Will Young

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Will Young

Background information
Birth name William Young
Born 20 January 1979 (1979-01-20) (age 29)[citation needed]
Origin Berkshire, England,
United Kingdom
Genre(s) Pop / Jazz-Pop
Years active 2002–Present
Label(s) Sony BMG
Website http://www.willyoung.co.uk/

William Robert Young BA (Exon) (born 20 January 1979[citation needed]) is a British singer and actor. He catapulted to fame in 2002 after winning the inaugural UK Pop Idol contest. He has continued to work very successfully in music, and also as an actor.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Young was born in Wokingham, Berkshire, with a fraternal twin, Rupert. He also has an older sister, Emma. He was educated at Horris Hill preparatory school and Wellington College. He also studied at D'Overbroecks College, Oxford.

Young read Politics at the University of Exeter and graduated with a 2:2 honours degree. At university, some of his haunts included Timepiece, The Old Firehouse, and Harry's, where he used to work. In September 2001, he became a student at The Arts Educational Schools in Chiswick, London, starting a three-year course in musical theatre with a scholarship.

[edit] Music

[edit] Pop Idol

In February 2002 Young came to national prominence by winning the ITV television programme contest Pop Idol.

Contrary to press claims of being the under-dog, after having beaten the widely-accepted front-runner Gareth Gates in the final show, it emerged that Will had in fact gained the most votes in six out of the nine rounds of public voting. This was published in the "Pop Idol" book which was released shortly after the programme.

The songs Will sang on the show were:

[edit] Post-Idol career

Young's first single was a double A-side featuring Westlife's song "Evergreen" and "Anything is Possible", a new song written for the winner of the show by Chris Braide and Cathy Dennis. In March 2002 this became the fastest-selling debut in UK chart history, selling 403,027 copies on its day of release (1,108,659 copies in its first week). It went on to sell over 1.7 million copies, and in the official list of the all-time best-selling singles in the UK issued later that year it was eleventh. The song Anything is Possible also won an Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically.

Young subsequently revealed that he was gay, in order to pre-empt a tabloid newspaper that was preparing to run a story 'outing' him. He also stated that he had never hidden, and was comfortable with, his sexuality. This is explained in his book "Anything Is Possible", on page 229. He also reaffirmed this to the BBC.[1][2]

In the spring of 2002, Young joined his fellow Pop Idol contestants in a nationwide arena tour. The final concert at Wembley was in aid of The Prince's Trust of which Young is an ambassador, together with Gareth Gates and Darius Danesh, the runner-up and third-placed contestant in Pop Idol.

In June 2002, Young performed at the Queen's Jubilee Concert in the grounds of Buckingham Palace. His first song was I Heard It Through the Grapevine, followed by We Are the Champions with Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor.

During July 2002, Young sang at two concerts with the renowned songwriter Burt Bacharach, performing the song especially written for him by Bacharach and Cathy Dennis, What's In Goodbye, as well as Wives and Lovers. These concerts took place at Hammersmith Apollo and at the Liverpool Summerpops event.

In August 2002, he performed at the closing ceremony of the 2002 Commonwealth Games singing Sweetest Feeling in the pouring rain. He was praised by the announcer Grandmaster Flash who said that it was not easy entering a talent show.

November 2002 brought an appearance at the Royal Command Performance where he opened the show singing a James Bond medley. In November 2003, Young performed the classic wartime song A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square accompanied by The Squadronaires, at the Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

Following a sell-out theatre tour in 2004, Young appeared at The Olympic Torch Concert, performing a duet of "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag" with soul legend James Brown. In the autumn of that year, he embarked upon his first solo arena tour, another sell-out success. He toured again at outside festival venues in summer 2005. On 6 July 2005, he performed at Edinburgh 50,000 - The Final Push, the final concert of Live 8, a charity concert in Edinburgh to raise awareness of the plight of Africa, where he duetted with James Brown once again and also sang with One Giant Leap, Neneh Cherry and Maxi Jazz.

Later in the year, Young met comedian David Walliams and the pair became good friends, with Young appearing at the Little Britain live stage show in Manchester, and later recording a podcast with Walliams, in which they chatted about various aspects of Young's career. The four parts are available on his website and iTunes.

In November 2005, Young appeared in his second Royal Command Performance performing a new song All Time Love for the first time. He was accompanied by pianist Howard Francis.

On 20 May 2006, he sang " Who Am I, "Leave Right Now" and "Love the One You're With" at The Prince's Trust 30th Birthday which took place at the Tower of London.

From 12 September until 2 October 2006, Young toured the UK with his "Keep On Live" tour, which included the songs taken from his album Keep On and a selection of past songs. The official merchandise range for the tour, highlighted by the press, included a "tip and strip" pen which, when turned over, reveals Will Young in his underpants. He also performed at G-A-Y nightclub in London on 30 September whilst in the middle of the tour.

On 27 October 2006 Will sang his song "Home", the closing track on his triple platinum third album "Keep On", at Nitin Sawhney's concert in the BBC Electric Proms series of concerts. He followed this by performing in South Africa for Nelson Mandela's Unite of the Stars charity concerts. Also appearing were Ronan Keating, Banarama and Shayne Ward. In December 2006, he performed at the Dolce Vita Ball in London.

He was nominated in the Best British Single category for his song "All Time Love" in the 2007 BRIT Awards. He has been nominated each year for the past five years. "All Time Love" made it to the final round of voting but the award went to Take That for their comeback song "Patience".

On 1 July 2007, he appeared at the Concert for Diana at the new Wembley Stadium. He sang Switch It On but the concert was running late and his performance of his hit song Leave Right Now had to be cut. He has also recently narrated an audio version of the Roald Dahl novel, Danny, the Champion of the World.

Young was the headline act at the Proms in the Park which took place in Hyde Park on 8 September 2007 as part of the Last Night of the Proms. He sang seven of his most recent songs, including Switch It On, Keep On and his multi-platinum single Leave Right Now.

On Sunday 23 September 2007, Young performed at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club with the Vanguard Jazz Band to an audience of about 300 people who received him with rapturous applause. In his first set he sang The Lady is a Tramp, the Grace Jones song Strange, That Ole Devil Called Love and Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby. In his second set he performed I've Got you Under my Skin, Summertime and Minnie the Moocher with the audience joining in the ripostes of "Hi di hi di hi di ho" etc. He finished with an encore of The Lady is a Tramp.

As at 2 November 2007, Young is in LA working on his fourth album according to his official site. He has already amassed a huge number of tracks from which he'll be making a shortlist for the album.

Young took part in the Little Noise Sessions, a series of intimate, acoustic gigs for the learning disability charity, Mencap. He performed on 22 November with special guests at Islington's Union Chapel, which is acclaimed for its ambience and acoustics. It was an intimate gig as the venue only holds 600. Other artists featured in the Little Noise Sessions, which ran from 21 November to 28 November include Athlete, The Hoosiers, We Are Scientists, Young Knives, The Pigeon Detectives, Snow Patrol, The Enemy and Keane. Jo Whiley hosted the events.

Young is to perform at various festivals during the summer of 2008, including Glastonbury, T In the Park in Scotland and Bestival on the Isle of Wight.

On Sunday 13 April 2008, Young again appeared at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club with the Vanguard Big Band. His set was very similar to the previous occasion but with the addition of Sade's Smooth Operator.

On Monday 29th September 2008, a new album, entitled "Let Go", will be released.

[edit] Discography

Main article: Will Young discography

[edit] Awards

BRIT Awards Young has been nominated for 8 awards and as won two of them, the first in February 2003 as Best Breakthrough Act and the second in February 2006 for his single Your Game which he co-wrote with Blair MacKichan.

On 1 May 2006, Young was voted the UK's favourite artist ever in a poll conducted by commercial radio, beating the likes of Robbie Williams, Paul McCartney and the Spice Girls. On 27 May 2007 he was voted UK Favourite Artist of all time for the second year running. Young has also won many other awards including the accolade of Rear of the Year in 2005.

[edit] Other projects

[edit] Acting career

Young added acting to his repertoire when he accepted a rôle in the BBC film "Mrs. Henderson Presents", starring Judi Dench and Bob Hoskins, in which he played Bertie. The film was released in the UK in November 2005 to excellent reviews — not least for Young's performance as both actor and singer in the film. The scene in which Young appears naked postdated his "absolutely thrilled" acceptance of the British male "Rear of the Year" Award 2005, an accolade to add to the "Most Stylish Male Music Star", "Best Bod", "Sexiest Star", "Best Dressed" and "Best Hair" awards he had already won.

Young trod the boards in the Royal Exchange Theatre's production of "The Vortex" by Noel Coward. This production ran from 17 January to 10 March 2007 and Young played the leading role of Nicky Lancaster.

Critics, including the well respected and acclaimed critic Nicholas de Jonghe, thought Will played the role of Nicky just as it should have been played and he wrote, "revelatory Will finds key to Coward classic". Some, however, were not as complimentary.

[edit] Television documentaries

In November 2004, Young presented a documentary entitled Runaways as part of the Children in Need campaign, highlighting the problems facing distressed teens who run away from home, and the plight they were in being picked up off the streets and railway stations by pimps who offered them work and drugs. The children didn’t know where to go for immediate help unless they were picked up by the police and sent to a refuge centre.

During June 2007 a series of documentaries entitled Saving Planet Earth were shown on BBC Television. Young filmed an episode about saving the gorillas of West Africa during his visit to Africa earlier in the year. This was aired on 25 June 2007 with a follow-up programme at the end of the series.

[edit] Philanthropy

Young supports the charity Women's Aid, about which he wrote: "I am proud to put my name beside this cause, and hope that I might be able to help more people affected by the terrors of domestic violence, as well as help to create a wider awareness within our society." [1]

Young also supports Mencap, about which he wrote: "I'm very much in this for the long term, and I'd like to help continue to break down peoples' misconceptions and prejudices", The Children's Society Safe and Sound Campaign, and Positive Action Southwest (PASW)[2], for which he performed at his first solo concert, in July 2003 at Killerton House, Exeter.

Young has been an ambassador for The Prince's Trust since 2002, and performed at the 30th anniversary concert in the grounds of the Tower of London.

Together with Dame Helen Mirren, Helena Bonham Carter and Martin Freeman, Will Young appeared in a series of advertisements during the Christmas period 2007 for Oxfam; "Oxfam Unwrapped".

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Will Young 'I am Gay' http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/1864643.stm
  2. ^ Young, Will (2007-07-28). We gays haven’t won the battle yet. The Times. Retrieved on 2008-01-26.

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Will Young
Studio albums
Singles
DVDs
Will Young Live • Live in London
Related articles
v • d • e
Pop Idol
Hosts
Judges
Winners
Will Young · Michelle McManus
Winners' singles
Runners-up
Other alumni