The first single by Sequim-bred Emblem3 was unveiled last week while the band is in the middle of a cross-country tour that will soon return it to its new home base in Huntington Beach, Calif.
The single, “Chloe (You’re the One I Want),” was released Monday on iTunes and was an instant hit, rising as high as No. 26 on the iTunes overall charts and No. 11 on the online music store’s pop charts.
The song rose to the top of the iTunes charts in Brazil, where the performers have become stars.
“I’ve listened to it probably 100 times,” said Sequim resident Kristy Sallee, mother of Drew Chadwick, 20.
Chadwick performs in the group with brothers Wesley Stromberg, 19, and Keaton Stromberg, 16.
“We’ve been blown away by their initial success,” said Laraine Claire, mother of the Strombergs. Once of Sequim, she has moved to Huntington Beach.
On Friday, “Chloe” was No. 50 on iTunes, just behind Baauer’s “Harlem Shake.”
Emblem3 roared onto the music scene after placing fourth on the Fox music competition show “The X Factor” with what Chadwick has described as a combination of rock and reggae.
Viewers voted Emblem3 out of contention on “The X Factor” during semifinals after the trio had performed renditions of “Baby, I Love Your Way” and “Hey Jude.”
Signed in January
The group was signed to a record deal on the Syco Music label by “X Factor” creator and music industry impresario Simon Cowell in January.
Syco is a subsidiary of Columbia Records, which is owned by Sony Music Entertainment.
The trio spent 2½ months in the studio after signing their record deal, Claire said.
“Very excited that @emblemthree’s new single ‘Chloe’ is out today,” Cowell tweeted Monday.
Another celebrity tweet was sent the group’s way by Niall Horan of the hit pop group One Direction, another band with Cowell’s Syco Music.
Emblem3 has been compared with One Direction.
“People kept telling me how cool it was that Niall was tweeting about them,” Sallee said.
“I kept thinking, ‘Neil who? Neil Diamond?’”
“Chloe,” an infectious piece of summertime pop, is the first release off Emblem3’s album, which should be unveiled in its entirety later this summer, Claire said.
Tour began in New York
The trio began its cross-country tour in New York City on April 12 and was scheduled to perform in Houston tonight.
Traveling in a tour bus that Sallee said is “worth 10 of my houses,” Emblem3 has stops coming up in Phoenix and Las Vegas.
The nine-city “Going Back to Cali” tour wraps in their adopted hometown of Huntington Beach on Saturday.
“They’re really happy because this is their dream come true,” Claire said.
Tickets for the Emblem3 tour sold out in a matter of minutes after going on sale, she said.
As of yet, the group members are too busy to make a return trip to their hometown, but Claire said they are looking forward to eventually coming back to Sequim and are trying to schedule a concert in Seattle.
“I do want the hometown to know the boys want to come back, but they have not had even three days free since ‘The X Factor’ ended,” Claire said.
“I know they miss everybody a lot.”
The trio moved to Huntington Beach from Sequim to try to make it big in the music business, and they have.
“They’re just evolving into these really cool people,” Sallee said.
“I’m super proud. I don’t think you could wish for anything better for your kids.”
The release of “Chloe” was dampened a bit, though, by explosions at the Boston Marathon that killed three people and wounded more than 180 others.
“That happened within a few minutes of Chloe’s release,” Claire said.
Emblem3 members responded by sending out a flurry of messages to the thousands of social media followers they have drawn with their “Team Inspire” hashtag on Twitter.
The Team Inspire movement was started by the boys to share positive messages about the world with their many fans.
‘We Are One’
Claire said Chadwick tweeted “We Are One” in support of the Boston victims, and it was picked up as a hashtag by the group’s followers, eventually trending above the #prayforboston tag that swept the Twitter-sphere.
“I can’t tell you how much it means that they have this attitude,” Claire said.
“They really see the music as just a way to get a really positive message out.”
Emblem3 also has booked a concert July 20 at Pacific Amphitheatre in Costa Mesa, Calif.
Tickets for the show at the venue, which can hold as many as 18,000 people, went on sale on www.ticketmaster.com on Saturday.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Joe Smillie can be reached at 360-681-2390, ext. 5052, or at jsmillie@peninsuladailynews.com.
