December 10 have spoken to NME about their rise to fame after being formed by Simon Cowell, realising that Tom Grennan was a fan, and how they’re only just getting started.
The seven-piece boyband caught up with us backstage at the 2026 Universal Pre-BRITs showcase, where they were celebrated as one of three UK artists who are on the brink of an exciting next chapter.
Held at the Aviva Studios in Manchester on Friday (February 27), they appeared alongside R&B trio FLO, and acclaimed singer-songwriter Holly Humberstone, performing to a crowd of music executives and industry leaders. While on stage, December 10 broke out a performance of their debut single ‘Run My Way’, and previewed a brand-new song called ‘Angel’.
Backstage, the group – formed of Cruz Lee-Ojo, Danny Bretherton, Hendrik Christoffersen, John Fadare, Josh Olliver, Nicolas Alves, and Seán Hayden – caught up with NME to share what the moment meant to them.
“We’re buzzing, it feels amazing. We just got off a tour and so we’re still at that high, and we’re just so excited to go out and perform again,” Hayden said, while Lee-Ojo added: “It is insane to get this opportunity to be here tonight, especially with another two great artists alongside us. We all feel really proud and blessed to be here.”
Fresh from a sold-out run of debut performances across the UK, having been formed by Simon Cowell on the Netflix series The Next Act, the group said that they were slowly letting their new reality sink in, but still in disbelief at being chosen for the Universal Showcase.
“We’re getting close to getting used to it, but there’s always gonna be a bit of madness along the way,” said Olliver. “It’s a crazy lifestyle, but doing our most recent tour definitely helped. It’s still going to take a while, though, for us to fully get used to it!”
Check out the full interview with December 10 below, where the group tell us more about how their individual differences are their biggest strength, what they find most admirable about K-pop acts, and why they want to help pioneer a new wave of UK boybands that represent their generation
NME: Hi December 10. How does it feel to be here tonight right after your first-ever tour dates? It seems to have come together very smoothly to say that you haven’t known each other that long…
Fadare: “We’re noticing that everything just works pretty naturally. Whenever we’re in the recording studio or shooting a video, things just seem to fall into place. That’s how our personalities work together. From the beginning, it has always felt like a natural process.”
Christoffersen: “People say we haven’t known each other for ages, but we do spend so much time together – I’m talking like 15, 16 hours a day together! Sometimes it’s like the only time we don’t see each other is when we sleep! It is a lot, but it’s great.”
Was it easy to find a dynamic that worked? You’ve spoken in the past about having pretty varied individual tastes when it comes to music.
Hayden: “Like John said, it has all felt, strangely, very authentic. When we go into the studio, yes, there are seven different vocals that get recorded and it sounds like we could be making seven different songs… but then you comp them and it comes together in a unique way that just works. We saw that with ‘Run My Way’, which was one of the first tracks that we did.”
Do you find that you all agree on the same things most of the time, or is it like a sibling dynamic where you might butt heads from time to time?
Alves: “Funnily enough, we are usually on the same page! When we hear a track – especially something we’ve recorded and we can hear our own voices on it – we usually all have the same response of ‘Yes, love it’ or not.”
Hayden: “We’re all feel comfortable to be open and honest about if we don’t like something, and not even just with the music! We might collectively be like ‘No, Cruz, you’ve got to change that jacket’… not that we think Cruz should often change his jacket!”
There aren’t many UK boybands around at the minute. How does it feel to be helping create a new chapter for your generation?
Fadare: “I think it’s motivating. We want to be able to fill any gap that’s been left. There weren’t many boybands, especially in the UK, when we were growing up. There was One Direction, but that was a tiny bit before we were growing up, so we find it exciting to look back at other boybands and hopefully be a part of a resurgence that is happening right now.”
Alves: “Boybands have got a really rich part in music history, so to be sitting here as a band now, we’re really honoured to be part of that legacy. We just want to make our own path and do it in a December 10 way.”
And your varied individual tastes help make sure that you’re not just a replica of another group?
Olliver: “Yeah, I hope that people see that we’re here doing something new.”
Alves: “It’s down to our personalities, individualities and different music tastes – it culminates to bring this different factor that hasn’t been done before. Whether it’s musically, stylistically, or in how we shoot our music videos… that’s what helped form December 10.”
Lee-Ojo: “It makes us feel really proud, really, to be in this group. We really want to speak for our generation and put positive energy out there, wherever we go. Really, our aim is just to work hard and put a smile on people’s faces.”
Even with just one song under your belt, have you noticed that your music is already resonating with people?
Hayden: “We did on that tour we just did! The way that people showed up, it just hit us that this is real, and there are actual people who are willing to come out and spend their night watching us perform.”
Olliver: “There were people who were waiting at our bus for hours. They were choosing to stand in the cold just to see us when we left… That was crazy. We’re so grateful for it.”
Christoffersen: “We’ve only been publicly formed as a band for the past three months, so to have this fan base in such a short amount of time… it’s astonishing. The tour really did put that into perspective for us; it was a true eye opener for the fans that we have and how dedicated they are to support us and listen to our songs.”
Do you keep an eye online to see what people are saying, or do you try to take a step back from social media?
Hayden: “I think we all are hooked on our phones. Probably more than we should be. We like to see what people are saying, but it’s also important to manage it.”
Fadare: “At the end of the day, we see it as our main source of engagement with our fans. We can see everything directly and talk to them there, so there are a lot of benefits that come from being on TikTok and on Instagram. It helps us communicate with them outside of going to shows and outside the venues.”
While there aren’t many UK boybands currently, there are lots of K-Pop stars leading the way and kicking things up a notch. Have you taken any inspiration from that?
Christoffersen: “I wouldn’t say inspiration in terms of the choreography, but when it comes to what they’ve achieved, of course that’s inspirational. I think in a lot of K-pop groups, they’re not afraid to try different genres and explore different types of music, and I like to think we have a bit of that as well. We are not restricting ourselves to one sound, or one specific thing that you’re going to hear in every single song. There’s quite a bit of range in what we’ve done so far already.”
And K-Pop groups often have members with distinct personalities and individual strengths, which is something that December 10 also leans into.
Olliver: “Yeah, I think it’s good for fans as well to have that because, ultimately we’re all different people, and people gravitate towards different types of personalities. It helps us for people to go like, ‘I like Nicholas because he’s most similar to me’ or, ‘No, I like Danny because of this and that’.”
Hayden: “It hasn’t been that much of a challenge either because we’ve all been ourselves this whole time. Even while we were getting filmed on the Netflix show, it was always about ‘Just bring what you personally can bring’, and December 10 is the product of that. We all stay true to ourselves.”
After working together behind the scenes for two years, it must have been great to see ‘Run My Way’ finally released into the world.
Alves: “We knew that after the show dropped, people would want to have a piece of music that they could listen to, and we could proudly say, ‘Yes, this is a December 10 song’. ‘Run My Way’ was the track that we felt truly represents us as a band in the best way possible, so to put it out there and see the reaction, it was really reassuring for us.”
And among those fans is Tom Grennan!
Fadare: “Yeah! It was crazy to see someone with such an amazing career say that they believe in us. It was really nice, and he’s so inspirational as well because we see him as a great example of what qualities we should have.”
Bretherton: “We actually all had dinner together. Our manager is mates with him, so we ended up having a bolognaise and then having a race with him! Tom Grennan was there talking to us about running, and I went, ‘I think I’m definitely faster than you’, so we had a race. Smoked him.”
It must have felt like a pinch-me moment to be hearing words of praise from him, and then going to play some sold-out shows…
Fadare: “There’s nothing like it, and nothing can prepare you for actually doing live shows. We only tried in-ears [monitors] like a week before the shows, so it’s safe to say that we learned a lot from the tour.”
Christoffersen: “It was very rewarding, especially because it’s been like two years since we were auditioning and first getting into the band, so then to finally get in front of a crowd, it was so powerful.”
Lee-Ojo: “Even more when we were in our own cities! That just felt like full circle moments. When we went to London, I was just so happy that day. On stage I was just shouting ‘This is the London show. Come on!’. It was so beautiful because it’s what we wanted to achieve all our lives. I still can’t put it into words, it’s just so much of a blessing.”
You’ve said that you’ve got some new singles on the way. What can fans expect?
Alves: “I would say just expect the unexpected. Like we said, we’re wanting to go down different routes and try to cross different genres, so no song will be that similar to the previous one! And for live shows, people don’t have to wait too long to see us again.”
December 10 are set to drop a new single called ‘Angel’ this Friday (March 6).
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