Will Young

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Will Young
Background information
Birth name	William Robert Young
Born	January 20, 1979 (age 28)
Origin	England
Genre(s)	Pop / Jazz-Pop
Years active	2002–Present
Label(s)	Sony BMG
Website	http://www.willyoung.co.uk/

William Robert Young (born January 20, 1979) is an English 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.

1 Early life
2 Pop Idol
3 Post-Idol career
4 Acting career
5 Philanthropy
6 Discography
7 See also
8 References
9 External links

[edit] Early life

Young was born in Reading/Wokingham, Berkshire, with a non-identical twin, Rupert. He also has an older sister, Emma. He was educated at Horris Hill preparatory school and Wellington College.

He then attended the University of Exeter where he read Politics. 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] Pop Idol

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

Contrary to popular belief, Will did not come from behind to win the contest. After having beaten the widely-accepted frontrunner Gareth Gates in the final show, it emerged that he had in fact gained the most votes in six out of the nine weeks of the live show. This was published in the "Pop Idol" book which was released shortly after the programme.

[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.

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.^[1]

Shortly after this he went on a Pop Idol tour along with the other contestants that were on Pop Idol. In August 2002, he performed at the closing ceremony of the 2002 Commonwealth Games.

He went on to win the Brit Awards "Best Breakthrough Act", and a plethora of other awards.

Early singles of note, taken from his debut From Now On include "Light My Fire"(in José Feliciano style) and the double A-side (and official Children In Need single of 2003) "You and I"/"Don't Let Me Down".

Taken from his second album, "Friday's Child" was first the hugely successful "Leave Right Now", for which the writer Eg White scooped an Ivor Novello songwriting award. The second and third singles were "Your Game" and "Friday's Child" respectively. This second album is often deemed to be Young's most successful, selling over 1.6 million copies (five times platinum) and containing several tracks co-written by him, the album received a great many accolades and much critical acclaim.

His second Brit, in February 2005, was awarded for the single "Your Game" (co-written by Young and Blair MacKichan). Following sellout theatre and arena tours in 2004, he toured again at outside festival venues in summer 2005. On July 6, 2005, he performed at Edinburgh 50,000 - The Final Push, the final concert of Live 8, a charity concert in Edinburgh to raise awareness for the plight of Africa, where he performed a duet with James Brown singing "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag".

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.

His third album, Keep On, was released in November 2005, along with a revamped website, together with the first single from the same, "Switch It On", which confounded much expectation of the singer as it strayed from the predictable successful ballad formula. He released a second single in the form of "All Time Love" which was very well received, reaching number three in the sales charts and achieving Young's highest ever airplay. A third single "Who Am I" was released in April 2006, accompanied by an innovative video based on old episodes of Blue Peter, whereby Young was superimposed into scenes from decades past.

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.[1]

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.

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.

On 30 September he also performed at G-A-Y nightclub in London.

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 group of concerts.

During November Will performed in South Africa for Nelson Mandela's Unite of the Stars charity concerts. Also appearing were Ronan Keating, Shayne Ward and Bananarama.

On 11 December 2006 Will 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 song "Patience".

[edit] Acting career

Young added acting to his repertoire when he accepted a role 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 has been treading 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.

[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 may 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." [2]

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 predjudices" The Children's Society Safe and Sound Campaign, and Positive Action Southwest (PASW)[3], 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.