User:Aston Merrygold History

Aston Merrygold (born February 13th 1988) is an English singer-songwriter and actor, best known for being the runner-up on series five of The X Factor in 2008, and as a member of pop/R&B boy band JLS.

Personal Life
Aston grew up in Peterborough, England, where he attended Jack Hunt School. He lived with his mother Siobhan and his step-father Orjan. He has one sister and five brothers.

Whilst still at secondary school, he played football on behalf of England in the European Youth Games.

Since X Factor, Aston has been linked to a number of celebrity girls including actress Louisa Lytton, his best friend Alexandra Burke, Sugababe Jade Ewen, Big Brother contestant Noirin Kelly, and model Sophie Houghton. When Cheryl Cole split from husband Ashley in 2010, Aston and his JLS bandmate Marvin Hulmes were given odds of 8/1 to be in a relationship with Cole by the end of 2010. More recently, Merrygold has been linked to The Saturdays singer Frankie Sandford.

He currently shares a flat with his JLS bandmate Marvin Hulmes.

Early Career (2002-2004)
In 2002, Aston's mother Siobhan entered him for Stars In Their Eyes: Kids. He appeared as Michael Jackson, singing "Rockin' Robin". He eventually came second. After this, Merrygold performed in many school productions and even made his way into panto in 2003 and 2004.

Merrygold has claimed this led to his bullying becoming worse at school: "'Bullies saw me singing on Stars and they just saw it as an opportunity to bully me even more.'"

Fun Song Factory (2004-2006)
In 2004, after he left school, Aston won the role of Cookie in CITV show "Fun Song Factory". He remained in the role until the show's demise in 2006. It was due to this role that he began getting more and more interested in music.

He then began writing music whilst working in a clothes shop.

Britannia High (2008)
In January 2008, before his X Factor audition, Aston auditioned for a role in new ITV show "Britannia High" and made it through to the final 16 where he was eliminated. He has auditioned for the role of Danny Miller, who was later played by former Skins actor Mitch Hewer. Speaking about what went wrong in his audition, Merrygold said:

"'If it was a acting audition, I was told I would have gotten through, but I failed my dancing audition. I had a really bad injury on my ankle and I messed up. If I'd had the role though, I wouldn't have been able to do X Factor.'"

After this, he auditioned and starred in a new Nintendo Wii advert.

The X Factor (2008)
Aston auditioned for The X Factor in London, singing Shai's "If I Ever Fall In Love". He was put through to the bootcamp stage by all judges, where he sang "Aint No Mountain" by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell. At bootcamp, he was put into the 16-24 Boys category, which was mentored by Simon Cowell.

At the Judges House stage, he sang "No Air" by Jordin Sparks and Chris Brown, with mentor Cowell putting him into the live stages.