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From Pop Idle to International star, very few artists can make the leap and achieve so much success and international recognition. Ticket4-you would like to invite you to enjoy this one off event, and Will's only London date this year.
About Will Young Young was born in Reading/Wokingham, Berkshire, with a non-identical twin, Rupert. He also has an elder 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 School 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 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. Many casual viewers of the show were surprised at Will's victory, as Gareth had won many well-publicised newpaper polls, which some detractors unfairly said was partly due to his stutter evoking the 'sympathy vote'.
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 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 11th.
Will subsequently revealed that he was gay, in order to pre-empt a tabloid newspaper that was preparing to run a story 'outing' him as gay. He also stated that he had never hidden and was comfortable with his sexuality.
He went on to win the Brits Best Breakthrough Act Award and a plethora of other awards. Early singles of note include "The Long and Winding Road" (duet with Gareth Gates), "Light My Fire" (in José Feliciano style), "Leave Right Now" (all reaching No. 1 in the UK charts), and "Friday's Child". The latter is the title of his second album, which contains several tracks co-written by him, went five-times platinum, and received numerous awards and much critical acclaim.
His second Brit, in February 2005, was awarded for his single "Your Game" co-written with 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 money for Africa, where he did 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. All four parts of this podcast are available to download from Will's website NETQUOTEVAR:1 or iTunes.
His third album, Keep On, was released in November 2005, together with the first single from the same, "Switch It On". He released a second single from it, "All Time Love", which was well received, reaching no. 3 in the charts. A third single "Who Am I" was released in April 2006, accompanied by an innovative video based on old episodes of Blue Peter, whereby Will was superimposed into scenes from decades past.
On 1 May 2006, Will 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.NETQUOTEVAR:2
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.
