William Young the pop Idol winner has made history this evening by selling 1.1m singles of his Double A side ‘Evergreen’/‘Anything is possible’ in his 1st week of release. He only needs to sell fewer than 100,000 more copies to beat Elton John's ‘Candle in the wind’ which sold 1,200,000 copies by its second week.

Do you think he is so popular because he has been on out televisions for the last few months and we have grown to know him almost or are all still in a pop idol hysteria? Do people generally like the music he has produced so far if you could his music?! Will he even last for very long or will the new Pop Idol star who will be produced after ITV's second series whenever that is?

Personally I think he is a person who will not be drawn in by the money and his personality is great. I'm pleased for him and wish him all the success in the world.

You’re Opinions?

Mike Mc

It's so daft, Simon Cowell said that the song would sell a million. Of course it would. They've had 22 weeks exposure on a popular tv show, plus heaps of tabloid and magazine coverage

Wills voice is great but the song is utterly bland IMO. No way would it have sold anything like without the hype/exposure.

Mind you , it is a Westlife song, they are the world champions of blandness.

Stop using my name in vain! (Bland ) Just kidding...

I think it was so unbelivably manufactured, but in all fairness, he is what the people want, and the people got him.... personally i hate all of it! Humbug!

Hes only making 10 pence on every single,100,000 quid in total.Since the single must cost a fiver he only gets 10% of the royalties?Stone me!At that rate the So Solid Crew must make a profit of 30 pence each out of a chart topper!Im no fan of the whole manufactured pop market,particularly have contempt for these fly on the wall performers made famous therough tv shows,but really 10% for the performer is a disgrace.

I agree it seems very unfair the amount he’s getting.
Will's sing capabilities are substantially better than a lot of artists. The process Will had to go through to gain a record contract where some artists would have been kicked out at the 2nd stage was grueling. Will is obviously an excellent singer but the stigma of being a TV show winner attached to him seems unfair in my opinion.

Regards
Mike McGuiagn

Congrats to Will for being number 1. I think he is a good singer and I hope that fame doesn't go too his head as it has to many pop stars. I know it is a cover version, but my friend has the original Westlife version and I think Will's version is so much better than crappy Westlife.

A Good singer at last in the charts. Compared to some of the crap that is in the charts at the moment I think Will will be there for a few weeks yet.

I really dont like the whole Pop Idol thing, and that new song is really terrible. I am not saying the guy cant sing, but what a rotten tune.
I am glad he wont be on top of the pops!

It's pretty obvious the only reason he obtained those amazing sales figures is thanks to Pop Idol. If he had come the natural way through the pop machine, then the song/s wouldn't even have charted. I can say that with a fair amount of certainty.

I really dislike manufactured bands/solo artists, I still think artists should go the "traditional" ways to the top proving they can perform live etc....but these days with the music industry the way it is it`s even harder than it used to be....

I think he`s attained the sucess throught the media coverage and hype of the show. However, I agree that it makes a change to have a someone who can sing in the charts.

Once Pop Idol 2 comes along it will be interesting to see if he keeps the sales up. It will also be interesting to see how he does with origonal music...if he doesn`t stick to covers all his carrer..

Who the f**k does his record company think he is?

Demanding he be allowed to mime to both his songs on his "double A-side" on TOTP!

And how can you have a "double A-side" anyway on a CD? All on one side anyway! Theres always one song takes prominance which is the one thats first, same as when they were on vinyl they were called "double A-sides" but usually one took precedence over the other.

Anyway i hope as someone said earlier "I think he is a person who will not be drawn in by the money" - just as well being that he'll have a pretty shite contract with the record companies who will fleece him for all they can get before he's ditched within a year.

And to the person who said something about the process he had to go through to get a contract! Don't make me laugh - there are hundreds of talented musicians out there who have never had the break despite endless gigging and recording of demos - thats what really makes me sick about manufactured pap like pop stars etc.

i dont like him, but then again i dont like hardly any manufactured pop crap.

I really h8 him. and i think his tongue is 2 big 4 his mouth and he has a funny jaw!

you h8 him?

eh?

I don't get people using the 'txt' language on forums. It makes sense on a phone because you only have a limited space to get your message in, on a forum u can use as mch spc as u wnt.

It saves time. Instead of typing out every single ltter like this!

Go Grth Go Grth Go Grth

Laugh Out Loud

Both Will & Gareth are good singers especially in this era of pop music. I thought the Pop Stars thing was way to manufactured and has hence dissapered now the show has stopped airing. At least these two guys can actually sing and dont just want to be famous and make loads of money like Hear Say wanted to.

Thats where my appreciation stops. Neither of them can write music and like many pop acts these days are simply redoing other poples hits from 20 odd years ago. Bands / singers like this do not last very long. They have a few big hits and then dissapear off the face of the earth. Take That, Spice Girls even Arron Carter had huge selling songs for a year or maybe more. Now they are no-bodies again.

IMO the only real musicians are the ones with the ability to create original music or at least reinvent themselves like Madonna. (I dont particularly like Madonna btw : ) U2 are an example of band who just came to play music and do what they like . Only now are they really recognised as one of the great bands of the 90s and 80s

Anyway good luck to Wll & Gareth I hope they learn how to write real music instead of leeching off other peoples.

This seems a bit prejudge to me Will has co-written two of his album songs (he said that on the Sunday he was #1) So he has probably done some more since then. His album is pencilled in to be released on 03/06/02 and I think once this has been heard then we can make the judgment if he cannot write songs.

Mike

....and Gareth also writes his own music - if you remember he performed one round the piano with other pop idol hopefuls during the programme