Will Young, the first winner of Pop Idol, has said that giving singers more control over their song choices could make a talent show with a similar format successful in the modern day.
A Back-to-Basics Approach
The 47-year-old said that during his time on the show between 2001 and 2002 he was able to sing any song he wanted to, and added that the show had allowed him to be himself when the rest of the music industry would not.
He said that subsequent changes to the format, and the arrival of The X Factor in 2004, had seen the blueprint for that style of singing show become “too manipulated”, before The X Factor ended in 2018.
Choosing His Own Songs
Young told the Press Association: “I think that’s what was so brilliant about Pop Idol, I mean, we really did just choose what we wanted to sing.
“There was no like mentoring or, you know, or people going no change (the song) at the last minute, or people talking about autotune and things like that.
“It was literally as basic as, ‘I’d like to sing Aretha Franklin’, ‘You’ve got five days to learn it, go and sing Aretha Franklin and see if the public like it’, which I think was really wonderful for someone like me.
“Because I could go on and I was singing The Doors, I was singing Aretha, I was singing the Eurythmics, and I don’t know if I would have been able to have showcased the kind of songs that I like to sing.
“I was singing Bobby Darin, you know, I don’t know if I would have been, I was singing Motown, I’m not sure if I would have been allowed to in future shows, have that as much control…
“You just can only be yourself, so you don’t really want anything to cloud that, and again, I think what a great example (Pop Idol was), because probably if I’d gone into a record company, they would have gone, ‘Right, need to change your image, don’t say that you’re gay, do this, do that’.
Career and Anniversary Tour
“Whereas the show did the opposite, and people voted for me to win, I mean I wasn’t openly gay on the show, but apart from that, I was so myself and not trying to hide who I was.”
The singer, who famously beat Gareth Gates in the final of the first ever edition of the ITV show, went on to score four UK number one singles, with his best known songs including his cover of The Doors’ Light My Fire, Evergreen and Leave Right Now.
He also achieved four UK number one albums, including his 2001 debut From Now On.
Young will head out on The Evergreen 25th Anniversary Tour in February next year, performing in cities including Manchester, Glasgow, London and Cardiff, with tickets on sale now from the singer’s website.
