William Robert Young BA (Exon) (born 20 January 1979) 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.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.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:
Audition - Blame It on the Boogie by the Jackson 5
London Rounds (Day 1 - first round): Up on the Roof by The Drifters
London Rounds (Day 1 - second round): All or Nothing by O-Town
London Rounds (Day 2): Fastlove by George Michael
Top 50 (Semi Finals): Light My Fire by The Doors
Top 10 (Your Pop Idol): Until You Come Back to Me by Aretha Franklin
Top 9 (Christmas Songs): Winter Wonderland
Top 8 (Burt Bacharach Songs): Wives and Lovers sung by Jack Jones
Top 7 (Movie Hits): Ain't No Sunshine by Bill Withers
Top 6 (ABBA Songs): The Name of the Game by ABBA
Top 5 (Big Band Hits): We Are in Love by Harry Connick Jr
Top 4 (No 1 Hits): Night Fever by The Bee Gees; There Must Be an Angel (Playing with My Heart) by the Eurythmics
Top 3 (Judges' Choice): Beyond the Sea sung by Bobby Darin; I Get the Sweetest Feeling by Jackie Wilson
Top 2 (Grand Finale): Anything Is Possible; Light My Fire by The Doors; Evergreen album track by Westlife 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.
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.
Young will host an episode of the Sunday Night Project on 20 July 2008.
On Monday 29th September 2008, a new album, entitled "Let It Go", will be released, preceded by the single "Changes" which is to be released on 14 September.
