Kym's voice is by far the strongest and she stands out as the most talented member of this new band, which explains why she takes most of the lead lines. During the summer of 2002, the group toured the UK radio roadshows circuit, where they were constantly booed and abused by members of the public, with a performance in Brighton being cut short due to the animosity concerned – evidence of the degree of public animosity that had built up. A representative for Hear'Say denied the reports, stating: "Everybody who is involved with Hear'Say will be sitting down this week to discuss the future. The programme documented Hear'Say recording and promoting their first single with the series ending on the night the single charted in the UK Singles Chart. Pure and Simple" is the seventh biggest-selling debut single of the 21st century in the UK, [9] the second biggest seller by a mixed-gender group [14] and the UK's 96th best-selling song of all time.

In March 2001, Hear'Say released their first single, " Pure and Simple", a cover of a little-known album track by Girl Thing. Pure and Simple" is a song by British pop group Hear'Say, the winners of the UK version of Popstars. I dont know how people could say hear'say have no talent, after all wasn't it their voices that got them here in the first place? This was co-written by Alison Clarkson, who previously had solo success with songs such as " Doin' The Do" under the name of Betty Boo. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average.

Their record was beaten a year later by Will Young, the first UK Pop Idol, with his debut single "Anything Is Possible/Evergreen," which sold over 1 million in its first week. They were created through the ITV reality TV show Popstars in February 2001, the first UK series of the international Popstars franchise. The song went straight to number one on the UK Singles Chart in March 2001, selling just under 550,000 copies. Pure and Simple" was covered by America's Got Talent winner Bianca Ryan for her self-titled debut album in 2006.

Hear'Say achieved instant fame, breaking chart records with their debut single " Pure and Simple" and the album Popstars. Controversy erupted when it was found out that Shentall had previously been a member of short-lived pop group Boom! Following the disappointing sales of the single, it was thought that they would be dropped by the label, though no official word came from Polydor. Pure and Simple" was released on 12 March 2001 in the United Kingdom and received a continental European release in April 2001.The song also topped the New Zealand Singles Chart for five weeks and reached number three in Ireland. This was the debut single for the band put together in the first ITV Popstars series on British TV, which they won after over 2,000 hopefuls had been auditioned. The chorus has a fantastic hookline, and the melody is exactly as it says, pure and simple, which is why this song works. It was a cover of the original version recorded three years earlier by English-Dutch girl group Girl Thing, who were dropped from BMG before the song was given to Hear'Say. Johnny Shentall, husband of Steps singer Lisa Scott-Lee, won the auditions, joining the group on 5 February 2002.

You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. Lovin' Is Easy", the group's only single to be released with Shentall, failed to make a commercial impact. By the time Hear'Say split up in 2002, the song had been certified double platinum for sales of over 1.

Pure and Simple" was the fastest-selling debut single at the time, as well as the fastest-selling non- charity single – a record beaten a year later by Pop Idol winner Will Young.

The five chosen singers – Danny Foster, Myleene Klass, Kym Marsh, Suzanne Shaw, and Noel Sullivan – formed Hear'Say.

Despite the second album's lack of success, it did achieve Gold status by the BPI but over a decade after its release [10] and plans were made for an arena tour but these were later cancelled. In March 2002, Hear'Say cancelled their planned arena tour to allow Shentall time to "settle in" to the group. The group, who were signed to Polydor Records, originally consisted of Danny Foster, Myleene Klass, Kym Marsh, Suzanne Shaw, and Noel Sullivan.