One True Voice’s Matt is back on Popstars show nearly finished me but now I’m bigger on Spotify than Gary Barlow

TV talent show singer Matt Johnson had a perfect springboard to fame but instead of soaring to stardom his career bellyflopped.

Few performers have experienced such incredible highs and desperate lows in so short a space of time.

Yet Matt, now 30, has had the last laugh and is more popular than established stars such as Take That star Gary Barlow.

In 2013 he recorded new songs, released them online and now earns six figures a year. His music is streamed more often on digital music service Spotify than the likes of superstar Barlow.

But Matt’s career has been a rollercoaster since he triumphed in 2002’ s Popstars: The Rivals.

One moment he was rubbing shoulders with Girls Aloud’s Cheryl Cole and Justin Timberlake and being rescued by police from mobs of adoring female fans.

Just two short years later he was singing love songs for prisoners chained to chairs,and destined for holiday camp gigs and complete obscurity.

His experiences have made him jaded about talent shows such as the X Factor, back soon for its 13th series. Fame came relatively easily to Matt, who desperately wanted to perform in West End musicals such as Oliver! and Les Miserables.

He was rejected as too young for 2001’s Pop Idol, which catapulted Gareth Gates and Will Young to fame.

But the following year, aged just 17, he was overjoyed to get through the auditions for ITV’s Popstars: The Rivals, judged by music moguls Pete Waterman and Louis Walsh, and Spice Girl Geri Halliwell.

He won a place in the “male vocal harmony” quintet One True Voice, who were pitted against Girls Aloud in a race to be the Christmas number one.

Girls Aloud won with Sound of the Underground, starting them on their path to being one of the biggest- selling girl groups ever. In their 11- year career they sold 4.3million singles and four million albums in t he UK alone. The boys

not only lost the race but within eight months the band had split. One Christmas he was drinking alongside Justin Timberlake on Top of the Pops festive special. Two years later he had to take a gig in a prison.

Shaking his head, Matt said: “It was Boxing Day and Liverpool jail wanted me to perform for an hour. They kinda sit there chained to a chair watching you.

“I just remember thinking what a bad idea my first song was. It was Boyzone’s Baby Can I Hold You Tonight? and I was singing in an all-male prison.

Ashamed

“I also remember when I was on Popstars: The Rivals I went shopping on Oxford Street and all these girls started surrounding me, shouting and pulling at me.

“The police put me on a bus and escorted the bus away with sirens blaring. It was like being in The Beatles, there must have been about 500 people around the bus.

“But then a few years later, I’d be performing in a holiday camp and afterwards you’d get drunk blokes coming up to my face and saying, ‘Didn’t you used to be in that sh*t band?’”

As TV adverts start appearing for the new series of the X Factor, Matt has some harsh words for talent shows.

He said: “They just don’t care if you end up upset or miserable. It’s cut-throat, they’ll hang you out to dry even at a young age. Now I look back and I think of those people, ‘Aren’t you ashamed of behaving that way to a 17-year-old guy with a dream?’” Matt was willing to do anything the record company wanted and is still baffled by the way he was treated.

He fears that some wannabe stars will not be able to handle the crushing disappointment and sense of isolation that can come with rejection.

He said: “Now I really think the talent shows need to take a break.”

That path had looked so promising for Matt. Week after week the public voted him through to the next round of Popstars, hosted by Davina McCall.

He won his place in One True Voice alongside Anton Gordon, Daniel Pearce, Keith Semple and Jamie Shaw.

But the boys’ debut single Sacred Trust, a mid-tempo ballad by the Bee Gees, was lacklustre. Not surprisingly Girls Aloud, who went on to record four albums and win 2009’s Brit Award for best single with The Promise, topped the charts. Matt insists he was never jealous of their success and