Who is Will Young? Meet this weeks Pitch Battle guest judge
Pop Idol champion and multi Brit-award winner is seeing what life is like on the other side of the judges desk
New shiny-floor TV series Pitch Battle aims to do for singing what Strictly did for dancing – but who’ll be making dreams come true in the judges' chairs?
Name: Will Young
Twitter: @willyoung
Best known for: Way back in 2002 the nation was divided watching Saturday night favourite Pop Idol. Will won, and released everyone’s guilty pleasure winners song, Evergreen. He’s also got two Brit Awards as well as an Olivier under his belt. Not bad, right?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bc-sq7cJGho?ecver=2
Bio: Will grew up in Hungerford, West Berkshire, where he was a chorister in prep school. Although he kept up with music in school, starring in musical productions throughout, but when it came to university he decided to study politics at the University of Exeter. After getting his degree Will got back into music and studied musical theatre at the Arts Educational School’s in Chiswick.
In 2002 Will auditioned for Pop Idol, and found himself up against Gareth Gates in the final, which split the country between ‘team Will’ and ‘team Gareth’ more than the people of America were divided about Trump and Clinton. Will pipped Gareth to the post, and won the competition.
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After his triumph, Will released his first double-A single Evergreen/Anything is Possible, and was ranked as eleventh in the ‘best selling singles of all time’ charts of the year with ‘Anything is Possible’ winning Will a highly respected Ivor Novello Award.
From his early success the only way was up, and Will continued making and selling albums, as he collected nominations and awards at the same pace that Hansel and Gretel dropped breadcrumbs. In this time he also performed live with the likes of James Brown, Elton John and Burt Barcharach.
However, Will is no one trick pony as he also has some acting credits under his belt, as he starred alongside Judi Dench and Bob Hoskins in Mrs Henderson presents back in 2005. He also appeared in Skins, and even made it to the West End, performing in Cabaret. Is there anything he can’t do?
In 2016 Will Young was a contestant in Series 14 of Strictly Come Dancing and was paired with Karen Clifton. Will left the show after three weeks due to personal reasons.
After Will’s had plenty of experience as a talent show contestant, how will he fare on the other side of the judge’s desk? We can’t wait to see him in action.
Pitch Battle begins on BBC1 at 7.30pm on Saturday 17th June
