The Wanted to perform on The Voice

British boy band The Wanted are pictured at Marquee Nightclub at The Star today. Source: News Limited

UNLIKE most of their pop peers these days, Brit It boy band The Wanted were not discovered on a television talent quest show.

Instead, they were created the old fashioned way - assembled by a record label wanting to match the success of boy bands unearthed on the small screen franchises.

So they get the irony that when in Australia, you perform on The Voice if you want to push your new single to a big audience.

The cheeky lads, who already have millions of hormonally-charged teenage girls professing their devotion until the next boy band comes around, joke their rehearsals for tonight's performance of new single Walks Like Rihanna have already tested the patience of producers. 

''We don't have the skills to dance in unison for more than 10 seconds at a time,'' Tom Parker said today.

''We couldn't even walk in sync when we were practicing for The Voice right now. It could be a car crash.''

But they can do taking the mickey quite successfully. Take the new single and its video.

Walk Like Rihanna isn't an answer to Moves Like Jagger, last year's hit single by The Voice US coaches Maroon 5 and Christina Aguilera.

The Wanted's Jay McGuiness says it is the most ''bubblegum'' song the five-piece have recorded yet the video features them parodying the moves and styling of their boy band predecessors.

''The song really is just an iconic figure's name and a verb; we weren't trying to revisit (Moves Like Jagger),'' he said.

''And the video became a spoof within a spoof.''

Complete with truly appalling dancing.

But the reality within their boy band reality will be tested when their own behind-the-scenes series The Wanted Life begins airing in June.

''You get to see pretty much everything. If there's a sex tape, it will be on that show,'' Parker said. And he isn't joking.

Other songs which name-check famous singers:
Moves like Jagger - Maroon 5 feat Christina Aguilera
Barbra Streisand - Duck Sauce
Jackie Wilson Said - Van Morrison
Grace Kelly - Mika
Buddy Holly - Weezer
Ray Charles - Chiddy Bang
You're Lionel Richie - Mogwai
Don Henley Must Die - Mojo Nixon
I Feel Better Than James Brown - Was (Not Was)
Do It With Madonna - The Androids
Tim McGraw - Taylor Swift
Bo Diddley - Bo Diddley
Meg White - Ray Lamontagne
Paul McCartney - Scissor Sisters
Eddie Vedder - Local H
Brian Eno - MGMT
Sweet Gene Vincent - Ian Dury
When Smokey Sings - ABC
Pray Like Aretha Franklin - Scritti Politti
Brian Wilson - Barenaked Ladies

View the original article here