Nicolas Alves, a 16-year-old member of Simon Cowell's new boyband December 10, has already appeared on two major singing shows before his latest TV fame. The teenager was scouted on Cowell's Netflix series The Next Act and has just released the video for the band's debut single, a cover of NSYNC's Bye Bye Bye.
Born in England, Alves moved to Portugal at age 10. In 2022, he reached the finals of The Voice Kids in Portugal, finishing as runner-up. He then represented Portugal at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest that year, performing an original song titled Anos 70 (The Seventies). He placed eighth out of 16 entrants with 121 points.
During his audition for The Next Act, Cowell and the panel—including Pete Waterman, Savan Kotecha, and Kamille—described Alves as “utterly joyful” and compared him to a young George Michael. Alves told the experts, “When it comes to music I am very serious. It's what I want to do, it's what I've always wanted to do. Of course you have to have fun with it, but to a certain degree it has to be taken seriously too.”
After a series of challenges and studio training in Los Angeles, Alves made it into the seven-member band, which also includes Hendrik Christoffersen, 19, Cruz Lee-Ojo, 19, John Fadare, 17, Seán Hayden, 19, Josh Olliver, 17, and Danny Bretherton, 16. The group is named after the release date of the Netflix series and has been signed by EMI/Universal, the label behind Lewis Capaldi and Justin Bieber.
However, the name has caused controversy. A Glasgow-based metal band called December Tenth has claimed they are being mistaken for Cowell's group and have asked for legal contact from Simon's team, Universal, or Netflix.
