CONTENTS
Title Page
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER ONE BOY WONDER
CHAPTER TWO BACKGROUND SINGER
CHAPTER THREE DAY JOBS
CHAPTER FOUR TAKING THE RISK
CHAPTER FIVE THE ENTERTAINER
CHAPTER SIX SURVIVING THE SING-OFF
CHAPTER SEVEN BACK STORIES
CHAPTER EIGHT THE HOMECOMING
CHAPTER NINE A NATIONAL OBSESSION
CHAPTER TEN FINAL AND AFTERMATH
CHAPTER ELEVEN SYCOVILLE
CHAPTER TWELVE HEY MR SONGWRITER
CHAPTER THIRTEEN LETTING GO
CHAPTER FOURTEEN STAR QUALITY
CHAPTER FIFTEEN WHATEVER NEXT?
CHAPTER SIXTEEN IN CASE YOU DIDN’T KNOW
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN XTRA TIME
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN UNLUCKY IN LOVE?
CHAPTER NINETEEN ESSEX BOY
CHAPTER TWENTY OLLY AND CHARITY WORK
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE PLANET MURS
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO THE LIFE OF A SINGER
OLLY MURS UK DISCOGRAPHY
Acknowledgements
Plates
Copyright
Who could have predicted that, since finishing as the 2009 runner-up on ITV1’s The X Factor, Essex boy Olly Murs would have flourished as one of British pop’s recent success stories? Yet that is just what has happened. The handsome performer with the tight trousers and soulful voice has enjoyed a string of hits – ‘Please Don’t Let Me Go’, ‘Thinking of Me’, ‘Heart Skips A Beat’ and ‘Dance With Me Tonight’ – most of which he has co-written. He has recorded platinum-selling albums and sold out numerous live venues. He has become a TV presenter and participated in numerous charity events. He has sung with Robbie Williams, and even with the Muppets. And last, but by no means least, he has become a pin-up and scream idol.
It all seems a far cry from his life before his X Factor experience. He had been a semi-professional footballer for the non-league club in his native Essex town of Witham but had worked in offices during the week. He had been just an ordinary guy in his twenties who would clown around, singing and dancing for his colleagues and family. Before long, he would get the chance to do the same for millions. He would audition for Simon Cowell and co. on The X Factor. He would become a star in Britain. By the summer of 2012, he was preparing to launch himself in America as the opening act on One Direction’s live tour.
In this book, we’ll see how Olly Murs – the cheeky chappie with the tight trousers and trilbies – became such a big star in such a relatively short time. We will find out just how hard he works, and where his motivation and drive come from.
Olly Murs is not just a singer and dancer. He’s an entertainer. This is his story.
On Thursday, 25 June 2009, an audience gathered at the Excel Centre in London’s Docklands area to watch the last of four days of auditions for probably the most popular entertainment show on British television. Since its inception in 2004, The X Factor, created by Simon Cowell, had been a weekend fixture on ITV1 in the autumn months leading up to Christmas. It aimed to showcase and then celebrate new singing talent on peak-time television. Millions tuned in every weekend to watch. And when each series was over, many would buy the finalists’ recordings and tickets for their live concerts.
For this sixth series of The X Factor, though, to be screened from August 2009, a new twist had been added to the audition process. In previous runs, hopeful candidates would sing and dance in front of the judges in a small room. It would be seen by millions of viewers later but, in the heat of the moment, cruelty or encouragement would be delivered in this intimate environment. All this would change for series six. As with Simon Cowell’s other cash cow for ITV, Britain’s Got Talent, hopefuls would face a live audience as well as the judging panel. For the very first time, this live audience would have some input into the atmosphere of the tense initial audition process – although the judges’ decisions would still be final. The crowd might be shrieking with approval but, if the panel gave four ‘no’s’, that was that and the hopeful was gone.
At audition stage, acts would compete for inclusion in four categories: Girls, Boys, Groups and Over-25s. The latter category could attract the most surprising and unexpected people. The pop scene seemed to prioritise youth but it was never too late to push yourself forward to try your luck in an audition. Take for instance 48-year-old Susan Boyle who, just months earlier in April 2009, had become a TV and internet sensation on a global scale after she sang ‘I Dreamed a Dream’ on Britain’s Got Talent to an astonished studio audience and judging panel. And on this June afternoon, after approving a rendition of Frank Sinatra’s ‘Come Fly with Me’ by an 82-year-old former dance teacher (who insisted, ‘This is my last chance’), the panel of Louis Walsh, Dannii Minogue, Cheryl Cole and Simon Cowell would witness a 25-year-old with seemingly limitless energy and charisma.
Simon Cowell later recalled that when Olly Murs took the stage that Thursday afternoon, he was immediately struck by his self-assuredness and by how relaxed he seemed in front of 2,500 spectators. ‘There was nothing pretentious about him. He wore his heart on his sleeve. I felt the audience related to him as well.’
‘I didn’t think too much about what was going on around me,’ Olly said later. ‘I just did my job and tried to forget that it was so big.’
Before he sang, Olly was asked what his dream was. His answer was simple, ambitious and direct: ‘To be a pop star and be famous, and sell records, and be an international superstar.’ He then took his opportunity to impress panel and audience with a song 12 years older than he was.
‘Superstition’ was written and first performed by the singer, songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist Stevie Wonder in 1972. As with other performers Murs idolised, like Michael Jackson and Justin Timberlake, Wonder had established himself as a superstar by his teenage years. He was just 13 when his breakthrough hit, ‘Fingertips’, had topped the US charts in 1963, and by his 25th birthday had created a series of ingenious and groundbreaking pop, soul and funk LPs like Innervisions and Talking Book.
Watched back again now, Olly’s performance of ‘Superstition’ is not technically perfect by any means. From time to time, his vocal falters and lags behind the beat of the backing track. But there is no question that, from the opening bars, he is communicating with both the judges and the audience, even sneaking in a faux-moonwalk as a nod to one of his idols, Michael Jackson (whose untimely death, spookily, would be announced within hours).
As Olly finished to a chorus of cheers, whoops and screams, he called out, ‘Hey, come on!’ He was already collectively engaged