ABC's Queen Family Singalong aired on November 4 at 8pm and we are still singing all of the songs. The special was to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the band and was hosted by Darren Criss. The Glee actor closed out the show with the band's biggest hit, "Bohemian Rhapsody."
This is the fourth installment of the singalong series, which started during the pandemic to bring joy to people's lives during the hard time.
Artists such as JoJo Siwa, Adam Lambert, One Republic, Fall Out Boy, Pentatonix, Jimmie Allen and Miss Piggy, among others all performed Queen's biggest hits. But there might have been one duo that you are not too familiar with.
Alongside Dancing With The Stars six-time champion, Derek Hough and his dancer girlfriend, Hayley Erbert, Alexander Jean delivered a powerful performance of "Another One Bites The Dust." If you are a fan of DWTS, you might have recognized one of the members, but who exactly is the duo of Alexander Jean?
11 Mark Ballas
Mark Ballas is a two-time Dancing With the Stars Champion and has reached the finals many times, earning him an Emmy nomination for his outstanding choreography. Ballas danced for 18 seasons before leaving the show to pursue other things. He has released solo music, been in a band called The Ballas Hough Band and is the son of esteemed dancers Corky and Shirley Ballas. The 35-year-old has also starred on Broadway including Jersey Boys and Kinky Boots. Ballas is married to singer/songwriter BC Jean.
10 BC Jean
Brittany Jean Carlson, known professionally as BC Jean, is an American singer and actress. She is best known for writing the song "If I Were A Boy," which was later recorded by Beyonce and reached commercial success. Before meeting Ballas, BC released solo music, with her first single "Just A Guy," being released in 2010. She also starred in the web series, Talent. Now, the 34-year-old lives in Los Angeles with Mark and their dog, Hendrix.
9 How They Met
Ballas talked to InStyle magazine about how him and BC met back in 2016. "A few years ago, a mutual friend of ours hosted an online concert where people could buy tickets that donated to charity, and both BC and I were on the bill. When I arrived, It was so packed that you literally could not move. BC was on stage, and I couldn’t see her—I could only hear her. I remember thinking, 'Wow. She’s got it going on.' She sounded like a mix of Janis Joplin and Stevie Nicks. I was expecting to see someone in their forties slugging whiskey, but I was in complete disbelief when the crowd cleared and I saw a gorgeous blonde." And the rest was history.
Jean also told her side of the story. "When Mark took the stage, my immediate thought was that he's super talented. He was doing a lot of hip thrusts and started flirting with me, but I was all about the business. I wanted to make sure that we could work together. Five and a half hours later, we were on a date, and we've been together ever since."
8 Forming The Duo
Alexander Jean became an official duo in 2015. After dating for a few years, Mark and BC decided to take their love of music and performing together and do something about it. The name Alexander Jean comes from both of their middle names. Their debut single, "Roses and Violets" reached the top 20 on Billboard's Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart. In 2018, they were picked as Elvis Duran's Artist of the Month and have since performed on the Today, DWTS, Holidays With The Houghs and Grammy pre-shows.
7 Their Wedding
They started dating in 2015, got engaged in 2015 and exaclty one year later on November 25, 2016, they got married in a beautiful ceremony in Malibu, CA. Ballas' best friend, Derek Hough, served as his best man and their dog was the ring bearer. Their bohemian-chic wedding was complete with a surprise dance from the couple, BC walking down the aisle to an instrumental version of "Bohemian Rhapsody." They even released a song called "Paper Planes," which was resemblant of their vows that they wrote on paper planes.
6 Alexander Jean's First EP And Tour
The same year they got married, they released their first EP, Head High, as a duo. The EP featured six tracks with Jean's powerful vocals and Ballas' excellent musicianship. Head High charted on the Singer/Songwriter chart and had jumpstarted their career. They went on a mini tour around the U.S. and even opened for the band, R5, who just so happen to be cousins of the Houghs, on the New Addictions Tour.
5 Their Second EP
Their second EP, High Enough, was released the following year, which contained "Paper Planes" and four other songs including the title track. Once again, they charted on the Singer/Songwriter chart on iTunes and eventually reached number one with both EPs. All of their music is available to stream on most platforms.
Since then, they have released numerous singles, covers and collaborations with Lindsey Stirling ("Stampede") and Casey Abrams ("We Three Kings"). Their non album singles and covers include "Waiting For You," "Dreams," "Vulnerable," "Pain" and "Toe Tag."
4 'Holidays With The Houghs'
Holidays With the Houghs was a 2019 TV special that featured dance and comedy sketches from Derek and Julianne Hough and performances from artists and friends. Alexander Jean performed a cover of the song, "O Holy Night" on the special, which gained attention from viewers and caused them to release more Christmas songs including "God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman" and "We Three Kings."
3 Alexander Jean's TikTok Fame
Who didn't join TikTok during the pandemic? The duo started posting their covers and songs on the app and their videos started racking up views and likes. They share acoustic versions of their songs, behind the scenes dance parties, studio sessions and more. They currently have 450k followers and counting. Fans love seeing their relationship shine through in their videos.
2 'Coming Down'
Just this year, after finally being signed to a record company, Parts And Labor Records, Alexander Jean released their third EP, Coming Down, in July. The EP features six songs including the title tracks and one cover- "Sex & Candy" by the band Marcy Playground. The video for their cover on TikTok received over 1.2 million views. They were going to perform a select few shows around Texas this year, but because the pandemic is still looming over us, they decided to push them back until 2022. Hopefully, more states will be added as well.
1 Queen Singalong
Now, that you know everything you can possibly know about the duo, let's talk about their performance on the Queen Family Singalong. Fans got to hear Jean's powerful voice and Ballas' guitar skills on a cover of "Another One Bites the Dust" while Derek Hough and Hayley Erbert, along with Hough's Vegas residency dancers, delivered a stunning performance in front of them. The cover is now available on their Spotify page. We cannot wait to see what they have in store for the rest of the year and 2022.