The Collective are an Australian boy band consisting of members Trent Bell, Julian De Vizio, Zach Russell, Jayden Sierra and Will Singe. They were formed during the fourth season of The X Factor (Australia) in 2012 and finished in third place. The Collective subsequently signed with Sony Music Australia and released their debut single "Surrender", which debuted at number six on the ARIA Singles Chart. The group's self-titled mini album The Collective was released on 14 December 2012, featuring recorded versions of songs they performed on The X Factor.

In 2012, Trent Bell, Julian De Vizio, Zach Russell, Jayden Sierra and Will Singe successfully auditioned as soloists for the fourth season of The X Factor and progressed to the super bootcamp stage. After failing to make it into the top six of the Under-25 Boys category during super bootcamp, the judges Ronan Keating, Guy Sebastian, Natalie Bassingthwaighte and Melanie Brown decided to put them together to form a boy band for the home visits stage, thus qualifying for the Groups category.
During home visits, they travelled to London, England and sang Rihanna's "We Found Love", their first song as a group, in front of their mentor Keating and guest mentors One Direction.
Keating later selected them, along with Fourtunate and What About Tonight, for the live finals—a series of ten weekly live shows in which contestants are progressively eliminated by public vote.
During the official launch for The X Factor at the Museum for Contemporary Art in Sydney on 13 September 2012, Keating announced that the group would be called The Collective. He stated, "We put it up on the web and had a lot of different names and the fans themselves picked it."

For the Judges' Choice-themed first live show, The Collective performed Jessie J's "Domino" and received positive comments from the judges, with Keating calling it "the best performance I've ever seen on X Factor anywhere in the world".
Bassingthwaighte described their performance as "phenomenal", while Sebastian said it was "unbelievable".
For the Party All Night-themed second live show, they performed Kenny Loggins' "Footloose" and again received praise from the judges, with Brown saying that Keating had a good chance of winning The X Factor with The Collective.
For the third and fourth live shows, The Collective performed New Kids on the Block's "You Got It (The Right Stuff)" and The Beatles' "A Hard Day's Night" respectively.[
For the '80s-themed fifth live show, they performed Madonna's "Like a Prayer" and received a mixed response from the judges. Bassingthwaighte thought it was not the right song choice for them, while Brown said "sexy is back".
For the Latest and Greatest-themed sixth live show, The Collective performed Ed Sheeran's "Lego House" and again received a mixed response from the judges. While Bassingthwaighte said they "looked fantastic, sounded great", Sebastian felt that Singe, who was on main vocals, looked and sounded nervous and that it was not a perfect performance.
For the Made in Australia-themed seventh live show, The Collective performed Timomatic's "Incredible".
Following their performance of Justin Bieber's "Beauty and a Beat" in week eight, The Collective landed in the bottom two for the first time with Shiane Hawke. Keating, Sebastian and Brown saved them in the final showdown, resulting in Hawke being eliminated.

In week nine, semi-finals week, The Collective performed two songs, OneRepublic's "Apologize" and Chris Brown's "Yeah 3x", and received standing ovations from the judges for both of the performances.
That same week, The Collective landed in the bottom two again with Bella Ferraro. They received two votes each from the judges, resulting in a deadlock. It was then announced that The Collective received the most public votes and were put through to the grand final, resulting in Ferraro being eliminated.
They joined Samantha Jade and Jason Owen for the grand final. During the first part of the final on 19 November, the three finalists were required to perform three songs – their audition song, last shot song and winner's single. The Collective's last shot song was Karmin's "Brokenhearted" and their winner's single was titled "Surrender".
The following day, it was announced that The Collective finished in third place.
On 22 November, it was announced they signed a recording contract with Sony Music Australia.
Their song "Surrender" was released digitally the following day as their debut single, which debuted at number six on the ARIA Singles Chart.
The group's self-titled mini album The Collective was released on 14 December, featuring their debut single, recorded versions of six songs they performed on The X Factor, and a recorded cover of Wham!'s "Last Christmas".
The song was digitally released on 14 December, as the group's second single.
In January 2013, The Collective and other contestants from the fourth season will embark on The X Factor Live Tour across Australia.



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