User:Matthewedwards/Sandbox/Will Young

William "Will" Robert Young (born 20 January 1979) is a British singer-songwriter and actor. His rise to fame began in 2001 while appearing on the first series of the television programme Pop Idol, a talent show/singing competition. After winning the competition, BMG gave him a recording contract, and his first album, From Now On, was released in October 2002. He has released three studio albums since then: Friday's Child in 2003, Keep On in 2005, and Let It Go in 2008. A greatest hits album titled The Hits was released on 16 November 2009.

In the years following his participation on Pop Idol, Young has embarked on numerous tours, authored two books, Anything Is Possible and On Camera, Off Duty, and acted on film, stage and television.

Family
Will Young was born on 20 January 1979 in Wokingham, Berkshire, and is the second-oldest child of Robin Young, the company director of an engineering firm, and Annabel Young (née Griffith), a plant nursery gardener. Born six weeks prematurely, he is ten minutes older than his twin brother Rupert. He also has an older sister, Emma.

Young was born into an affluent, middle-class family, whose paternal ancestry has strong ties to the British government and military services. His great-great-great-great grandfather was Sir Colonel Aretas William Young, who, in 1795 at seventeen-years-old, joined the British Army and served in Ireland and Egypt before fighting in the Peninsular War. Aretas was later stationed in Trinidad and eventually took charge of the Trinidadian government, before moving to Demerara where he was appointed Protector of Slaves. Aretas became the sixth Governor of Prince Edward Island in 1831, and three years later was knighted by King William IV.

Aretas' son, Sir Henry Young was also an influential figure within the British Empire. When he was twenty-four, Henry was appointed to a position in the colonial treasury in Trinidad. In the 1830s, he was posted in Demerara, and followed in his father's footsteps by helping to free the slaves. In 1848 Henry became the fifth Governor of South Australia, and later the first Governor of Tasmania. He was knighted in 1847. Young's paternal grandfather, Digby Aretas Young, served in the Royal Air Force and died in 1966.

Education
Young was raised in Hungerford, Berkshire, and was initially educated at Kingsbury Hill School in Marlborough before attending Horris Hill Prepatory School, Newbury, between the ages of eight and thirteen. His first appearance on stage was at the age of four when he played a fir tree in a school production and had one line to speak. At Horris Hill, Young was head chorister in the school choir, and at the age of nine he learned how to play the piano. Young recalls that at Horris Hill, students were taught that they were more privileged than students from state schools, and that one day he wrote a letter stating, "I must pass common entrance to take me to public school, otherwise I'll be going to state school and everyone will be very disappointed." At thirteen, Young and his brother were enrolled in Wellington College, Crowthorne, a public boarding school. Young appeared in several school productions and often gave speeches in assembly, despite later admitting that he never felt completely comfortable being the centre of attention. It was during this period that he became interested in sports and for a time he dreamed of competing in the Olympic Games in the 400 metre sprint, which he could run in under fifty seconds – the Olympic average is forty-three seconds. He became captain of the school's basketball and athletics teams, and also represented the school in the triple jump, long jump, football and rugby. The only sport he says he felt uncomfortable playing was cricket.

Young left school with ten GCSEs, but achieved disappointing A-Level results and had to enroll in D'Overbroeck's College, Oxford, to re-sit his exams. He took a part-time job as a waiter at the Grand Café in Oxford, and became interested in environmental issues and local campaigning, joining a group called the Eco Society. He passed his A-Levels the second time, earning As in Politics and Ancient History, and a B in English. In 1998 Young began studying politics at the University of Exeter, choosing the subject because, "I thought I should know more about what was going on in my country." His interest in performing arts continued, and he joined a theatre group called Footlights where he eventually landed the lead role of Curly in their production of Oklahoma!. "I really enjoyed it and doing that gave me a lot of confidence," he later said of the show. He also took a work experience position at Sony Records to gain insight into the music industry. Other work included runway and photographic modelling, gardening, tearing labels off T-shirts in a clothing factory, and being a waiter. He graduated in 2001 with a 2:2 bachelor's degree. After leaving university, Young knew that he wanted to be a professional singer, but he did not want to be full of naivety and without training. In September 2001 he became a student at the Arts Educational Schools, in Chiswick, London.

Early auditions
In 1999 during his second year at university, Young watched an episode of This Morning and learned that the show was holding a competition to find members for a new boy band. He mailed the producers an audition tape and received a letter back from the show telling him he had been selected as one of seventy-five competitors, and that he had to appear in London for an off-camera audition. The seventy-five auditionees were whittled down to nine finalists, of which Young was one, who were then invited to perform on the show. On 29 May 1999, Young appeared on the programme and performed a short rendition of The Jackson 5 song, I'll Be There, in front of a panel of judges that included Simon Cowell, an artists and repertoire executive at BMG, and Kate Thornton, a former editor of Smash Hits, turned television presenter. One week later, Young was selected into the boy band alongside three other competitors including Lee Ryan, who later joined the boy band Blue. Cowell said of the group, "We've tried to find people with star quality and these guys can sing and dance", but the band failed to find any success and it soon dis-banded. Young's next audition was at the Guildhall in London to be a jazz singer, but he accidentally arrived on the wrong date.

Auditions
On 20 June 2001, one of Young's university classmates showed him an advertisement in the News of the World for auditionees of Pop Idol, a planned nationwide televised talent show to find a solo pop artist in a similar way that Popstars had created the pop band Hear’Say the previous year. The winner was guaranteed a £1 million recording contract with BMG and representation by 19 Management. He printed out an application form from the website, filled it out and posted it on 28 June. On 7 August he received a reply which told him he had been accepted for an audition at ExCeL London on 5 September. On the day of the audition, Young performed Aretha Franklin's "Until You Come Back to Me (That's What I'm Gonna Do)" in front of an assistant producer, and was deemed good enough to be given a second audition two days later. For his second audition, Young sang "Blame It on the Boogie" by The Jacksons in front of a show producer and won a place to the third round to perform before the show's judges: Simon Cowell; Nicki Chapman, a Popstars judge who also worked as a publicist at 19 Entertainment, the company that was producing Pop Idol; Pete Waterman, a music producer who had written or produced twenty-one singles that had charted at Number One in the UK Singles Chart, 200 Top Tens, and sold over 500 million records for the artists such as Kylie Minogue, Rick Astley, Bananarama, Steps and Westlife; and Neil "Dr Fox" Fox, a disc jockey who presented the drivetime show on Capital FM and the nationally syndicated Pepsi Chart. He was the final contestant the judges saw, and after a day of watching mostly poor performances they were not in the best spirits. Again, Young performed "Blame It on the Boogie", but the judges thought his overall performance was merely average. Chapman told him that his dance moves had let him down, but his vocal was good. Fox described him as cheesy, Waterman was unimpressed by his stage presence and image – Young was wearing baggy and faded jeans, scuffed shores and his grandfather's jumper which was stained with egg – but conceded that his voice was "nice". Despite their uncertainty, however, they advanced him through to the next round. The following week, auditions were held at the Criterion Theatre, and Young sang "All or Nothing" by O-Town, The Drifters' "Up on the Roof" and Fast Love" by George Michael. Still not completely convinced by his performances, he was made to wait in the "Maybe" room until the judges decided to send him through to the Final 50.

The first episode of Pop Idol was broadcast on 6 October 2001 on ITV, and Young's audition aired on the third show on 20 October. The next round of the competition was split into five heats that aired every Saturday between 3 November and 8 December. Each show featured ten of the fifty competitors singing one song in the Pop Idol studios in front of the judges and an audience, but unlike previous rounds, the viewing public decided who would advance to the next round by interactive televoting voting using their telephones, the Red Button on digital television remote controls, and the Pop Idol website. The two singers with the highest number of votes in each heat advanced to the final rounds of the competition. Young competed in Heat 4, broadcast on 24 November, and sang a jazz/lounge interpretation of "Light My Fire" by The Doors. Judges Chapman, Fox and Waterman were all enthusiastic about his performance, but Cowell was unimpressed and called it "distinctly average," adding, "I just thought it was totally normal. In the context of the show I honestly didn't think it was good enough." The other judges and contestants all expressed shock at his comments, and Young responded, telling Cowell that while he was entitled to his opinion, it was wrong.

This incident has often been cited as the moment when Young's pop career truly began, standing out to viewers and endeared himself to them. It appeared that the voting audience agreed with Young and disagreed with Cowell, because he was voted through to the next round, in first place, with 41.5% of the overall vote. During Young's next appearance on the show on 15 December, Cowell stated that he had previously made a "huge mistake", and that Young had conducted himself with a dignity that had humbled him. Young later stated that his proudest moment of the entire competition was this incident.

Live Finals
Young easily progressed through each subsequent round by performing jazz, lounge and soul versions of songs such as "Wives and Lovers", "Ain't No Sunshine" and "Beyond the Sea". In the first four weeks of the Live Finals, he received the highest percentage of votes. In weeks five, six and seven, he received the second highest percentage of votes, losing out on first place to Gareth Gates each time. In the Semi-Final, competing against Gates and Darius Danesh, Young again received the most votes (39.8%). Gates received 39.3% of the votes and won the other place in the Grand Final, while Danesh received 20.9% of the votes and was eliminated from the competition.

Throughout the following week, Young and Gates embarked on separate whistle-stop tours of the United Kingdom in large tour buses adorned with their faces, in an attempt to canvass for votes. In election-style campaigns, they made numerous radio and television appearances, were interviewed in magazines, national and local newspapers, and met and performed for their fans. Celebrities such as Noel Gallagher, Robbie Williams, Posh and Becks, Kylie Minogue, Myleen Klass, Michelle Collins, S Club 7 and Jenny Frost announced their support for Young, while Gates was backed by Duncan James, Natasha Hamilton, Richard and Judy, Westlife, Faye Tozer, Denise Van Outen, Ben Adams, Neil Tennant, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Claire Richards, Boy George, Ricky Gervais and Francis Rossi. The media pitted Young and Gates against each other, publishing false news articles claiming that the two contestants were bitter rivals and their parents were bickering and fighting backstage, stories which both camps denied. Although for a brief moment earlier in the series Young was favoured to win, bookmakers gave Gates better odds on the eve of the Grand Final, pointing to his angelic voice, good looks and displays of emotion that appealed to a younger audience, compared with Young's soulful crooning and maturity appealing to housewives and intellectuals. Gates was given various odds of 1–5, 2–7 and 2–9, while Young's odds were quoted at 3–1, 100–30 and 11–4 at different times in the week.

On 9 February 2002, 13.34 million viewers watched Young and Gates battle each other in the Grand Final for the title of "Pop Idol". Both acts sang "Anything Is Possible" and "Evergreen", which were to be released as a double A-side single by the winner. Young also sang "Light My Fire" a second time as his favourite performance from the series. 8.7 million votes were registered over the two-and-a-half hours that the voting lines were open, which set a new world record. However, some voters complained that their votes had not been registered and that ITV, British Telecom and Telescope (the company responsible for operating the phone system) had not prepared well enough for the volume of calls because the system crashed at one point during the evening. It was also alleged that the had phonelines had been fixed and they were involved in vote rigging. Nevertheless, Young was announced the winner of the competition after receiving 4.6 million (53.1%) votes, just 500,000 more than Gates. Young's shock at hearing the news was obvious to viewers as his jaw dropped and he clasped his hands to his face. "When he [Ant McPartlin] said what the votes were, I thought, 'I am second, and I have lost by that much. Oh well, that's not bad'," Young recalled. "When I heard I'd won ... I felt like I'd been hit. I stepped backwards. I could not believe it." In 2011, Young described Pop Idol as "a huge starting point and ... the best ever experience for me, ever."

Recording career
After winning Pop Idol, Young was given a £1 million recording contract with BMG and signed with 19 Management for representation. Pop Idol judge Nicki Chapman became his manager. He immediately left the UK for Cuba to record the music videos for his double A-side single "Anything Is Possible"/"Evergreen". "Evergreen" had previously been recorded by Westlife, but "Anything Is Possible" was a new song written by Chris Braide and Cathy Dennis for the winner of the show. The single was released on 25 February 2002, two weeks after Young won Pop Idol. It was an instant sales success, selling over 385,000 copies in its first day of sale. It had sold nearly 560,000 units by day two, more than the debut single released by Hear'Say, winners of Popstars, had in its entire first week. The new UK Singles Chart was compiled on 3 March; "Anything Is Possible"/"Evergreen" had entered the chart at number 1. Announcing the news on the Pepsi Chart Show, Dr Fox told Young that he had sold 1,108,659 copies of his single, becoming the fastest-selling debut single in UK Chart history. In fact, "Anything Is Possible"/"Evergreen" had sold more than double all the singles from 2 to 200 added together. The single ultimately sold 1.8 million copies, was certified 3× Platinum, and became the best-selling single of 2002 and the best-selling single of the 2000s. Additionally, the single was listed at number 13 on BBC Radio 2's "UK's Million Sellers" chart in August 2010, which listed the Top 100 singles to sell a million copies or more. However, despite the commercial success of the single, Young was unhappy with the songs. In 2002, he said that he "wasn't over-struck on either of them. It almost felt like the songs had been chosen especially for Gareth ... I found 'Evergreen' a very difficult song to get into ... 'Anything Is Possible' was another song that I found difficult to work with." In 2006 he reiterated his comments and told The A-List Chart Show "I don't think it ['Evergreen'] is a great song. I think I've done better songs." Darius Danesh, who finished third on Pop Idol and also recorded the songs, agreed that they were chosen in anticipation of Gates winning the show. Critical reception of the songs was also low. Michael Osborn, reviewing for MusicOHM, picked up on what Young and Danesh felt about the song, noting that Young did not sound comfortable singing them. In 2009, Alex Fletcher of Digital Spy wrote Anything Is Possible' hasn't aged too well, but we still have a soft spot for 'Evergreen'." In his review for Allmusic, Jon O'Brian called "Evergreen" corny and clichéd, and criticised its "faux-inspirational lyrics and stand up for the key change power ballad sound". He goes on to describe "Anything Is Possible" as "a limp and lifeless attempt at smooth R&B", and suggested that Cathy Dennis wrote it "on an off day." He concludes with, "It's remarkable that he was lumbered with material that could have finished his career before it began." Nevertheless, "Anything Is Possible"/"Evergreen" was nominated in the "Best British Single" category at the 2003 BRIT Awards, and the song "Anything Is Possible" won a 2003 Ivor Novello Award for "Best-Selling UK Single".

Young's follow-up single was another song he had performed on Pop Idol, "Light My Fire", which also entered the singles chart at number 1.

In October 2002, Young released his debut album, From Now On. It produced three more singles: "The Long and Winding Road" (a duet with Gareth Gates, released as a double A-side with Gates's song "Suspicious Minds") and "Don't Let Me Down"/"You and I" (released in aid of Children in Need). He won his first BRIT Award in February 2003 as Best Breakthrough Artist.

Young's second album, Friday's Child, was released in December 2003. It features the singles "Leave Right Now", nominated in the Best British single category of the past 25 years at the 2005 BRIT Awards "Your Game" (which won Young his second BRIT Award in 2005) and "Friday's Child" In November 2005, Young released his third album, Keep On, which included the single "All Time Love", nominated in the Best British Single category at the 2007 BRIT Awards. Other singles from the album were "Switch It On" and "Who Am I".

Young has been nominated for Ten BRIT Awards [4 x Best British Male - 4 X Best British single - Best pop Act- Best Breakthrough]. In May 2006, he was voted the UK's favourite artist ever in a poll conducted by commercial radio. In May 2007, he was voted the UK's favourite artist of all time for the second consecutive year. As of 13 December 2009, Will Young has more weeks at number 1 on the official UK Singles chart in the 2000s than any other solo artist with 15. Jay-Z also has 15 weeks in this position but this figure includes numerous collaborations rather than solo.

On 29 September 2008, Young's fourth album, Let It Go, was released it peaked at #2, preceded by the single "Changes" on 15 September it peaked at #10. His next single "Grace" was released on 1 December 2008, and peaked at #33 on the UK Singles Chart. Will's third single taken from the album will be "Let It Go", was released on 2 March 2009 in the UK, and peaked at #58 on the UK Singles Chart. The fourth and final single was "Tell Me the Worst", and was released on July 5, 2009 only in the UK. It served as a club promo, and featured some Fred Falke remixes.

On an interview with Digital Spy, he revealed that he was working on a Dance-Pop album, which might be released in late 2009. He also confirmed that he was working with British duo Groove Armada, Superbass, who remixed his UK Top 10 single "Changes", and Gregg Alexander, who has previously worked with British pop diva Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Geri Halliwell. He also confirmed that he is working on an album covering songs from Noel Coward, which is yet on the very early stages and he "doesn't know if it will end up".

Young's greatest hits collection was released on November 16, 2009. It includes two brand new songs, one of them the single "Hopes & Fears". The album was a success on the charts, being certified Platinum by the BPI.

Live performances and tours
In early 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, singing "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 at Hammersmith Apollo and at the Liverpool Summerpops event. In August 2002, he performed at the closing ceremony of the 2002 Commonwealth Games, singing "I Get the 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. In November 2003, Young performed the 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. Later that year, he embarked upon his first solo arena tour, another sell-out success. He toured again at outside festival venues in mid 2005. In 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. In November 2005, Young appeared in his second Royal Command Performance.

In May 2006, he sang 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 Young in his underpants. In October 2006, Young sang 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.

In July 2007, he appeared at the Concert for Diana at the new Wembley Stadium. Young was the headline act at the Proms in the Park, which took place in Hyde Park in September 2007 as part of the Last Night of the Proms. In September 2007, Young performed at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club with the Vanguard Big Band. Young took part in the Little Noise Sessions, a series of intimate, acoustic gigs for the learning disability charity, Mencap. He performed in November 2007 with special guests at Islington's Union Chapel.

In April 2008, Young again appeared at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club with the Vanguard Big Band. Young is to perform at various festivals during mid 2008, including Glastonbury, T In the Park in Scotland and Bestival on the Isle of Wight.

On 24 August 2008 Young appeared at the Olympic Party which took place in The Mall, London. He performed his latest single Changes and I Can See Clearly Now, which was originally sung by Johnny Nash.

Young is also featured singing in trailers for the recording/film making group 1 Giant Leap's newest project "What About Me?"

Young was the featured singer on the X-Factor programme on ITV1 on Saturday 1 November 2008. He also mentored the remaining contestants.

Young performed in a sell-out theatre tour, commencing on 16 November 2008 and continuing until 13 December 2008 with two dates at The Roundhouse in Camden, London.

On 31 December 2008 Young was featured as a guest on Elton John's Live New Year show at the O2 Arena in London. He joined Sir Elton in the song Daniel.

Young will be performing at various festivals across the UK during the summer of 2009, starting with the Isle of Wight Festival on Saturday 13 June, including T4 On The Beach on Sunday 19 July.

Young was one of the performers at the BBC's Live at Blackpool programme on BBC Radio 2 on Saturday 5 September 2009.

Young toured again in the UK at the end of 2009. He took to the stage at The Waterfront, Belfast on the opening night on 9 November, finishing up at the Brighton Centre on 6 December.

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 trod the boards in the Royal Exchange Theatre's production of The Vortex by Noel Coward. This production ran from January to March 2007 and Young played the leading role of Nicky Lancaster. Critics, including the well respected and acclaimed critic Nicholas de Jonghe, thought Young played the role of Nicky just as it should have been played and he wrote, "revelatory Will  finds key to Coward classic".

In October 2007 Young narrated an audio version of the Roald Dahl  novel Danny, the Champion of the World.

Young also appears in the Miss Marple drama The  Mirror Crack'd From Side To Side  and will guest star in an episode of Skins in 2010.

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 did not 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 was shown on BBC Television. Young filmed an episode about saving the gorillas of West Africa during his visit to Africa earlier in  the year.

In March 2009, ITV1 arts programme The South Bank Show presented an hour long fly on the wall documentary about Young that they had been filming over the course  of the year as he returned to promote the Let It Go  album. It showed him in Iceland filming the video for the Let It Go  single, backstage before his performance on The X Factor  and on his UK theatre tour from November 2008 amongst other segments.

Young has been made a "Companion" of the Liverpool Institute for Performing  Arts.

Debate
On 27 October 2008, Young spoke on Celebrity at the Oxford Union, where he showed an interest in  forming a band named 'Will Young and the Credit Crunchers'. In October 2008 he was invited to appear on Question Time after he revealed he was a fan of the show. He participated in the edition from Dunstable in February 2009.

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." 

Young also supports Mencap&mdash;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"&mdash;, The Children's Society Safe and Sound Campaign, and Positive Action Southwest  (PASW),  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, Young appeared in a series of  advertisements during the Christmas period 2007 for Oxfam; "Oxfam Unwrapped".

Young is the ambassador for Mood Foundation,  a charity which aims to build a database of private therapists and  alternative therapies to treat various types of depressive conditions. It was set up by Young's twin brother Rupert Young.

Personal life
In March 2002, Young revealed that he is gay  pre-empting  a tabloid newspaper that was preparing to out him. He also stated that he had never hidden and was comfortable with his sexuality.

Discography

 * From Now On (2002)
 * Friday's Child (2003)
 * Keep On (2005)
 * Let It Go (2008)
 * The Hits (2009)