Nathan Sykes

Nathan James Sykes (born 18 April 1993) is an English singer, best known as a member of the boy band The Wanted.

Sykes was born on 18 April 1993 in Gloucester to Harry and Karen Sykes, who is a music teacher.

He has a younger sister, Jessica Sykes, who is also a singer.

He started singing and performing at the age of six and attended Sylvia Young Theatre School from the age of 11.

After completing his GCSEs and graduating from Sylvia Young, he returned to Gloucester to attend sixth form at the selective Ribston Hall High School; however he did not complete his A-levels due to band commitments.

In 2002 and 2003, Sykes won various competitions, including Britney Spears Karaoke on The Saturday Show and one of the categories at the Cheltenham Competitive Festival of Dramatic Art.

In 2004, he appeared on ITV's Ministry of Mayhem, and won the Door Youth Project's "Undiscovered Youth Talent Contest" where he performed "Mack the Knife" in Stroud, and he attempted to represent United Kingdom in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2004 that was held in Lillehammer.

In the finals, he finished in third place with the song, "Born to Dance", behind Cory Spedding and runner-up Andrew Merry.

In 2008, he performed for the music competition "Live and Unsigned".

In 2009, at the age of 16, Sykes auditioned for the boy band The Wanted.

The auditions were held by Jayne Collins.

Sykes was chosen to be one of those five members for a group.

He joined bandmates Max George, Siva Kaneswaran, Tom Parker and Jay McGuiness.

The band achieved 10 UK top 10 singles as well as 3 UK top 10 albums.

The group has sold more than 12 million records worldwide.

In 2013, Sykes appeared with his bandmates in the E! channel reality television series The Wanted Life.

After being on voice rest for almost a month, Sykes went in for surgery to remove a nodule in his throat on 18 April 2013.

During episodes of The Wanted Life, he talked about his throat hurting and burning.

The day manager had him see a specialist, who concluded he had a nodule on his throat and suggested that it be removed.

The band announced that they would continue their promotional commitments without Sykes for the time being in order to allow him to recover from the surgery.

Sykes made his return in June 2013 when the Wanted opened the Capital FM Summertime Ball, during a performance of "I Found You".

Following his return to the band, Sykes confirmed that he would be joining the rest of his bandmates for their upcoming summer gigs and events, while also stating that he still has some recovering to do.

Speaking with Heart Radio for an interview, Sykes told the audience: "I'm not quite fully recovered yet but it's quite a long process. I'm at the stage where I can sing and get back with the lads, so I'm very excited to be back and I'm working very hard for a change."

As part of the recovery process, it has been reported that Sykes still has to undergo speech and vocal therapy in order to sing with his full vocal range without causing any more damage to it.

After the band's hiatus in 2014, Sykes embarked on a solo career.

After enjoying much mainstream international success, in 2014, the band decided to take a break and pursue their personal endeavours after a tour of the United Kingdom and the United States.

At the same time, Sykes and American singer Ariana Grande released their collaborative single, "Almost Is Never Enough".

In 2014, Sykes signed a record deal with Global Entertainment (a part of the Global Group, along with Capital's owner Global Radio).

In June 2014, he joined singer Jessie J onstage for Capital's Summertime Ball to perform "Calling All Hearts".

Sykes reunited with his bandmates on 20 September 2021, seven years since their hiatus in support of bandmate Tom Parker for his charity concert 'Tom Parker: Inside My Head' in aid of raising money for Stand Up To Cancer and The National Brain Appeal at the Royal Albert Hall.

The Wanted's first record since 2014; Rule The World will be released 13 September 2021 to accompany their greatest hits record 'Most Wanted - The Greatest Hits' out 12 November 2021.

On 21 June 2014, Sykes appeared solo as a special guest performer at the Capital FM Summertime Ball alongside Jessie J to perform "Calling All Hearts" with DJ Cassidy.

This marked his first official solo performance since the band's hiatus and his fifth consecutive year as part of the Summertime Ball lineup.

He is currently working on music for his debut solo album.

His debut single, "Kiss Me Quick" was released in July 2015.

It reached number-one on the US Dance Club Songs chart.

Sykes plans to release his debut single in spring 2015, with his debut album being released towards the end of the year.

On 28 January 2015 MTV revealed that Sykes had played them previews of his upcoming material co-written with producers Harmony and LDN Noise including "Money", "Famous" and "Kiss Me Quick".

In March 2015, Sykes debuted his first solo music video for "More Than You'll Ever Know" on Vevo.

Sykes went on his first solo tour "Intimate" on 8 April 2015, which included six sold-out shows in the United Kingdom.