Pop
Will Young says talent shows should let contestants 'be themselves' as he reflects on Pop Idol era
Will Young believes modern TV talent shows would benefit from giving singers the same creative freedom he enjoyed during his Pop Idol run.
Will Young has said he thinks today’s TV talent competitions would be stronger if contestants were allowed to choose their own material and present themselves authentically - just as he did during his breakthrough on Pop Idol in 2002.
Speaking to the Press Association, Young said the show’s simplicity was its greatest strength and that shows like the now-defunct X Factor - which produced major acts like One Direction and Little Mix - were "too manipualted".
He explained: “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.”
The Leave Right Now hitmaker said the format gave him space to showcase the full range of his musical tastes. He continued: “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… I don’t know if I would have been allowed to in future shows, have that as much control.”
He added that the freedom to be himself was crucial at a time when the music industry might have pushed him to change. Young said: “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’. 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.”
His reflections arrive as he prepares to mark a major milestone in his career. The singer has announced a new UK tour celebrating 25 years since his Pop Idol victory, unveiling a 16‑date run titled The Evergreen 25th Anniversary Tour.
The shows will take place across February and March 2027, with Young performing with his full band and revisiting hits from across his two‑decade career.
Tickets are available now via willyoung.co.uk.
