Artist:Will Young
Song:Leave Right Now
Album:20 Years: The Greatest Hits
Will Young was the first winner of the British TV talent show Pop Idol in 2002. Of course when Simon Fuller and Simon Cowell brought the show to America, it was called American Idol. After winning, Young scored four #1 hits in England. The 2003 single Leave Right Now was his final hit of those four. He was born Jan. 20, 1979 in Wokingham, Berkshire, England. Though he performed on stage and learned to play piano as a child, Young wanted to compete in the 400 meter sprint in the Olympics. So he was an athlete in high school. But he wasn't a great student and he wasn't sure what he wanted to do. He joined a theater group and after playing Curly in their production of Oklahoma, he decided he wanted to be a singer. He moved to London and attended the Arts Educational School. Young saw on TV about auditions for the talent show that would become Pop Idol. Initially, a boy band was supposed to come from this show. And yes, Simon Cowell was behind this. But as X Factor has shown, he doesn't understand that you can't put strangers together because they don't stay together. And that's what happened here. The band that Young was supposed to be a part of split up before they got started. So then Young saw an ad for the Pop Idol auditions. And he won Pop Idol and that got him a record deal with RCA. Cowell worked at RCA at the time. Of course Pop Idol was a big hit and it turned into a global franchise. Young's first single Anything Is Possible was his first #1 hit and the song he performed when Young won Pop Idol. That song was written and produced by former Swing Out Sister leader Cathy Dennis. She wrote and produced several songs on the album. The second single was a cover of Light My Fire that Young performed on Pop Idol. That also topped the chart. The 2002 album From Now On was certified 2XPlatinum. The question was can Young have his own hit or will he suffer from what I call the "Idol hangover". The answer is he had success at first. The 2003 album Friday's Child was certified 5XPlatinum. So it did even better mostly because the single Leave Right Now topped the British charts. Most of the album including Leave Right Now was produced by Stephen Lipson who is buddies with Cowell. Leave Right Now was written by Eg White. He led the band Yip Yip Coyote in the 80s. But by this time he was a successful songwriter. Young co-wrote a few songs on the album. His next couple of albums didn't do as well and he left RCA for Island after the 2011 album Echoes. The 2015 album 85% Proof continued Young's slide. He has since recorded for the indie label Cooking Vinyl and on his own label with BMG distribution. You can get all of Young's RCA hits on this comp. I expect he will continue to record. But he has concentrated more on acting in recent years and has had some success. So Will Young did OK but not great. Here's the video for Leave Right Now by Will Young.
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