All Angels

Dubbed “the classical Spice Girls” in the pages of Britain’s Guardian Unlimited, teen vocal quartet All Angels emerged in 2006 with the fastest-selling classical debut in U.K. chart history. All Angels were the brainchild of producer/manager Steve Abbott, who previously scored with classical crossover acts the Choirboys and Nicola Benedetti. After an extensive nationwide search, Abbott selected teens Melanie Nakhla (an aspiring pilot), Charlotte Ritchie (an aspiring actress with a bit role in the feature film Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire to her credit), Laura Wright (at the time the reigning BBC Radio 2 Young Chorister of the Year), and Daisy Chute (who at 15 recorded her own solo jazz LP). Abbott next negotiated a deal with Universal, which reportedly spent in excess of £1 million promoting All Angels’ self-titled debut LP. A classical/pop hybrid spanning from Schubert’s “Ave Maria” to Robbie Williams’ “Angels,” the album sold 33,000 copies in its first week of release, entering the British pop charts at number nine and eclipsing sales benchmarks established by the likes of Luciano Pavarotti and Charlotte Church. Into Paradise (2007) covered Mozart and Coldplay, while the sources for Fly Away (2010) were mostly American (Norah Jones, Elvis Presley). ~ Jason Ankeny