Shellesha

The songwriter partnership of Alesha and Shell Ruin, commonly referred to using the portmanteau "Shellesha", is a musical collaboration whose output has produced dozens of hit singles for Alesha and Ruin themselves as well as artists like Emily Henning and Jack Stevens. Between 2007 and 2010, Alesha and Ruin collaborated extensively on each of their studio albums. In 2009, as well as releasing the number one duet "Delusions of Grandeur", the duo also wrote and produced Henning's third studio album Only Human in its entirety.

History

Alesha released her first single in 2003, while Shell Ruin would arrive onto the scene in 2004 as one-half of sister duo Voguegirl. Following the disbandment of Voguegirl, Ruin released her debut album and single as a solo artist in 2005. That same year, Alesha released her first number one album Buried Underneath. Both Stories of a Girl and Buried Underneath exhibited a guitar-oriented, pop-rock sound defined by teen angst and young womanhood. A number of other young female artists would become associated with this sound, such as Taylor Brookes and Kati. These recording artists became renowned for their tabloid-ready partying antics; the social circle was eventually dubbed "the London Brat Pack". By this point, Alesha had written a number of songs for other recording artists. In 2007, Alesha contributed two songs to Ruin's second and third albums Kill Pop and its quick follow-up The Dirty Is Done.

Alesha and Shell Ruin wrote their first song together in the form of "Power Power", originally conceived by Alesha in its demo form. The song featured vocals from both Alesha and Ruin, as well as Brookes and Buffi (who had contributed to Alesha's own album Alesha Is the Queen). Ruin later contributed five songs to Alesha's fifth studio album The Second Coming (2008), while the pair co-wrote "Smoking Gun (Fuckery)". Unlike many songwriting partnerships that comprise separate lyricist and composer, both Alesha and Ruin wrote words and music. Sometimes, especially early on, they would collaborate extensively when writing songs, working "eyeball to eyeball". Later, it became more common for one of the two credited authors to write most of a song with limited input from the other.

With Alesha's Bigger Than God and Ruin's Never Stop (both 2009), the pair's writing partnership became even more collaborative as they shared numerous credits. Their first duet, "Delusions of Grandeur", became a number one hit. That year, they collaborated extensively to write and produce Emily Henning's third studio album Only Human (2009) in its entirety. The album spawned the number one hits "Folie de l'Amour", "Strike", "Crash and Burn" and "Heaven's Grace". Other famous "Shellesha" collaborations that were neither recorded by Alesha nor Shell Ruin include Jack Stevens' number one single "The Siren's Call". Both members of the songwriting team have also written and produced many tracks individually.

In 2015, Alesha and Ruin collaborated for the first time since 2010, co-producing Ruin's comeback album Play. The record became Ruin's greatest commercial success to date. In 2016, Ruin wrote Alesha's number one "How to Disappear". In general, however, Alesha and Ruin have come to collaborate less on songwriting and producing, instead acting more as advisors and confidantes.

See also

• Alesha discography
• Alesha writing and production discography
• Shell Ruin discography