Hurts

 Hurts singer Theo Hutchcraft

Hurts are an English synthpop duo from Manchester composed of singer Theo Hutchcraft (originally from North Yorkshire) and synth player Adam Anderson.

In July 2009, the band featured as "Band of the Day" on Guardian.co.uk.^[1] They finished in fourth position in BBC's Sound of 2010 poll.^[2]

The band's song "Wonderful Life" was notably remixed by Arthur Baker. In early 2010 they officially released their debut single, "Better Than Love" with a famous Romanian actress named Laura Cosoi, and played their first ever live shows. The song "Unspoken" produced by Sky is the Limit turned heads with its synths and orchestra bridge as it was created by an unknown but creative individual. The song "Illuminated" also was the soundtrack to Sky1 HD's advert to promote their best-watched seasonal programmes in High Definition (Bones, House,^{[citation needed]} Fringe, Stargate Universe) in spring/summer 2010.

Their debut album called Happiness was released on 6 September 2010.^[3] It contains a duet with Kylie Minogue entitled "Devotion". To promote the release of their debut album, the band collaborated with author Joe Stretch to produce an interactive audio book narrated by Anna Friel. It is found on the online music player Spotify, with the first entry being found by searching for "a5m4".^[4]

For The Sun's "Biz Sessions", Hurts played Kylie Minogue's "Confide in Me" live, which was then released on YouTube.^[5]

Before Hurts, singer Theo and synth player Adam were previously in bands named "Bureau", later to be renamed "Daggers".^[2]

In September 2010 it was announced their UK tour was sold out, and that Hurts would support Scissor Sisters on their UK tour later this year.^[6] Hurts appeared on Sky Sports show Soccer AM to promote their album and their single "Stay".

Hurts revealed plans to release a Christmas single.^[7] The duo released "All I Want for Christmas Is New Year's Day" in December 2010. News of the single was confirmed on their label RCA's official website, as well as by their A&R team. They tweeted: "News just in! Hurts will release a Chrimbo single 'All I Want For Christmas Is New Year's Day' this December. We've heard it & it's AMAZING." The song was available on iTunes free of charge for one week from 14 December. The video premiered on 2 December on their website. Hurts recently announced they were approached to work with Leona Lewis.