TrueBliss: Where are they now?
The pop group that was created from an audition and took New Zealand by storm in 1999 was like a shooting star. By the following year, they had broken up. What happened to the five member all-girl group.
The year was 1999. At Santos Cafe on Ponsonby Rd in Auckland, a man named Jonathan Dowling sat down with New Zealand music legend Peter Urlich and pitched an idea.
New Zealand’s answer to the Spice Girls would be created for television show in which the audience could watch the lot: the failures, the shame, the tears, then the victory.
Nowhere in the world had done it. TV’s Idols and X Factors had not yet been dreamed up. Urlich loved the idea. He knew it would entertain.
‘‘I immediately thought, knowing New Zealand, some people are going to love it and some people are going to hate it,’’ Urlich told Stuff in 2015.
‘‘I thought this was going to be great television.’’
Five hundred and fifty hopefuls auditioned. Fewer than one in 100 would make the cut.
Wellingtonians Erika Takacs and Joe Cotton, and well as Aucklanders Carly Binding, Keri Harper and Megan Alatini, were chosen to form what would become New Zealand’s most iconic girl group – TrueBliss.
After came almost overnight fame. There was the Bledisloe Cup game at which they sang the national anthem with the All Blacks behind them, and there were young fans everywhere they went.
In Christchurch, TrueBliss got on stage and couldn’t hear themselves sing on top of the crowd’s screams.
‘‘It was reminiscent of The Beatles,’’ Takacs said.
Unfortunately, however – it wouldn’t last.
When the rights for the show were sold to Australia, TrueBliss was put on the back-burner, Takacs said.
‘‘We felt really slighted by what had gone on,’’ Cotton told last year.
‘‘We felt as though a lot of money was being made, and yet we were only seeing a very small percentage. I remember calling my mum asking to borrow her credit card to order a pizza for us, because we hadn’t eaten in three days.’’
According to Cotton, her and the other band members were only getting paid $25 a day.
‘‘It was struggle street. People assume that if you do a TV show and a tour and an album, suddenly you’re rich – but it certainly was not that way in New Zealand. A lot of the time we didn’t have enough money to pay for food or rent,’’ she told
A little more than a year after they started in 1999, the band broke up.
Twenty years later, we find out where the women of TrueBliss are now.
JOE COTTON
In 1999, the 21-year-old auditioned for the new reality show – and despite being convinced she wouldn’t get chosen because of her weight, she was selected.
After TrueBliss disbanded, the Canadian-born singer joined cover group The Mermaids Danceband.
She was the winner of TV’s in 2007 and went on to appear on other television shows.
In 2009, she married Daniel Shields on Valentine’s Day and the wedding was filmed for reality show
Cotton just turned 40, lives on Auckland’s North Shore and now works as a radio presenter hosting More FM nights.
MEGAN ALATINI
After immigrating from South Africa to South Auckland, teen mum Alatini got her big break on the reality TV series.
Following TrueBliss fame, Alatini went on to appear in the popular sci-fi series and Dancing With The Stars before gaining more exposure appearing as a judge on New Zealand Idol. She also opened a hair-braiding shop in Dunedin.
After marrying her high school sweetheart, All Black Pita Alatini, she and her family moved to Japan in 2008 but they were evacuated three years later after an earthquake and tsunami.
The mother-of-three now lives in Remuera and works as a flight attendant for Air New Zealand.
KERI HARPER
The youngest member of the girl band was just 19 when she was thrust into the limelight. She’s also the one who has kept the lowest profile since.
After the group broke up, Harper made a brief appearance at 2002’s Christmas In The Park concert, and in 2007 she was first voted off which Cotton went on to win.
She now lives in Taupo with her husband, Sam Coxhead, and their two daughters, Sophie and Lucy. She and her husband own Design Builders Taupo and Design Builders Tauranga.
ERIKA TAKACS
Wellington-born Takacs was no stranger to performing when she found fame on – she was already in The Beat Girls group before becoming part of TrueBliss.
The musical theatre student also only auditioned for the TV series to keep her friend company, who was trying out.
After TrueBliss split, she got a job working at their musical label Sony, and fronted Ready To Roll, the resurrected Pops’’ show on TV2.
Takacs went on to marry stunt coordinator Allan Poppleton. When they’re not living in Remuera, the couple and their children travel the world working on films.
CARLY BINDING
Arguably the most successful member, Binding quit the girl group in 2000 citing ‘‘personal differences’’ and launched a solo career.
Her debut solo album peaked at No 6 on the New Zealand charts and went gold.
After scoring six top-40 hits, she married former rugby league star Matthew Ridge. The couple had one child, a son called London, but split in 2015.