards' Best Music Video Award (2007, Strut)
• Radio Disney's Best Dance Style Award (2007)
• Radio Disney's Best Group Award (2007)
• Radio Disney's Best Song To Wake Up To Award (2007, Step Up)
• Radio Disney's Best Song To Dance To Award (2007, Strut)

Tours

See: The Cheetah Girls tours

Notes

• Group member Adrienne Bailon's favorite song to perform is The Party's Just Begun.
• Kiely Williams and Adrienne Bailon are also members of the group 3LW.
• Sabrina Bryan released a dance-workout DVD and CD called BYou in between the first two Cheetah Girls films.
• The Girls love watching Bride and Prejudice, and are big fans of Aishwarya Rai.
• Oddly, before The Cheetah Girls were formed, all three girls were guest stars on the Disney Channel original series The Jersey. Adrienne and Kiely guest starred with their other group 3LW and Sabrina was a co-star for an episode.
• Adrienne Bailon and Kiely Williams once performed as The Cheetah Girls alone when Sabrina went to a wedding.
• Sabrina Bryan competed on the fifth season of Dancing With The Stars which started September 24, 2007. Adrienne and Kiely could be seen in the audience cheering on Sabrina for several episodes of the show.