| Matt Willis | |
|---|---|
Willis in February 2007. |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Matthew James Willis |
| Born | 8 May 1983 Tooting, South London, England |
| Genres | Pop rock, pop punk |
| Occupations | Singer-songwriter, television presenter |
| Instruments | Guitar, vocals, bass, drums |
| Years active | 2001–present |
| Labels | Mercury (2005–07) |
| Associated acts | Busted, McFly, James Bourne, Charlie Simpson, Wicked |
| Website | www.mattwillis.net |
Matthew James Willis (born 8 May 1983) is an English singer-songwriter. He found fame as a founding member of the band Busted.
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Willis was born Matthew James Willis in Tooting, London, later moving to East Molesey, Surrey, where he grew up, and later moved to Woking, Surrey.
Willis has an older brother, Darren; their parents split up when Matt was three years old. His mother later remarried and had his half-sister, Amanda, who is an Ambassador for a charity called Whizz-Kidz. Willis has had three different last names legally whilst growing up; Willis after his birth father, this was changed to Woods after his parents split and later changed to Sargent after his mother married her now current husband.
Willis has made it clear that he was a "problem" child, regularly sneaking out of the house by shimmying down drain pipes. He also as a child suffered from brittle bone disease, tunnel vision, asthma and hyperactivity problems.
Willis attended Woking High School after being asked to leave his previous secondary school, before leaving to attend the independent fee-paying Sylvia Young Theatre School in Marylebone, London, where he met his now close friends Lee Ryan, Tom Fletcher, Billie Piper, Jodi Albert, and Amy Winehouse who has openly said that she fancied Matt at school: "Yeah we all loved Matt at school. I fancied him, Everyone did."
Willis first found fame in the music industry as one third of the pop-rock band, Busted. The band's bassist and vocalist, Willis formed the band as well as co-writing almost all of their songs alongside Charlie Simpson, James Bourne and Tom Fletcher although the latter was a member of McFly.
During their career, the trio became immensely famous in Britain and began an upsurge of pop-punk popularity. They had several chart successes and released two studio albums, one live album and a compilation of their greatest hits available in America.
The band disbanded in 2005 due to Simpson leaving to pursue other projects.
After a brief stint in rehab after the Busted split, Matt launched a solo career on Mercury Records, releasing singles in 2005 and 2006: "Up All Night", "Hey Kid", "Don't Let It Go to Waste", and a cover version of The Primitives song, "Crash" for the film Mr Bean's Holiday.
After appearing on ITV's "I'm A Celebrity...", Willis decided it was time for a change. Just as he was about to depart on his first solo UK Tour he sacked his management of six years Prestige Management. This later came with the decision to leave his record label Mercury Records. "It's not a simple case of dropping an artist but just that we both felt we had reached a point where we could no longer move forwards."
Matt Willis is in the studio recording his second album. He wrote on Twitter that some songs sound similar to Charlie Simpson's acoustic album Young Pilgrim and Matt's first album. The songs are going to sound different to his debut, Don't Let It Go to Waste, released in 2006, although his debut contained songs of a mature aspect but were still in the mould of his Busted days. He is producing the album himself along with a production team if things go wrong. He is also launching his own record label to release the album on. He has working titles for songs such as "A Strange Dream", "Wondergirl" ("That song is not about girls" he wrote on Twitter) and "Tie Me Down". He also said that the album will be released sometime in 2012, with a release date to be announced soon.
Matt wrote on his Twitter that the album recording is in its first stages.
As of 12 December 2011, it was announced on the official website for the West End Production of Wicked that Willis would take over the role of Fiyero, the leading male and love interest to both Elphaba and Glinda.
Since winning I'm a Celebrity... Get Me out of Here!, Willis has pursued various presenting projects. On 14 February 2007, Willis took his first major presenting role, when he was one of the presenters of ITV2's coverage of the BRIT Awards, alongside Lauren Laverne, Russell Howard and Alesha Dixon. He returned to this role in 2008 alongside Emma Willis and Lauren Laverne. He interviewed Rihanna, Shayne Ward, Adele, Ozzy Osbourne, Kate Nash and many more including Perez Hilton who became very fond of Matt.
Following his success in this, he hosted the MTV Hits night of MTV's Spanking New Music Tour 2007 with his wife Emma, live from the Anson Rooms in Bristol on 21 March 2007.
In February 2008, Willis presented the Red Carpet coverage for the E! Entertainment network, at the 2008 BAFTA Awards, alongside Ryan Seacrest and Emma Willis.
In December 2006 on ITV, Willis was crowned 'King of the Jungle' being the winning contestant on I'm a Celebrity... Get Me out of Here! despite going into the final day as the 8-1 underdog against Myleene Klass and Jason Donovan. Weighing 13 stone 2 lb upon entering, he discovered that he had lost 2 stone after being weighed again in the jungle. In order to enter the jungle, Willis was required to bungee jump from a plane. During his stay, in a compulsory bushtucker trial, Willis ate a kangaroo anus, crocodile penis, crocodile eye, witchetty grub, and some sweeties and mealworms to earn a cooked, luxury meal for himself and the other celebrities.
In November 2007, Willis and his wife Emma Griffiths went to Australia and presented I'm a Celebrity... Get Me out of Here! Now on ITV2 after Willis had won the 2006 series. Following in 2008, the couple were asked back after winning a presenting award earlier that year. Each series lasted over six weeks in Australia during November and December. In early 2009, Willis and his wife did not renew their contract with ITV2 due to the birth of their first child in June 2009.
Willis married his long term girlfriend of three years, Emma Griffiths, at Rushton Hall, Northamptonshire, on 5 July 2008. Guests included ex Members of Son Of Dork, James Bourne, David Gest, Holly Willoughby, Ant McPartlin, McFly, Kara Tointon and Heidi Range. OK! Magazine covered the wedding for July in their 632 issue. In December 2007 they took part in their first "press" shoot for OK! Magazine, even though Matt said he did not want to be a part of the whole cycle. In November 2007 Willis claimed to have stopped smoking, which he had done from the age of 11, but has since been photographed smoking.
They have a daughter, Isabelle Catherine Willis, who was born on 20 June 2009.[1] They had their second child, son Ace Billy Willis on 25 November 2011.[2]
In April 2005, aged 21, Willis had a brief stint for 3 weeks in London's Priory Rehab Hospital for alcoholism. In July 2006, aged 23, Willis was admitted again for a few days to the Priory Rehab Hospital for drug abuse, because he was hooked on cannabis from the age of 13. Matt began to have problems from the drug-taking including physiological and memory problems. In June 2008, aged 25, Willis entered the providence project rehab centre in Bournemouth after a marriage ultimatum, as Willis continued to take drugs and drink heavily. It was reported that a night out with close friend Amy Winehouse pushed Willis too far. Willis took the full 5 week course in Drugs and Alcohol.
On 28 February 2010 Matt Willis was injured in a skiing accident, but hoped to recover over a six week period.[3]
Willis is now re-inventing himself as a DJ and has DJ-ed for many successful club nights in Southend, Glasgow, Leeds and Warrington to name just a few. He toured from January until October 2008. Throughout 2009, Willis made a few DJ appearances at various university summer balls.
| Year | Title | Chart positions | Album | Label | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK | IRE | EU | ||||
| 2006 | "Up All Night" | 7 | 29 | - | Don't Let It Go to Waste | Mercury |
| "Hey Kid | 11 | 42 | - | |||
| "Don't Let It Go to Waste" | 19 | 44 | - | |||
| 2007 | "Crash" | 31 | - | - | Mr. Bean's Holiday OST | |
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