Blue have announced their comeback.
The 00s boy band, comprising Simon Webbe, Lee Ryan, Anthony Costa and Duncan James, took to Instagram on Thursday to announce the big news.
The foursome revealed they are set to release their new album Reflections in January before embarking on a 25th Anniversary Tour in April and May 2026.
As well as the Instagram announcement, the group premiered their new single One Last Time on Radio 2 with Scott Mills on Thursday.
Speaking about the return, Duncan said: ‘One Last Time is a song I wrote last year after the death of a really good friend of mine…
Blue have announced their comeback (L-R Simon Webbe, Duncan James, Anthony Costa and Lee Ryan)
Lee, Simon, Duncan and Anthony are pictured in their heyday in 2004
‘It hit me hard and I wrote this in the aftermath of it all. But I didn’t want it to sound like a sad song, so we came up with this, which is a different kind of a sound for Blue – It has a rockier feel but still retains all the classic elements of a Blue song…
‘We have had a lot of strong reactions to it – as anyone who has lost anyone can relate – and wish they could see that person for One Last Time.’
The group were formed in 2000 and released three studio albums before announcing a hiatus in 2004, before reforming in January 2011, and representing the UK at the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest in Düsseldorf with the song I Can.
The group came in 11th place with 100 points. Two years later, in 2013, the group joined The Big Reunion, in which six defunct groups including Liberty X, Atomic Kitten and 5ive reunited for a one-off gig.
In March 2013, they revealed they would embark on their first headlining tour later on in the year, their first tour in nearly ten years.
Blue were then dropped by their record label Sony in 2015 due to the poor performance of their fifth album Colours.
The group are seen on The Big Reunion in 2013
The group are pictured in 2024 during a performance in Naples
They returned with singles Haven’t Found You Yet and Dance with Me in 2022, both from their sixth studio album Heart & Soul, which was released on 28 October 2022.
The group have sold 15 million records worldwide and has been certified for 3.6 million albums and 2.6 million singles in the UK.
In an interview with The Sun ahead of the return, Duncan regaled a story from the group’s heyday – in which he had a brush with the A-list.
He recalled: ‘I was sitting in first class on a flight from LA to London and Mariah Carey was opposite me. During the flight, her assistant came up to me and said: ‘Mariah would like to have a drink with you at the bar. I was like, ‘Holy f***’….
‘I ended up doing shots of vodka with her while she was singing in my ear. ‘I thought, ‘I’ve made it’. That was the best moment in my whole career. She knew who Blue was too. But then she did a duet with Westlife instead of us. ‘It’s like, ‘Cheers, Mariah’.’
In an interview with The Sun ahead of the return, Duncan regaled a story from the group’s heyday – in which he had a brush with the A-list, in which he was drinking with Mariah Carey
In another A-list anecdote, Simon recalled their 2002 collaboration with Elton John, in which they covered his iconic song Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word
In another A-list anecdote, Simon recalled their 2002 collaboration with Elton John, in which they covered his iconic song Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word.
Simon said: ‘One minute I was signing on, then you’re getting nods from legends like Elton John. We got a tour of his place and he told us All Rise was the best album of that year.’
Duncan added: ‘We went into his walk-in wardrobe and we saw his glasses — rails and rails of them. ‘I was like, ‘F***ing hell this is brilliant, we’re having a right old nose around Elton’s house’.’
