Will Young interview: ‘Someone would pitch a music video with me and a girl even though I’m openly gay’

circleYoung is lying. In recent months, the 45-year-old has appeared on talk shows and said in interviews that his new album is Light upis a fun, joyous pop record. “It's false advertising,” he admits when we meet at a London restaurant. The title track is uplifting, he insists, “so I guess they've decided to brand it that way,” he laughs. “I don't care. I want it to sell.”

Young has been a pop star for more than 20 years, so he understands the power of a good story. Light upOn his ninth album, The 1990, that's not necessary. He seems right at home in a familiar range filled with glassy synthesizers, delicate melodies and mellow dance beats. And he's proven he's got it. Now 45, Young is Pop Idol In 2002, he slalomed away from the low expectations that come with being the winner of a TV talent show. His distinctive voice, with its soulful, boyish fragility and the heartfelt emotion of Top 10 hits like “Leave Right Now,” “All Time Love,” “Changes” and “Jealousy,” has made Young one of Britain's best-loved musicians. It's no exaggeration to call him a national treasure.

It helps that his famous affability: Warm and approachable, with a broad smile across his face, Young may be the nicest guy in pop. On the day we planned to talk, he was delayed in traffic. When he arrived, dressed in a loose, pleated black jacket and trousers by Issey Miyake, he was apologetic. He had a shoulder injury coming up, which cut our time together short, but he promised to see me again the following week.

Young's charm and talent helped him win the hearts of millions of people who voted for him during the election. Pop IdolBut after his win, tabloids threatened to out him as gay, forcing him to do so just a few weeks later. In 2024, we're lucky to have a number of well-known, openly gay artists, including Olly Alexander, Troye Sivan and MNEK, but in 2002 Young was an outsider. “I was a bit of an outcast,” he says. “But I was probably appropriate for my time. I'm not cutting edge. I can take you to your mom's.”

Still, his sneaky, boy-next-door approach to being openly gay in early 2000s pop didn't make him feel any less alone. “There were challenges, but they were so normal at the time that I was like, 'That just happens,'” he says. “Like being told I shouldn't talk about boys because obviously people don't want to hear it. Or that I'm openly gay and people are going to make videos with me and girls. It's weird, but it happened. Looking back, it was so stupid.”

Things changed as rights for LGBT+ people improved in the UK. “When you could report homophobia as a hate crime that was a big thing. That was the beginning of change, because people had to legally report it,” he says. By that time, Young was already firmly established in the UK charts, with several multi-platinum albums and nine top-five hits. Despite this, he struggled to make pop music. “I didn't like 'Leave Right Now,'” he says of the weepy ballad that was his second-biggest single to date. “I thought it was crap.”

Young isn't one to play by other people's rules, and whenever possible he avoided working with overly obvious producers: “It was partly counterproductive, but it felt more interesting working with someone from Art of Noise who'd worked with Annie Lennox and Grace Jones,” he says.

In 2011, things changed a little. echowas a record that would define the course of his career. The result of a partnership with electronic music maestro Richard X, the album's atmosphere of sophisticated synth-pop and aching melancholy became Young's third number one record. However, while he continued to release music after that, it was not until the following years that he released his first album, “The Great Gatsby.” echo He was at a loss. “I think as I got older, I started to lose track of what I was doing,” he admits. “I didn't know what I was. Am I just going to show up in places where people are screaming to sing 'Evergreen' until the day I die? I got to that point.”

He has explored other creative avenues, including writing (he is the author of two books), podcasting, and starring in films. Mrs Henderson presents In 2005, he co-starred with Judi Dench. cabaret In 2013, he appeared as a presenter and was nominated for an Olivier Award.

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Nonetheless, Young Strictly Come Dancing His mental health was poor in 2016, and it's surprising, given his candor elsewhere, that he's reluctant to talk about his current scandal. StrictlyThe BBC dancing competition is currently in the spotlight after multiple allegations of abuse and inappropriate behaviour behind the scenes emerged, leading to the departure of two professional dancers, Graziano Di Prima and Giovanni Pernice, from the show ahead of its return this autumn.

Talk on a podcast How to Fail with Elizabeth Day In May, Young said that overall his time on the show was good and that he was excited. The problem, he says, was that it made him very unwell, he developed agoraphobia and was having near-constant panic attacks. After three weeks, he withdrew from the competition, feeling mentally exhausted and diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, which he says stemmed from his experiences at boarding school as a child. This led to him undergoing years of therapy and visiting shamans for healing. “She worked in publishing,” Young says. “She lives in Wandsworth – it's a very posh house.”

In 2020, Young's twin brother, Rupert, committed suicide after a decades-long battle with alcoholism and mental illness, something he avoids talking about today but made a documentary about. Will Young: Losing his twin, Rupert It's due for release in 2022. It's an unashamed but compassionate portrayal of a loved one's struggle with alcoholism. “I didn't really resent him that much,” Young says in the film. “Now, a year later, [after his death]I'm just grateful to have had the opportunity to spend 42 years with him.”

In 2023, Young starred in Simon Stephens and Mark Eitzel's one-man play about two brothers grieving the death of their brother. Song from afarThe play was met with critical acclaim. Despite its intense subject matter, it was a life-affirming experience. The play also caused him to reconsider his relationship with pop music, Light up“I was obviously selling it on a false pretense,” he says with a wry laugh, “but if you look past that I realised pop was pretty fun. I just thought it'd be fun to laugh.”

As his achievements, Light up is Young's most light-hearted song in years. The title track is celebratory, with horns underscoring the song's life-affirming message, while “Feels Just Like a Win,” “Talk About It” and “Everything But You” find Young expressing how much we care about each other. echoOn tracks like “Falling Deep” and “Me Without You,” guitars and hand-clapped percussion bring jolts of electricity that are reminiscent of The Police.

On the hazy, after-work track “Midnight,” Young looks inward and ponders middle age. “I've been texting all my exes, trying to get what I want/Why didn't anybody tell me I was married?” he sings. “I've been watching my reflection in the window/Why did I suddenly feel so old?”

Does he worry about ageing? “It's fun getting older, but as a gay man, it's weird how people respond to you. You get put into a category. Now I'm 'daddy', it's like 'cool, I'm somebody's fetish'. I don't feel like I'm being looked at as somebody's fetish. For me, it doesn't feel right,” he laughs. “But on the other hand, I accept it out of necessity,” though Young admits that he's never had a good encounter on a dating app. “I'll match with someone on Hinge and they don't reply,” he says, rolling his eyes. “Or they don't reply. Or they chat for a day. I send them 'hahaha' and then people get bored.”

Unlike dating, he feels that popping is less age-driven, but he wishes celebrities were more honest about the realities of getting older. “I'm three stone heavier than I was and nobody talks about that,” he says. “In the world that I'm in and maybe the space that we occupy, nobody talks about that. It's a very nice thing to talk about looking in the mirror and feeling old and unattractive.”

In fact, he feels it's harmful for other celebrities to perpetuate the illusion of perfection, which is part of why he insists on being candid when talking about his life and his experiences with PTSD and depression. “But I regret saying I was addicted to porn. It was a reaction to that. Daily Mail “Great headline. That was a mistake.”

One thing Young doesn't regret coming forward about is the abuse he suffered as a boarding school prep boy. He had wanted to make a documentary for a while, but “I don't think anyone wants to see a film about the abuse of upper-class boys,” Young says. “It's a shame because if you look at the system on a socio-political level, you find some really interesting things, like the fact that corporal punishment was banned in public schools in 1986 but continued to be used in private schools for 12 years after that. And then there's the cover-up, which is no different to the cover-up of abuse in other institutions.”

Part of the problem, he added, was that people weren't interested in the primarily violent abuse: “It's a bit like Trump's Trumpism: people either want sexual abuse or they don't care. But the atmosphere of violence was incredible. Kids getting their heads smashed into metal banisters, thrown downstairs, kicked in the stomach. Drunken teachers. It was hell.”

He won't stop talking about it. “I told my old prep school, 'If you don't pay for my trauma therapy, I'm going to keep talking about this,'” he says. “I sent a lawyer's letter and they didn't respond for a year, so I said, 'OK, but I'm not going to stay quiet about this,'” he says. Still, he doesn't want the abuse to become his story. “The abuse is only a small part of it, but being gay in the 2000s as a pop star and as a gay man in general would have probably been the same. And the same with mental health. I love talking about it. I find it very liberating.”

This sense of freedom has also extended to his music career. “I realised I wasn't tied down to music,” he says. “I think it's important for people in any profession to know that they can quit. My identity is not about being a pop star.” He smiles, and it reaches his eyes. “That said, I'm having a lot of fun right now.”

“Light It Up” will be released by BMG on August 9th.