From Love Island to the charts! A full history of Wes Nelson bangers

Wes Nelson is a very unique Islander in the Love Island universe, because he’s the only one who has transitioned from reality TV star to bonafide, quite well respected musical artist. Wes and his tunes are no gimmick: He’s taking it seriously, and because of that he’s gone on to have UK chart hits working with big artists like Clean Bandit, French Montana and most recently Craig David.  Here’s a full history of Wes Nelson now he’s returned to Love Island as a music guest.

First, um, we need to talk about The X Factor: Celebrity

Like all cool R&B singers, Wes Nelson made his first toe-dips in to the world of music by appearing on the very flop Celebrity X factor that aired just as that show was well and truly going down the pan. Wes was in a group with fellow Islanders Samira, Eyal and Zara and they performed under the name No Love Lost.

Despite the cringe setup, I don’t mind saying it: Their original bop All Or Nothing absolutely slaps. Eyal and Zara are a bit of dead weight, but Samira and Wes have huge star quality and you can see why Wes would go on to get a record contract when you listen to his flow and see his stage presence.

The debut single

I mean, anyone sniffing or laughing at the thought of a Love Island alum actually succeeding on the UK charts was shut right up when Wes Nelson dropped Say Nothing, a song that got to number three and became one of the most well known tunes of 2020. Fair play Wes. It does go hard.

Drive with Clean Bandit

Released at the tail end of Clean Bandit’s vice grip on chart success, Drive is instantly infectious. It sounds way more Wes vibes than it does the usual Clean Bandit production sound – but I genuinely think this is a banger. It’s actually my favourite Wes Nelson tune.

His biggest hit: Nice To Meet Ya

Nice To Meet Ya, not to be confused with the Meghan Traitor single of the same name, is Wes’ most streamed song on Spotify with 127,000,000 streams.

Craig David collab and villa return!

In a feat pulled off by no other Islander, Wes Nelson managed to not only bag a single with Craig pigging DAVID (truly living Anton’s dream), he also got to come back onto All Stars not as a bombshell (to Arabella’s delight) but as a musical guest. That’s when you know you’ve made it.

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