Was Will A Worthy Winner? (Will Young in general)

Member Name: karenuk

Product:	Will Young in general
Date:	14/02/02 (198 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: talented, versatile, unique voice

Disadvantages: has the 'baggage' associated with winning a reality / talent show

This man must be one of the most talked about singers at the moment – and he hasn’t even released a record! But that will soon change, when his first single – Anything Is Possible / Evergreen is released on February 25th. So who is he and is he worth the hype?

William Robert Young is 23 years old and from Hungerford, although he now lives in London. He studied Politics at Exeter University, gaining a 2.2 degree. His parents are Robin and Annabel. He has a twin brother, Rupert and an older sister, Emma.

Will came to fame by winning Pop Idol, but this wasn’t his first taste of stardom. In 1999, he made it into a boyband put together by This Morning, alongside Lee from Blue and one of Lisa Scott-Lee’s brothers, now in 3SL. Unfortunately, nothing happened afterwards, with the band quietly fading into obscurity.

When Pop Idol first hit our TV screens last year, we all wondered why we needed yet more reality TV shows. It seemed to start off quite slowly, with the usual spread of talentless rejects sharing airtime with a few sparks of brilliance shining through.

Most people can’t remember Will’s first audition, he sang Blame It On The Boogie and although the voice was definitely there, he looked scruffy and unfortunately tried to dance. Oh dear. Still, the judges saw he did have that elusive ‘something’ and he was put through the next rounds.

I became completely hooked on Pop Idol when it got down to the final fifty stages. Besides the weekly Saturday finals (five groups of ten, with two winners from each going through to the final ten), ITV2 covered the practice stages in detail. This meant we got to see the whole process – from choosing the song to the final polished performance.

We also felt we got to know the fifty contestants, as we saw films about their backgrounds and heard them being interviewed by Kate Thornton. We saw them struggle with their songs
or shine immediately. We observed how they got on with their peers, how they responded to the voice coaches (David, Carrie and pianist Mike) and how they behaved.

By the time it got to Will’s week, I had changed my lifestyle to accommodate the programme, making sure I cooked tea before or after, so as not to miss anything. I began to record the final heats from the third week and Saturday nights revolved around the show.

Will sang Light My Fire in this round. I remember he practised it by the piano during the early part of the week and it astounded me, there was just something special – a distinct quality in his voice. He also came over as a genuinely nice guy – intelligent, well-spoken, creative and pleasant. I liked him.

In his Saturday final, he was easily the best one there. His performance was even better than in the practice. Everyone sat up and took notice, suddenly Will had arrived. He impressed three of the judges, but when it came to the notorious ‘baddie’ Simon Cowell, he moaned it was “distinctly average” – prompting fellow judge, Nicki Chapman to prompt Will to respond – which he did! His retort is now legendary, forcing Simon to apologise on TV a couple of weeks later, saying he was “humbled” by him and commenting what a “gentleman” he is.

Will won his heat. Some cynics suggested this was the ‘Craig vs Nasty Nick in Big Brother’ syndrome, but it wasn’t. With a voice like that, Will was always destined to go through. But yes, it didn’t hinder his path to the final.

A couple of weeks down the line, the competition shifted up a gear. For an hour on Saturday evenings, ITV1 showed the ten finalists singing live with a phone vote deciding which one would be eliminated. Each week had a theme with the chosen songs fitting into this.

Besides singing live to a packed audience and on national television, the
finalists also had to cope with adapting from singing with piano accompaniment to dealing with backing tracks, a big band on stage and backing singers. The ten were having an intensive training course in becoming a star!

As the weeks went on, the finalists also had tastes of stardom. They attended a film premiere, faced press conferences, had dance lessons, toured Pete Waterman’s recording studios and had professional photo shoots. As each week saw another contestant fall by the wayside, the pressure intensified on those that were left. It was a good taste of things to come!

The first week consisted of all ten singing songs made famous by their own pop idols. Will chose a song called Until You Come Back To Me by Aretha Franklin. Although this isn’t really my sort of song and it wasn’t one I knew, he sang it very well and seemed unfazed by the new situation he was facing.

The second week’s theme was Christmas. Will sang Winter Wonderland and although it was beautiful, I was disappointed he didn’t speed it up a bit, to show off the texture of his voice a bit more. He was still my favourite, but I felt he hadn’t quite recaptured the brilliance of Light My Fire.

Burt Bacharach was the theme of the third week and Will chose Wives and Lovers for his performance. This was another song I hadn’t heard before, but I preferred this to his previous two weeks’ choices. His personality really shone through and by now, the essence of Will was very evident – the big grin, the head on one side, the hand movements…

Week four produced one of my favourite performances of the whole series – Will singing Ain’t No Sunshine from the film Notting Hill. This was Will at his best, with great changes in tempo and that wonderful stretching quality in his voice, where he can go from a slight hoarse gravel-like texture to a silky smooth note. Beautiful.

The next week
217;s theme was Abba and most contestants struggled with this, but Will did an amazing rendition of The Name of the Game. It was recognisable as the Abba song, but definitely a unique version. I am a huge Abba fan, so you’ll understand how much of a compliment it is to say I prefer Will’s version! By now, I was convinced he could win.

Week six was the big band week, one Will had obviously been looking forward to, as he enjoys singing songs from that era and in that style. We Are In Love was another great song and he sparkled just like a star. He seemed completely at home with this and looked natural on stage.

The following week’s theme was Number Ones and each singer chose a slow song and a fast one. Will began with There Must Be An Angel and I didn’t think this was very good initially. He seemed very nervous at the start. After repeated listening though, this does work and I now really rate it. But at the time, I wondered whether he might be eliminated, as it was now down to the last four and they were all very good.

His second choice was Night Fever, which I liked immediately as it really seemed to suit his voice. He appeared much more relaxed with this one and was back up to his usual high standard.

Down to the last three – just him, Darius Danesh and Gareth Gates. This time it was the judges’ choice and he was given two songs to perform – Beyond The Sea (recently being sung by Robbie Williams on his Swing While You’re Winning album) and The Sweetest Feeling.

Will was really good on both tracks, but I did worry that they were both quite old tracks, which might alienate the younger viewers. There had been a lot of press speculation that Will might be voted out this week and after Darius performed two brilliant songs, the doubts began to creep in. But he survived.

And then there were two! Gareth and Will both performed their renditions of the Pop Idol single, the
double A-side of Evergreen (a Westlife album track) and Anything Is Possible (a new song written by Cathy Dennis). Besides this, each of the guys performed a song they had done in the earlier finals. Will chose Light My Fire, although I did prefer his shorter, tighter version of the final fifty heats.

All bets were off, Gareth was generally touted as the guaranteed winner by the tabloid media. But some sections had started to rally round Will too. He had won several polls online, with a MyVoice poll concluding that most thought Gareth ‘would’ win, but that Will ‘should’. He also had the public backing of a host of celebrities, including Victoria Beckham and Robbie Williams. So perhaps it wouldn’t be a one-horse race after all.

When the results were announced by Ant and Dec, the phone vote had been the biggest in British TV history and Will had won by half a million votes! Shocked, he stepped backwards, scaring Ant McPartlin who thought he was about to faint! He covered his face with his hands, then put his head up and grinned.

Somehow, he got through a celebratory reprise of Evergreen, with the final fifty appearing behind him on the stage and pieces of glitter pouring from above. As he finished on a slightly shaky final emotional note, Darius hoisted him on his shoulders.

After being interviewed by Kate Thornton, he left the country the next day to film his video in Cuba. On the Sunday night, Foxy’s Pepsi Chart Show played both sides of his new single. Each day this week, Will has made the front page in at least one newspaper. Plus, the cover of Heat again – and all before his single is even out.

He will almost definitely get a number one with Evergreen / Anything Is Possible and he deserves it. This guy has class. He isn’t another boyband clone who sings soppy, pappy, vapid pop songs. His voice is more suited to soul or motown and his upcoming album is due to reflect thi
s, with input from Burt Bacharach amongst others.

His style can be compared to Jamiroquai, Mick Hucknall or Robbie Williams, but basically he is unique. You can tell it’s Will singing and his face is also memorable. He may not be what is thought of as drop dead gorgeous, with a rather student-like image, a questionable taste in jumpers, a slightly crooked jaw and a lisp. But he is wonderful, oozing charisma and sex appeal. I think he’s just brilliant!

His career should be long-lasting, as he can deliver great songs from a wide range of styles and eras. He also appeals to all generations, as my kids love him just as much as I do. If critics expected a one-hit wonder pretty boy of pop, they have to eat their words now. Will is a star and he’ll be around for years. Enjoy!

 Single out February 25th.
 Album out later this year.
 Touring with the Pop Idol final ten from mid-March til early April.
 Official website at www.wyoung.co.uk
 Some Yahoogroups you can subscribe to include :
pop-idol-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
pop_idol-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
william_young_pop_idol-subscribe@yahoogroups.c om
william-young-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
 Pop Idol video ‘A Star Is Born’ out on March 11th.
 Look out for TV appearances coming up on TOTP, SM:TV, CD:UK, etc.
 Look out for Pop Idol special show coming up, featuring the final ten...

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