Diversity, a street dance group that is best known for winning the third series of Britain's Got Talent, famously beating Susan Boyle in the live final. They also won the Families United Positive Role Models at the Spirit of London Awards. The group, initially known as Swift Moves, formed in 2007. In their first year together, they won the Street Dance Weekend 2007 competition before deciding to enter Britain's Got Talent.
Formed in 2007, the group consists of friends from east London (Dagenham and Leytonstone) and Essex, including three sets of brothers and four other members. Some are still at school or university, but the older members include an IT solutions worker, bathroom installer and telecoms engineer.
The group, ranging in age from 14 to 27, consists of the following members: Ashley Banjo, Jordan Banjo, Sam Craske, Mitchell Craske, Ian McNaughton, Jamie McNaughton, Matthew McNaughton, Perri Luc Kiely, Warren Russell, Ike Ezekwugo and Terry Smith. The group's leader and choreographer is Ashley Banjo, who is studying natural sciences (biology and physics) at university. He said that "from the age of 14 I started to teach myself routines". They also have a Twitter account named "DiversityBGT".
In 2009, the group won the third series of Britain's Got Talent. All the judges heavily praised their performances throughout the competition, with Banjo's choreography being described as "genius" by Amanda Holden.
After receiving "yes" votes from all three judges in their audition, Diversity went on to compete in the first semi-final on 24 May 2009, losing the public vote-decided first place to Susan Boyle but winning the judges' vote against Natalie Okri. In the final, on Saturday, 30 May 2009, Diversity were announced as the winner, beating Susan Boyle and Julian Smith (who came 2nd and 3rd respectively).
As winners of the competition Diversity went on to perform before the Queen at the Royal Variety Show on 7 December 2009. Subsequently, Diversity was nominated in the Dance section of the final South Bank Show awards and won an award at the pride of Britain awards.
After winning the show, Diversity appeared on Larry King Live on 6 June to talk about their future plans. Diversity also became Patrons of Dance Aid[8] organised by the UK Registered Charity, Hope for Children They performed at the Wireless Festival in Hyde Park, London on 5 July, and appeared at T4 on the Beach on 19 July at Weston-super-Mare.
On 31 August, they performed at Blackpool's Winter Gardens in a Michael Jackson tribute alongside George Sampson and Aidan Davis. This performance was on the same weekend as the World Street Dancing championships.
Diversity have also performed in London's Covent Garden to launch the new Disney Channel Disney XD. They also performed outside 10 Downing Street in front of prime minister Gordon Brown, during which Perri slipped and fell on his head after attempting a back-flip. He did not sustain any serious injury.
Diversity also appeared in the Gracious K music video "Migraine Skank" along with dance group Flawless. In January 2010, Ashley Banjo appeared as a judge on the Sky1 reality show Got to Dance, alongside Adam Garcia and Kimberly Wyatt.
Diversity switched on Christmas lights at a shopping mall in Norwich on 5 November, then in Meadowhall Shopping Centre in Sheffield on 6 November then in Watford on 12 November.
On 11 November, Diversity conducted several hours of signing autographs and posing for photographs with thousands of fans at The Galleria Shopping Centre in Hatfield, Hertfordshire. Afterwards, they hosted a prize giving ceremony on stage and they performed their "Michael Jackson" dance routine. They performed another Michael Jackson tribute at the MOBO award ceremony.
Diversity "launched" Christmas at Lakeside on 1 November, where they took two members of the audience on-stage for a dance-off.
There was a competition held in November, and a hundred people won a meet and greet with Diversity on 19 November at The Glades in Bromley.
On 7 December, Diversity performed on the Royal Variety Performance, hosted in Blackpool and shown on TV station ITV across the UK on 16 December.
On the show Got to Dance Warm Up, they presented their Westfield Shopping Centre FlashMob, sponsored by T-Mobile.
Diversity promoted street dancing with Change4Life in January as a means of getting kids and families more active.
The group are touring in spring; their first dates sold out in 24 hours, which led to further dates being announced, the first being at the Manchester Apollo on 27 March. The tour centres around toys "coming to life". Diversity being the main toy as "Diversitoys", fellow Britain's Got Talent dance group Suga-Free as "the dolls", Aidan Davis as "Bionic Boy", and others.
The group teamed up with national retailer The Range for a commercial to be shown in April and May, with the tagline "If you like Diversity, you'll love The Range". They also appeared in adverts for food for "great little ideas". Diversity appeared in the 2010 UK film StreetDance 3D, released on 21 May 2010, in which they starred along side Britain's Got Talent 2009 finalists Flawless and 2008 winner George Sampson.
They recently lent their names/act to Dfs as a promotion tool, appearing in the advert.
