G.R.L. is an American-British-Canadian girl group formed by Robin Antin. The group consists of Simone Battle, Lauren Bennett, Emmalyn Estrada, Natasha Slayton and Paula van Oppen. The group is currently managed by Larry Rudolph.
Music career
2011–12: Formation and line-up changes
In March 2011, Antin began holding auditions to find new girls to replace the departed members of The Pussycat Dolls. The new line-up made their debut on February 5, 2012, during the Super Bowl, as part of GoDaddy’s annual TV commercials, appearing with Danica Patrick. “The look of the commercial is not necessarily the new look of the group this time around,” said Robin Antin, adding, “It’s breathtakingly beautiful. It’s a fun, real-campy kind of sexy. It’s all of that, but again, what we’re doing for this next life of the Pussycat Dolls, the girls are all young. It’s a fresh, young energy.”An official picture taken from the ad showed five members: Lauren Bennett from Paradiso Girls, Paula van Oppen (from So You Think You Can Dance and the PCD burlesque show), former Laker Girl Vanessa Curry, Chrystina Sayers from Girlicious, and Dallas Cowboys cheerleader Erica Kiehl Jenkins.
On 13 April 2012, it was announced that Chrystina Sayers was no longer a part of the new line-up. In July 2012, the line-up was announced consisting of Bennett and Van Oppen, with new members Natalie Mejia (from Girlicious), Amanda Branche, and Natasha Slayton, thus confirming Jenkins’ withdrawal from the group. In August 2012, publicity photos showed the ‘new’ line-up including Simone Battle replacing Branche. In November 2012, it was revealed, through the hiring of Emmalyn Estrada, that Mejia was no longer part of the group. Mejia announced that she was expecting her first child with her husband, and due to her situation she made a choice to not continue with the group.
2013–present: Breakthrough and debut album
On February 2013, Antin officially announced that the girls will be making their debut as a brand-new group with a different name instead of replacing the departed members of the Pussycat Dolls.
On June 16, the group released their debut single, “Vacation”, which was included on the soundtrack for the animated movie The Smurfs 2. It was the first material to be released under their new name “G.R.L.”. On September 10, the single entered the South Korea Chart at number 97. The group held their first live performances on September 28 at Westfield Old Orchard Claire’s in Skokie, Illinois and performed three songs from the album: “Vacation”, “Girls Are Always Right”, and “Show Me What You Got”. They confirmed in an interview that they are working with Dr. Luke, Max Martin, Cirkut, Darkchild, and Lukas Hilbert for the new album which is set to release in 2014.
On January 28, 2014, the group announced on their Facebook page that “Show Me What You Got” would be included on the 49th volume of the Now That’s What I Call Music! compilation album series, released on February 4 in the United States.
G.R.L. are featured on Pitbull’s new single, “Wild Wild Love”, which was released on February 25, 2014.
On March 14, the group performed at the iTunes Festival at SXSW, opening for Zedd and Pitbull. They performed the songs “Girls Are Always Right”, “Show Me What You Got”, “Vacation”, “Rewind”, and the first single from the upcoming debut album “Ugly Heart”, and later returned to join Pitbull for “Wild Wild Love”.
Following the release of “Ugly Heart” on June 3, 2014, they released their debut EP G.R.L. on July 29th, 2014. It included “Ugly Heart”, “Show Me What You Got”, and new songs, “Rewind”, “Don’t Talk About Love”, and “Girls Are Always Right”.
