THIS WEEK IN 2002
1 Anything Is Possible/Everygreen Will Young 2 Whenever Wherever Shakira
3 Hero Enrique Iglesias
4 Something Lasgo
5 How You Remind Me Nickelback
6 World Of Our Own Westlife
7 In Your Eyes Kylie Minogue
8 The World’s Greatest R Kelly
9 You S Club 7
10 Shoulda Woulda Coulda Beverly Knight
Before X Factor there was Pop Idol, the show created by Spice Girls manager Simon Fuller that spawned an international franchise and set the template for many TV talent shows to follow.
Wokingham’s Will Young applied to audition for the first series of Pop Idol while studying at university. He went on to win the competition - and the £1 million recording contract - in a dramatic final shootout with Gareth Gates that held the UK in Pop Idol fever. 13.34 million viewers tuned in to watch the final and 8.7 million votes were cast in the two-and-a-half hours the voting lines were open - a new world record. It remains the highest ever one-night vote for a UK TV show, all the more remarkable when you consider there was no text voting.
After the success of Pop Idol, there was little doubt that Young’s debut single would reach number one. The double-A side paired ‘Anything Is Possible’, a song specially written for the Pop Idol final, with ‘Evergreen’, originally recorded by Westlife for their ‘World Of Our Own’ album and released as a single only in the Philippines.
Will Young’s single shattered many records. The fastest-selling debut in UK chart history, it sold more than 400,000 copies on the day of its release, and in excess of a million by the end of the week. It was the biggest selling single of the 21st century in the UK until 2015 when it was overtaken by Pharrell Williams’ ‘Happy’.
‘Anything Is Possible’/’Evergreen’ spent three weeks at the top of the UK charts (but peaked at 2 in Ireland). It was knocked off the top spot by Gareth Gates’ debut single, his version of the classic ‘Unchained Melody’.
Will Young’s debut single is currently the 19th best selling single of all time in the UK, with sales exceeding the likes of John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’, Adele’s ‘Someone Like You’ and Whitney Houston’s ‘I Will Always Love You’.
After the huge success of ‘Anything Is Possible’/’Everygreen’, Will Young scored three more number ones in the UK but he has failed to hit the top spot since 2003. Since late 2012 he has released seven singles, all of which have failed to break into the UK top 100.
– JIM HAYES