Pop Idol discography

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Will Young was the winner of the first series of Pop Idol. He has subsequently recorded thirteen top-40 singles and seven top-10 albums. Will Young - Glastonbury 2008.jpg
Will Young was the winner of the first series of Pop Idol. He has subsequently recorded thirteen top-40 singles and seven top-10 albums.

Pop Idol was a British television talent show that ran for two series, in 2001 and 2003. The show was produced for ITV in a reality television format and aimed to unearth a previously undiscovered singer who could become an international success. Will Young was the winner of the first series and was awarded with a £1 million music recording contract. [1] [2] Young became the most successful contestant with a series of top-five hits, including his debut single "Anything Is Possible" / "Evergreen", which peaked at number one on the UK Singles Chart in 2002 and broke chart sales figure records. [3] During the next seven years he recorded two further number-one singles ("Light My Fire" and "Leave Right Now"), while two of his four albums were number-one in the UK Albums Chart. In the second series, Michelle McManus emerged victorious. [4] Her debut single "All This Time" charted at number one in January 2003. [5] Her second single, "The Meaning of Love", charted at a peak of number 16 and an album of the same name reached number three in the UK Albums Chart.

Contents

A number of artists who did not win either series of Pop Idol have also had success in the British charts. Gareth Gates, who finished as the runner-up behind Young in the first series, scored a number-one hit with a cover of "Unchained Melody" in March 2002, replacing Young's debut single at the top of the charts. [6] Gates' subsequent releases "Anyone of Us (Stupid Mistake)" and the double A-side "The Long and Winding Road" / "Suspicious Minds" both reached the top of the charts in 2002. After "What My Heart Wants to Say" ended this run of number-one singles, Gates was joined by The Kumars to record the Comic Relief single for 2003, "Spirit in the Sky". [7] He achieved several more top-20 hits in 2003. After three years away from the music industry, Gates briefly returned in 2007 with a new album – Pictures of the Other Side , which charted at number 23 – and two top-40 singles. [8]

Darius Danesh, who finished in third place in the first series, had a string of successful singles and a top-10 album, including his debut single "Colourblind", which reached number one in August 2002. [9] Other contestants from the first series to have chart success were Sarah Whatmore (who failed to make the selection for the live shows), Rosie Ribbons, Rik Waller, Jessica Garlick and Zoe Birkett. Garlick was additionally chosen to represent the United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2002, where she finished third in the competition. [10] Sam Nixon and Mark Rhodes were the only contestants from the second series, other than McManus, to release a charting single. Rhodes finished as runner-up in the competition while Nixon finished third. Within months they formed a duo under the name Sam & Mark. They released a cover of The Beatles' "With a Little Help from My Friends" as a double-A side with "Measure of a Man". [11] This earned them a debut number-one single in January 2002, while they also reached the top-20 with a follow-up, "The Sun Has Come Your Way" before being dropped by their record label, 19. [11] [12]

As of December 2015, Pop Idol contestants have had 14 charting albums, with McManus the only participant from the second series to peak inside the top-100. Forty-three singles released by Pop Idol contestants have charted in the United Kingdom. Young has had 17 singles peak within the top-100, followed by Gates with nine entries. Darius Danesh has also had six charting songs.

Singles

Darius Danesh, who finished third in the first series of the show, debuted at number-one with "Colourblind" in August 2002. Darius Campbell.JPG
Darius Danesh, who finished third in the first series of the show, debuted at number-one with "Colourblind" in August 2002.

Only songs charted in the Top-100 in the UK Singles Chart are included in this list.

Artist(s)SeriesPosition in ShowSong title(s)Release dateUK peak
chart position		Ref
Will Young 1 Winner"Anything Is Possible" / "Evergreen"25 February 20021 [13]
"Light My Fire"25 May 20021 [13]
"The Long and Winding Road"23 September 20021 [13]
"Don't Let Me Down" / "You and I"18 November 20022 [13]
"Leave Right Now"24 November 20031 [13]
"Your Game"15 March 20043 [13]
"Friday's Child"5 July 20044 [13]
"Switch It On"14 November 20055 [13]
"All Time Love"16 January 20063 [13]
"Who Am I"24 April 200611 [13]
"Changes"15 September 200810 [13]
"Grace"22 December 200833 [13]
"Let It Go"2 March 200958 [13]
"Hopes & Fears"8 November 200965 [13]
"Jealousy"19 November 20115 [13]
"Come On"21 November 201183 [13]
"Losing Myself"18 March 201272 [13]
Gareth Gates Runner Up"Unchained Melody"18 March 20021 [14]
"Anyone of Us (Stupid Mistake)"8 July 20021 [14]
"The Long and Winding Road" /
"Suspicious Minds" [B] 		23 September 20021 [14]
"What My Heart Wants to Say"9 December 20025 [14]
"Spirit in the Sky" [C] 10 March 20031 [14]
"Sunshine"13 September 20033 [14]
"Say It Isn't So"8 December 20034 [14]
"Changes"9 April 200714 [14]
"Angel on My Shoulder"18 June 200722 [14]
Darius Danesh Third"Colourblind"29 July 20021 [15]
"Rushes"25 November 20025 [15]
"Incredible (What I Meant to Say)"3 March 20039 [15]
"Girl in the Moon"9 June 200321 [15]
"Kinda Love"18 October 20048 [15]
Live Twice 10 January 20057 [15]
Rosie Ribbons 4th"Blink"21 October 200212 [16]
"A Little Bit"13 January 200319 [16]
Zoe Birkett 6th"Treat Me Like a Lady"13 January 200312 [17]
Jessica Garlick 9th"Come Back" [A] 13 May 200213 [18]
Rik Waller 10th"I Will Always Love You"4 March 20026 [19]
Something Inside (So Strong)"24 June 200225 [19]
Sarah Whatmore Heat 5"When I Lost You"9 September 20026 [20]
"Automatic"10 February 200311 [20]
Michelle McManus 2 Winner"All This Time"25 November 20031 [21]
"The Meaning of Love"26 January 200416 [21]
Sam Nixon and
Mark Rhodes [D] 		Runner's Up"With a Little Help from My Friends" /
"Measure of a Man"		9 February 20041 [22]
"The Sun Has Come Your Way"24 May 200419 [23]
Jodie Connor Final 50"Good Times" (with Roll Deep)26 April 20101
"Now or Never" (featuring Wiley)13 January 201114
"Bring It" (with Tinchy Stryder)20 February 201137

Albums

Solo albums

Only albums that charted in the Top 100 of the UK Albums Chart are included in this list.

ArtistSeriesAlbum titleRelease dateUK peak
chart position		Ref
Will Young 1 From Now On 7 October 20021 [13]
Friday's Child 1 December 20031 [13]
Keep On 21 November 20052 [13]
Let It Go 29 September 20082 [13]
The Hits 16 November 20099 [13]
Echoes 19 August 20111 [13]
The Essential 14 October 201315 [13]
85% Proof 25 May 20151 [13]
Lexicon 21 June 20192 [13]
Gareth Gates What My Heart Wants to Say 26 October 20022 [14]
Go Your Own Way 22 September 200311 [14]
Pictures of the Other Side 25 June 200723 [14]
Darius Danesh Dive In 2 December 20026 [15]
Live Twice 25 October 200436 [15]
Michelle McManus 2 The Meaning of Love 16 February 20043 [21]

Pop Idol albums

In addition to the solo material released by the contestants, Sony BMG released two CDs featuring songs performed by the finalists, one for each series of the show.

Album titleSeriesRelease dateUK peak
chart position		Ref
Pop Idol: The Big Band Album 1April 2002— [24]
Pop Idol: The Idols - Xmas Factor 2December 2003— [25]

Other releases

Several contestants also released songs which failed to reach the main singles or albums charts. Rosie Ribbons recorded an album entitled Misbehaving but was dropped by her record label, Telstar Records, when they ran into financial difficulties and the album was only released in a promotional version. [26] Jessica Garlick released "Hard Not to Fall" as a download single on 11 May 2009 to coincide with the Eurovision Song Contest 2009. [27]

Will Young additionally appeared as a featured artist on the Band Aid 20 UK number-one charity single "Do They Know It's Christmas?" in 2004. [28]

By artist

ArtistTop-100 singles entriesTop-100 albums entriesNumber-one singlesNumber-one albums
Will Young 1784 [E] 4
Gareth Gates 934 [E] —
Darius Danesh 621—
Michelle McManus 211—
Sam & Mark 2—1—
Sarah Whatmore 2———
Rik Waller 2———
Rosie Ribbons 2———
Zoe Birkett 1———
Jessica Garlick 1———

Chart records

"Unchained Melody" and "Anything Is Possible" / "Evergreen" became two of the most successful singles of the 2000s, selling more than 1 million copies, two of only 10 songs that achieved that feat during the decade. [29] "Anything Is Possible" / "Evergreen" sold 385,000 copies during its first day of sale in a single chain of record stores, Virgin Megastores, beating the total of 160,000 copies of Hear’Say's "Pure and Simple" in 2001. [3] Hear'Say sold 550,000 during a whole week, while Young had advance orders of 1.2 million copies at HMV record stores. [30] It beat Band Aid's record of 750,000 sales in the first week of release, eventually reaching 1.2 million sales. [31] Young's song was named as the biggest-selling single of the decade at the end of 2009, with Gates' debut finishing in second place. [32]

Notes

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gareth Gates</span> British singer-songwriter

Gareth Paul Gates is an English singer-songwriter and actor. He was the runner-up in the first series of the ITV talent show Pop Idol in 2002. As of 2008, Gates had sold over 3.5 million records in the UK. He is also known for having a stutter, and has talked about his speech impediment publicly.

<i>Pop Idol</i> British music competition television series

Pop Idol is a British music competition television series created by Simon Fuller which ran on ITV from 2001 to 2003. The aim of the show was to decide the best new young pop singer in the UK based on viewer voting and participation. Two series were broadcast, one in 2001–2002 and a second in 2003. An immense success when it launched in 2001, Maggie Brown in The Guardian wrote, "the show became a seminal reality/entertainment format once on air that autumn". Series judge Simon Cowell became a major public figure in entertainment, and the show produced instant No. 1 chart hits, including for the first series winner Will Young, whose single "Evergreen" was the fastest-selling debut in UK chart history and the best-selling song of 2002. Pop Idol was subsequently put on an indefinite hiatus after Simon Cowell announced the launch of The X Factor in the UK in April 2004.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Will Young</span> English singer, songwriter, and actor (born 1979)

William Robert Young is an English singer, songwriter, and actor. He 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. His double A-sided debut single "Anything Is Possible" / "Evergreen" was released two weeks after the show's finale and became the fastest-selling debut single in the UK. Young also came in fifth place in World Idol performing the single "Light My Fire" written by the band the Doors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jessica Garlick</span> English-Welsh singer (born 1981)

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<i>From Now On</i> (Will Young album) 2002 studio album by Will Young

From Now On is the debut studio album by English recording artist Will Young. It was released by S Records on 7 October 2002, eight months after he won the first series of Pop Idol. The singer worked with a variety of writers and producers on the album, including Absolute, Cathy Dennis, Julian Gallagher, Stephen Lipson, Mike Peden, and Richard Stannard as well as Swedish musicians such as Jörgen Elofsson, David Kreuger, and Per Magnusson. Young co-wrote five songs on From Now On which also features a cover version of The Beatles' song "The Long and Winding Road," a duet with fellow Pop Idol finalist Gareth Gates.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anything Is Possible (Will Young song)</span> 2002 single by Will Young

"Anything Is Possible" is a song co-written by Chris Braide and Cathy Dennis for the winner of the first series of Pop Idol in the United Kingdom. Will Young won the competition and therefore released the song as his debut single, with production by Dennis and Oskar Paul. It debuted at number one on the UK Singles Chart, and has been certified 3× platinum by the British Phonographic Industry. It has since become the 14th best-selling single of all time in the UK, as well as the second best-selling UK single of the 21st century.

"Evergreen" is a song co-written by Jörgen Elofsson, Per Magnusson and David Kreuger, and originally recorded by Irish boy band Westlife. The song appears on their album World of Our Own (2001). It was composed in the traditional verse–chorus form in C major, with band members Shane Filan and Brian McFadden's vocal ranging from the chords of F#3 to B4.

<i>What My Heart Wants to Say</i> 2002 studio album by Gareth Gates

What My Heart Wants to Say is the debut album from the runner-up of the first series of Pop Idol, Gareth Gates. The album was released on 26 October 2002, almost a year after his success on the show. The album was produced by a team of well-known producers, including Steve Mac, Jewels & Stone, Mike Peden and Cathy Dennis. The album features a range of Gates' own material, as well as covers of some of his favourite songs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Come Back (Jessica Garlick song)</span> 2002 Jessica Garlick song

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The discography of English singer-songwriter Gareth Gates consists of three studio albums, nine singles, nine music videos and one live DVD. Gates rose to fame after appearing as a contestant on the first series of British television talent contest Pop Idol in 2002. After finishing as runner-up behind Will Young, Gates was given a recording contract with BMG and released his first single, a cover of "Unchained Melody", which was a number-one hit in the UK in March 2002. He went on to have three further number one singles in the UK Singles Chart and three albums that reached the top 30, including his debut album which reached number two in the UK Albums Chart.

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References

General
Specific
  1. ↑ "Will wins Pop Idol". BBC News . British Broadcasting Corporation. 10 February 2002. Retrieved 22 June 2009.
  2. ↑ "Will Young wins Pop Idol contest". The Daily Telegraph . London. 9 February 2002. Retrieved 22 June 2009.
  3. 1 2 "Young scores record number one". BBC News. British Broadcasting Corporation. 3 March 2002. Retrieved 11 July 2009.
  4. ↑ "Michelle captures Pop Idol crown". BBC News. British Broadcasting Corporation. 21 December 2003. Retrieved 24 June 2009.
  5. ↑ "Pop Idol's Michelle tops charts". BBC News. British Broadcasting Corporation. 11 January 2004. Retrieved 24 June 2009.
  6. ↑ "Pop Idol's Gareth is number one". BBC News. British Broadcasting Corporation. 24 March 2002. Retrieved 11 July 2009.
  7. ↑ "Comic Relief tops record total". BBC News. British Broadcasting Corporation. 15 March 2003. Retrieved 22 June 2009.
  8. ↑ Pool, Hannah (19 April 2007). "Hannah Pool talks to Gareth Gates". The Guardian . London. Retrieved 22 January 2010.
  9. ↑ "Darius scores first number one". BBC News. British Broadcasting Corporation. 4 August 2002. Retrieved 24 June 2009.
  10. 1 2 "'Latin' Latvia win Eurovision". BBC News. British Broadcasting Corporation. 26 May 2002. Retrieved 23 March 2010.
  11. 1 2 "Sam And Mark Top The Chart". MTV. 1 August 2006. Retrieved 22 January 2010.
  12. ↑ Wilkes, Neil (2 August 2004). "Sam and Mark 'axed'". Digital Spy . Retrieved 22 January 2010.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 "Will Young – Top 75 Releases". The Official Charts Company. Archived from the original on 3 May 2010. Retrieved 13 April 2010.
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 "Gareth Gates – Top 75 Releases". The Official Charts Company. Archived from the original on 15 June 2011. Retrieved 13 April 2010.
  15. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Darius – Top 75 Releases". The Official Charts Company. Archived from the original on 17 February 2011. Retrieved 13 April 2010.
  16. 1 2 "Rosie Ribbons – Top 75 Releases". The Official Charts Company. Archived from the original on 15 June 2011. Retrieved 13 April 2010.
  17. ↑ "Zoe Birkett – Top 75 Releases". The Official Charts Company. Archived from the original on 15 June 2011. Retrieved 13 April 2010.
  18. ↑ "Jessica Garlick – Top 75 Releases". The Official Charts Company. Archived from the original on 15 June 2011. Retrieved 13 April 2010.
  19. 1 2 "Rik Waller – Top 75 Releases". The Official Charts Company. Archived from the original on 15 June 2011. Retrieved 13 April 2010.
  20. 1 2 "Sarah Whatmore – Top 75 Releases". The Official Charts Company. Archived from the original on 17 February 2011. Retrieved 13 April 2010.
  21. 1 2 3 "Michelle McManus – Top 75 Releases". The Official Charts Company. Archived from the original on 15 June 2011. Retrieved 13 April 2010.
  22. ↑ "With a Little Help from My Friends / Measure of a Man". Official Charts Company . Retrieved 22 June 2009.
  23. ↑ "The Sun Has Come Your Way". Official Charts Company . Retrieved 22 June 2009.
  24. ↑ "Pop Idol album hits the shops". Newsround . British Broadcasting Corporation. 8 April 2002. Retrieved 23 March 2010.
  25. ↑ "Pop Idol stars hope for Xmas hit". Newsround. British Broadcasting Corporation. 24 October 2003. Retrieved 23 March 2010.
  26. ↑ "Pop Idols: Where are they now?". BBC News. British Broadcasting Corporation. 21 May 2003. Retrieved 21 June 2009.
  27. ↑ "Singer who knows Eurovision story". BBC News. British Broadcasting Corporation. 14 May 2009. Retrieved 21 June 2009.
  28. ↑ Youngs, Ian (15 November 2004). "Pop stars sample Band Aid reality". BBC News. British Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 14 January 2010.
  29. ↑ "Alexandra Burke's 'Hallelujah' joins 'million-selling singles list". NME . 9 January 2009. Archived from the original on 4 June 2011. Retrieved 22 January 2010.
  30. ↑ "Pop Idol single 'flying off shelves'". BBC News. British Broadcasting Corporation. 26 February 2002. Retrieved 22 June 2009.
  31. ↑ "Band Aid 20 singles storms to No. 1". BBC News. British Broadcasting Corporation. 5 December 2004. Retrieved 19 December 2009.
  32. ↑ "Will Young and James Blunt win biggest selling single and album of the noughties". NME. 31 December 2009. Retrieved 22 January 2010.
  33. ↑ "Idol singer picked for Eurovision". BBC News. British Broadcasting Corporation. 3 March 2002. Retrieved 21 June 2009.
  34. ↑ "Pop Idol's Jessica third in Eurovision". BBC News. British Broadcasting Corporation. 26 May 2002. Retrieved 21 June 2009.
  35. ↑ "Comic Relief charity singles over the years". Yahoo! Music . Retrieved 22 June 2009.

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