Eternal (band)

Eternal were an English R&B girl group formed in 1992. The group featured two sisters Easther and Vernie Bennett, alongside Kelle Bryan and Louise Nurding. Eternal became an international success and achieved 15 Top 20 hits in the UK, and have sold about 10 million records worldwide.

Group biography (1993–1999)

Eternal were formed in 1992 by music manager Denis Ingoldsby of First Avenue Records, after Eddie Gordon showed him how the success of En Vogue was built in the United Kingdom. Eternal were quickly signed to EMI Records and released their debut single, "Stay", in September 1993. The song was a success and it reached number four in the UK Singles Chart.

Eternal released their debut album, Always & Forever in November 1993, and it reached number two. The album sold over a million copies in the United Kingdom, making this one of 1994's biggest selling albums. They were named Best Group at the Smash Hits Poll Winners Party, and were nominated for four Brit Awards. Louise decided to leave the group before the recording of Eternal's second album, and went on to pursue a successful solo career.

Power of a Woman was the first album without Louise, and entered the charts at number six. Another great success for the group, it produced four hit singles, including "Power of a Woman", "I Am Blessed", and a remixed version of "Good Thing", continuing Eternal's string of Top 20 Hits.

In 1997, Eternal achieved their first ever UK number one, a duet with BeBe Winans, "I Wanna Be the Only One", which became the second most played song on UK Radio in 1997, and stayed at the top spot for one week. It was taken from their third album Before the Rain, which also included "Don't You Love Me". Eternal's Greatest Hits package was released in the later part of 1997, and became the highest selling Greatest Hits package of the year. It featured their last Top 10 single "Angel of Mine", which reached number four.

In 1998, a week after their Party In The Park performance, Kelle Bryan was controversially sacked by the Bennett Sisters via a fax from their solicitor. Their reasons cited "a break down in professional relations". A short time later Bryan was diagnosed with Lupus and was forced to abandon plans for a solo career. Easther & Vernie recruited a new member, TJ, but she left after a matter of days and the sisters carried on as a duo but it was rumoured that singer Michelle Gayle was to step in as Kelle's replacement but proved untrue. "What'Cha Gonna Do" was released from their fourth album Eternal and hit number 16. With lack of promotion the album charted at number 87, despite positive reviews. The next single "I Cry Real Tears" was expected to be released in April 2000, with a new version of the song. However the single was scrapped due to poor sales of the album and Eternal were dropped from EMI. Internationally, the track "Free To Live" was released, translated to "Libre Para Vivir" the track has moderate success in some European countries. The last televised performance by Eternal was on Songs of Praise in 2000 where Easther and Vernie performed the track "He Is".

In 2006 it was announce that Eternal would be reforming for a live reunion tour alongside other acts including Boyz II Men. Although only Easther Bennett and Kelle Bryan would be part of the project (Vernie Bennett was pregnant at the time and Louise Redknapp was busy with her solo career). In an interview around the time Kelle Bryan revealed that the band had been offered numerous record deals over the past few years since the band had split up. Unfortunately due to unforeseen circumstances the tour was cancelled.

In 2011 Vernie Bennett joined online social networking site Twitter and stated that plans for an Eternal reunion were in their "very early days". This news gave hope to many fans that eventually Eternal would be making a comeback at some point in the future.