Bellefire

Bellefire
Background information
Also known as	Chit Chat
Origin	Ireland
Genres	Pop, Adult Contemporary
Years active	1999–2004
Labels	Virgin Records (2000–2002) East West Records (WEA) (2003) Atlantic Records (2004)
Associated acts	Boyzone Jewel Kilcher Westlife Zero 7
Website	BellefireMusic.com
Members	Kelly Kilfeather Cathy Newell Ciara Newell Tara Lee Paula O'Neill

Bellefire was an Irish girl group, best known for their 2002 cover of the U2 song "All I Want Is You". The original line-up consisted of Kelly Kilfeather (born 23 March 1979), Tara Lee (born 25 July 1982), Cathy Newell (born 14 July 1982) and Ciara Newell (born 7 July 1983). Tara Lee left the group in 2002. They mostly performed pop and adult contemporary music. Outside Southeast Asia and their native Ireland, they have received minimal recognition, although they did experience minor success in the United Kingdom with their singles.

They first formed in 1999 (see 1999 in music), at an audition organised by Louis Walsh and John Reynolds, the management team behind Boyzone. Walsh and Reynolds' goal was to form a male/female mixed group. According to the Irish Independent, Walsh was disappointed with the standard of male entrants and opted to sign a girl group instead. The intention was to aim towards "a more mature niche in the pop market" than what was becoming the norm for vocal groups at the time. The line-up was chosen with the inclusion of a fifth member called Paula O'Neill. They performed for the first time under the name 'Chit Chat' as a support act to Boyzone's Point Depot concerts in January 2000, soon after which Paula O'Neill left the group. The four remaining members went on to sign a recording contract with Virgin Records as 'Bellefire' later that year.

After recording their debut album After the Rain, they released two singles, both of which were top twenty hits in the UK. Their first single, "Perfect Bliss" reached No.2 in the Irish charts and went double platinum in their home country. It started to pick up high levels of airplay in Japan, so the girls delayed release of the album in the UK to concentrate on the Japanese market. Perfect Bliss reached No.1 in the Japanese international music charts and meant three months of touring and promotion in Asia and the release of their album After The Rain, especially for the Japanese market. They collaborated with Japanese artist Hitomi Yaida; re-writing English lyrics for Yaida's hit song Buzzstyle, which they recorded in their own harmonised sound and they performed this with her on Japanese TV and in a televised concert.

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