William Robert Young was born on 20 January 1979 and is an English singer-songwriter and actor who came to prominence after winning the 2002 inaugural series of the ITV talent contest Pop Idol, making him the first winner of the worldwide Idol franchise.
86 Facts About Will Young
2.
Will Young put his studies on hold in late 2001 to become a contestant on Pop Idol.
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Will Young's albums have spawned many songs that have achieved top ten positions in the UK, four of which went to the number one spot.
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Will Young has undertaken numerous concert tours, and has accumulated multiple honours, including two Brit Awards from 12 nominations, and the estimated worldwide sale of over eight million albums.
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Alongside his music career, Will Young has acted in film, on stage and in television.
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Will Young was born into an affluent, middle-class family, whose paternal ancestry has strong ties to the British government and military services.
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Will Young was brought up in Hungerford, West Berkshire, and was initially educated at Kingsbury Hill School in Marlborough, Wiltshire, before attending Horris Hill Preparatory School, Newbury, between the ages of eight and thirteen.
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At Horris Hill, Will Young was head chorister in the school choir, and at the age of nine he learned how to play the piano.
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Will 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.
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Will Young became captain of the school's basketball and athletics teams, and represented the school in the triple jump, long jump, football and rugby.
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Will Young left school with ten GCSEs, but achieved disappointing A-Level results and had to enrol in d'Overbroeck's College, Oxford, to re-sit his exams.
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Will Young took a part-time job as a waiter at the Grand Cafe in Oxford, and became interested in environmental issues and local campaigning, joining a group called the Eco Society.
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Will Young passed his A-Levels the second time, earning As in Politics and Ancient History, and a B in English.
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Will Young took a work experience position at Sony Records to gain insight into the music industry.
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Will Young graduated in 2001 with a 2:2 bachelor's degree.
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In 1999 during his second year at university, Will Young watched an episode of This Morning and learned that the show was holding a competition to find members for a new boy band.
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Will Young 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.
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The 75 auditionees were whittled down to 9 finalists including Will Young, who were then invited to perform on the show.
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On 29 May 1999, Will 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.
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One week later, Will Young was selected into the boy band alongside three other competitors.
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Will Young was the final contestant the judges saw, and after a day of watching mostly poor performances they were not in the best spirits.
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Again, Will Young performed "Blame It on the Boogie", but the judges thought his overall performance was merely average.
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The first episode of Pop Idol was broadcast on 6 October 2001 on ITV, and Will Young's audition aired on the third show on 20 October 2001.
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Will Young later stated that his proudest moment of the entire competition was this incident.
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Will Young sang "Light My Fire" a second time as his favourite performance from the series.
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Will 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.
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In October 2002, Will Young released his debut album, From Now On, which included "Evergreen" nominated in the Best single category in 2003 at the BRIT Awards and "Anything Is Possible".
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Will Young won his first BRIT Award in February 2003 as Best Breakthrough Artist.
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Will Young sang "Try Again", a song featured in Disney's 101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure, the 2003 direct-to-video sequel to Walt Disney's 1961 feature One Hundred and One Dalmatians.
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From 12 September until 2 October 2006, Will 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.
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In October 2006, Will Young sang at Nitin Sawhney's concert in the BBC Electric Proms series of concerts.
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Will Young followed this by performing in South Africa for Nelson Mandela's Unite of the Stars charity concerts.
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Will 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.
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In September 2007, Will Young performed at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club with the Vanguard Big Band.
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Will Young took part in the Little Noise Sessions, a series of intimate, acoustic gigs for the learning disability charity, Mencap.
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Will Young performed in November 2007 with special guests at Islington's Union Chapel.
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Will 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.
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On 24 August 2008, Will Young appeared at the Olympic Party which took place in the Mall, London.
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Will Young performed his latest single Changes and I Can See Clearly Now, which was originally sung by Johnny Nash.
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Will Young 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 singers Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Geri Halliwell.
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Will Young confirmed that he is working on an album covering songs by Noel Coward, which is as yet in its very early stages and he "doesn't know if it will end up".
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In 2010, Will Young collaborated with Groove Armada on their album Black Light, singing vocals on the track 'History'.
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Will Young was featured on the cover of the US magazine Instinct.
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Will Young was told by someone at the record company to re-record his hit single "Leave Right Now" because he sounded too gay on the track.
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Will Young didn't realize this but he was made to re-record the song until the record executives were satisfied with it.
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Will Young appeared on the third episode of the Jonathan Ross Show performing Hearts on Fire from Echoes to further promote the album.
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Will Young undertook a 23 date UK tour including 2 nights at London's Shepherd's Bush Empire in Autumn 2011.
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The second single from Echoes was Come On released in November 2011, with the accompanying video featuring Will Young performing at a dog show.
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Will Young performed a special Christmas concert at the London Palladium in December as the final night of his 2011 performances.
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On 8 November 2012, it was announced Will Young had left his record company after being with them since winning Pop Idol over ten years ago and signed with Island Records.
51.
On Good Morning Britain, Will Young announced that he was recording his sixth studio album.
52.
Will Young released the lead single "All the Songs" from the album the same day and announced he would be embarking on a tour in October 2019 in support of the album.
53.
Will Young had stated in an interview he had no intentions of releasing any more records as he was focusing on acting and his podcast series, however after going into the studio with old friend and producer Richard X the lead single was recorded and the album naturally followed.
54.
On 26 March 2021 Will Young announced the release of his eighth studio album Crying on the Bathroom Floor, which was released on 6 August 2021.
55.
On 25 October 2021, Will Young announced the compilation 20 Years: The Greatest Hits for release on 27 May 2022, marking 20 years since he won Pop Idol.
56.
In January 2022 Will Young competed in the third series of The Masked Singer as "Lionfish".
57.
Will 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.
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Will Young was an Executive Producer for Ralph Fiennes production of Shakespeare's Coriolanus filmed in Serbia, and his documentary on the making of the film features on its DVD release.
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Will Young was to have a small role in the film as a reporter on the conflict as well as being Executive Producer, but it was decided that his appearance was a "distraction" and it did not make the final cut of the film.
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Will Young trod the boards in the Royal Exchange Theatre's production of The Vortex by Noel Coward.
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Will Young recently appeared in the musical Cabaret in London, after a short nationwide tour.
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Will Young was awarded the What's on Stage award for London Newcomer of the Year.
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Will Young was nominated for the 2013 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical, but lost out to Michael Ball.
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Will Young appeared in the 2010 Marple drama "The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side" and guest starred in a 2010 episode of Skins.
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Will Young was a guest on Top Gear during season 12 episode 2 and set the fastest wet lap around the track in the Chevrolet Lacetti.
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On 31 October 2011, Will Young was the guest host of Never Mind the Buzzcocks.
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In November 2004, Will 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.
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Will Young filmed an episode about saving the gorillas of West Africa during his visit to Africa earlier in the year.
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In October 2007, Will Young narrated an audio version of the Roald Dahl novel Danny, the Champion of the World.
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Will Young was made a "Companion" of the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts in 2009.
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In January 2023 Will Young returned to the theatre with the one-man show Song from Far Away, by Olivier Award winner Simon Stephens and Mark Eitzel, at the HOME Theatre in Manchester.
72.
Will Young was invited to appear on Question Time after he revealed he was a fan of the show.
73.
Will Young participated in the edition from Dunstable, Bedfordshire, in February 2009 and March 2012.
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Will 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.
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Together with Dame Helen Mirren, Helena Bonham Carter and Martin Freeman, Will Young appeared in a series of advertisements during the Christmas period 2007 for Oxfam; "Oxfam Unwrapped".
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Will 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.
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Will Young is an ambassador for Catch22, a UK young people's charity, which supports young people in tough situations.
78.
On 18 April 2012, Will Young confirmed he would be releasing his first autobiography.
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Will Young is a longtime supporter of wildlife charities, including WWF.
80.
Will Young confirmed on 1 September 2020 during BBC2's Newsnight interview that his new book To Be a Gay Man would be published by Virgin Books on 3 September 2020.
81.
In November 2021, Will Young handcuffed himself to a gate, joining a protest at Camp Beagle.
82.
Will Young was praised by viewers and critics for being so open and honest about Rupert's addiction and suicide.
83.
In March 2002 after winning Pop Idol, Will Young publicly came out as gay, pre-empting a tabloid newspaper from outing him.
84.
Will Young's main home is a house in Dalston, East London.
85.
Will Young owns a 17th-century cottage in the middle of Bodmin Moor, Cornwall, where he is a keen gardener.
86.
In 2020, Will Young rescued two dogs from America who had been facing euthanasia.