Amid Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ Scandal, Where Are His ‘Making the Band’ Bands?
Reality TV fame doesn’t always translate into music-industry success, as many winners of American Idol and victors of The Voice can attest. Like those other televised star searches, Making the Band had mixed results by the time its last installment aired 15 years ago.
When it debuted, Making the Band seemed like an opportunity of a lifetime for aspiring musicians: a chance to jumpstart a career under the mentorship of high-profile veterans. In ABC’s Making the Band, that mentor was boy band producer Lou Pearlman. In MTV’s continuation of the series, Sean “Diddy” Combs coached the aspirants.
In a distressing epilogue to Making the Band, both Pearlman and Combs are now the subjects of scandals. Pearlman, who died in 2016, was convicted of money laundering in 2007; Combs is currently facing charges of sex trafficking, racketeering, and transportation to engage in prostitution. (He has pleaded not guilty.)
But what about the bands themselves? After all, these groups are far more than their former mentors. Read on for updates on O-Town — the boy band Pearlman organized — and Da Band, Danity Kane, Day26, and Donnie Klang — the musical acts that Combs oversaw.
O-Town
After releasing two albums, O-Town broke up in 2003, with its members pursuing solo projects. In 2011, four of the five guys reunited — everyone but Ashley Parker Angel — and they’ve since released two more albums, 2014’s Lines & Circles and 2019’s The O.T.W.N. Album. O-Town is currently touring the country with other ’00s acts in the Pop2000 Tour.
Da Band
Combs broke up Da Band at the end of Making the Band 2, and even though he vowed to continue working with group members Ness and Babs, those two artists went back to the underground rap scene, according to Billboard. Other group members released solo efforts — Freddy P put out the 2010 mixtape Ski Mask Cash, for example, and Dylan Dilinjah released the full-length 2017 album Pain 2 Power. Chopper, meanwhile, was arrested on a felony sex trafficking charge in 2022, according to the Associated Press, though it’s unclear what became of that case.
Danity Kane
After coming together in Making the Band 3, Danity Kane released two No. 1 albums. But two Danity Kane members were let go amid group tension in 2008, and the remainder disbanded in 2009. Aubrey O’Day, Dawn Richard, and Shannon Bex toured as a trio in 2014, but the group split up again that same year, even before the release of their third album, DK3. The trio got back together in 2019 to release another single, and O’Day and Richard put out the EP Strawberry Milk under the band name in 2020, but the Danity Kane project seems to have been on indefinite hiatus since then.
Day26
As the all-male group formed in Making the Band 4, Day26 released a No. 1 album in 2008 followed by a No. 2 album a year later. The guys went their separate ways in 2012 and then came back together in 2014 for their aptly named EP The Return. And earlier this year, they released another studio album, Days One. Along the way, the Day26 members have pursued other opportunities — including, notably, Willie Taylor’s run alongside wife Shanda Denyce in Love & Hip-Hop: Hollywood.
Donnie Klang
The solo winner of Making the Band 4, Klang earned a Bad Boy Records contract that didn’t last long but did give him a Top 20 album, 2008’s Just a Rolling Stone, and a gig opening for Janet Jackson. He later formed his own label and released the single “Falling 4U,” a Valentine’s Day mixtape, and the holiday single “X-Miss,” all in 2011. More recently, Klang has worked as a composer, arranger, and the CEO of the New York-based artist development program The Loft Sound Studio, according to Billboard.
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