Pop Idol discography

Pop Idol was a British television talent show that ran for two series, in 2001 and 2003. The show was produced for ITV in a reality television format and aimed to unearth a previously undiscovered singer who could become an international success. Will Young was the winner of the first series and was awarded with a £1 million music recording contract.[1][2] Young became the most successful contestant with a series of top-five hits, including his debut single "Anything Is Possible" / "Evergreen", which peaked at number one on the UK Singles Chart in 2002 and broke chart sales figure records.[3] During the next seven years he recorded two further number-one singles ("Light My Fire" and "Leave Right Now"), while two of his four albums were number-one in the UK Albums Chart. In the second series, Michelle McManus emerged victorious.[4] Her debut single "All This Time" charted at number one in January 2003.[5] Her second single, "The Meaning of Love", charted at a peak of number 16 and an album of the same name reached number three in the UK Albums Chart.

Will Young was the winner of the first series of Pop Idol. He has subsequently recorded thirteen top-40 singles and seven top-10 albums.

A number of artists who did not win either series of Pop Idol have also had success in the British charts. Gareth Gates, who finished as the runner-up behind Young in the first series, scored a number-one hit with a cover of "Unchained Melody" in March 2002, replacing Young's debut single at the top of the charts.[6] Gates' subsequent releases "Anyone of Us (Stupid Mistake)" and the double A-side "The Long and Winding Road" / "Suspicious Minds" both reached the top of the charts in 2002. After "What My Heart Wants to Say" ended this run of number-one singles, Gates was joined by The Kumars to record the Comic Relief single for 2003, "Spirit in the Sky".[7] He achieved several more top-20 hits in 2003. After three years away from the music industry, Gates briefly returned in 2007 with a new album – Pictures of the Other Side, which charted at number 23 – and two top-40 singles.[8]

Darius Danesh, who finished in third place in the first series, had a string of successful singles and a top-10 album, including his debut single "Colourblind", which reached number one in August 2002.[9] Other contestants from the first series to have chart success were Sarah Whatmore (who failed to make the selection for the live shows), Rosie Ribbons, Rik Waller, Jessica Garlick and Zoe Birkett. Garlick was additionally chosen to represent the United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2002, where she finished third in the competition.[10] Sam Nixon and Mark Rhodes were the only contestants from the second series, other than McManus, to release a charting single. Rhodes finished as runner-up in the competition while Nixon finished third. Within months they formed a duo under the name Sam & Mark. They released a cover of The Beatles' "With a Little Help from My Friends" as a double-A side with "Measure of a Man".[11] This earned them a debut number-one single in January 2002, while they also reached the top-20 with a follow-up, "The Sun Has Come Your Way" before being dropped by their record label, 19.[11][12]

As of December 2015, Pop Idol contestants have had 14 charting albums, with McManus the only participant from the second series to peak inside the top-100. Forty-three singles released by Pop Idol contestants have charted in the United Kingdom. Young has had 17 singles peak within the top-100, followed by Gates with nine entries. Darius Danesh has also had six charting songs.

Singles
Darius Danesh, who finished third in the first series of the show, debuted at number-one with "Colourblind" in August 2002.

Only songs charted in the Top-100 in the UK Singles Chart are included in this list.

Artist(s)SeriesPosition in ShowSong title(s)Release dateUK peak
chart position		Ref
Will Young1Winner"Anything Is Possible" / "Evergreen"25 February 20021[13]
"Light My Fire"25 May 20021[13]
"The Long and Winding Road"23 September 20021[13]
"Don't Let Me Down" / "You and I"18 November 20022[13]
"Leave Right Now"24 November 20031[13]
"Your Game"15 March 20043[13]
"Friday's Child"5 July 20044[13]
"Switch It On"14 November 20055[13]
"All Time Love"16 January 20063[13]
"Who Am I"24 April 200611[13]
"Changes"15 September 200810[13]
"Grace"22 December 200833[13]
"Let It Go"2 March 200958[13]
"Hopes & Fears"8 November 200965[13]
"Jealousy"19 November 20115[13]
"Come On"21 November 201183[13]
"Losing Myself"18 March 201272[13]
Gareth GatesRunner Up"Unchained Melody"18 March 20021[14]
"Anyone of Us (Stupid Mistake)"8 July 20021[14]
"The Long and Winding Road" /
"Suspicious Minds"[B]		23 September 20021[14]
"What My Heart Wants to Say"9 December 20025[14]
"Spirit in the Sky"[C]10 March 20031[14]
"Sunshine"13 September 20033[14]
"Say It Isn't So"8 December 20034[14]
"Changes"9 April 200714[14]
"Angel on My Shoulder"18 June 200722[14]
Darius DaneshThird"Colourblind"29 July 20021[15]
"Rushes"25 November 20025[15]
"Incredible (What I Meant to Say)"3 March 20039[15]
"Girl in the Moon"9 June 200321[15]
"Kinda Love"18 October 20048[15]
Live Twice10 January 20057[15]
Rosie Ribbons4th"Blink"21 October 200212[16]
"A Little Bit"13 January 200319[16]
Zoe Birkett6th"Treat Me Like a Lady"13 January 200312[17]
Jessica Garlick9th"Come Back"[A]13 May 200213[18]
Rik Waller10th"I Will Always Love You"4 March 20026[19]
Something Inside (So Strong)"24 June 200225[19]
Sarah WhatmoreHeat 5"When I Lost You"9 September 20026[20]
"Automatic"10 February 200311[20]
Michelle McManus2Winner"All This Time"25 November 20031[21]
"The Meaning of Love"26 January 200416[21]
Sam Nixon and
Mark Rhodes[D]		Runner's Up"With a Little Help from My Friends" /
"Measure of a Man"		9 February 20041[22]
"The Sun Has Come Your Way"24 May 200419[23]
Jodie ConnorFinal 50"Good Times" (with Roll Deep)26 April 20101
"Now or Never" (featuring Wiley)13 January 201114
"Bring It" (with Tinchy Stryder)20 February 201137

Albums

Solo albums

Only albums that charted in the Top 100 of the UK Albums Chart are included in this list.

ArtistSeriesAlbum titleRelease dateUK peak
chart position		Ref
Will Young1From Now On7 October 20021[13]
Friday's Child1 December 20031[13]
Keep On21 November 20052[13]
Let It Go29 September 20082[13]
The Hits16 November 20099[13]
Echoes19 August 20111[13]
The Essential14 October 201315[13]
85% Proof25 May 20151[13]
Lexicon21 June 20192[13]
Gareth GatesWhat My Heart Wants to Say26 October 20022[14]
Go Your Own Way22 September 200311[14]
Pictures of the Other Side25 June 200723[14]
Darius DaneshDive In2 December 20026[15]
Live Twice25 October 200436[15]
Michelle McManus2The Meaning of Love16 February 20043[21]

Pop Idol albums

In addition to the solo material released by the contestants, Sony BMG released two CDs featuring songs performed by the finalists, one for each series of the show.

Album titleSeriesRelease dateUK peak
chart position		Ref
Pop Idol: The Big Band Album1April 2002—[24]
Pop Idol: The Idols - Xmas Factor2December 2003—[25]

Other releases

Several contestants also released songs which failed to reach the main singles or albums charts. Rosie Ribbons recorded an album entitled Misbehaving but was dropped by her record label, Telstar Records, when they ran into financial difficulties and the album was only released in a promotional version.[26] Jessica Garlick released "Hard Not to Fall" as a download single on 11 May 2009 to coincide with the Eurovision Song Contest 2009.[27]

Will Young additionally appeared as a featured artist on the Band Aid 20 UK number-one charity single "Do They Know It's Christmas?" in 2004.[28]

By artist
Artist Top-100 singles entries Top-100 albums entries Number-one singles Number-one albums
Will Young 17 8 4[E] 4
Gareth Gates 9 3 4[E] —
Darius Danesh 6 2 1 —
Michelle McManus 2 1 1 —
Sam & Mark 2 — 1 —
Sarah Whatmore 2 — — —
Rik Waller 2 — — —
Rosie Ribbons 2 — — —
Zoe Birkett 1 — — —
Jessica Garlick 1 — — —

Chart records

"Unchained Melody" and "Anything Is Possible" / "Evergreen" became two of the most successful singles of the 2000s, selling more than 1 million copies, two of only 10 songs that achieved that feat during the decade.[29] "Anything Is Possible" / "Evergreen" sold 385,000 copies during its first day of sale in a single chain of record stores, Virgin Megastores, beating the total of 160,000 copies of Hear’Say's "Pure and Simple" in 2001.[3] Hear'Say sold 550,000 during a whole week, while Young had advance orders of 1.2 million copies at HMV record stores.[30] It beat Band Aid's record of 750,000 sales in the first week of release, eventually reaching 1.2 million sales.[31] Young's song was named as the biggest-selling single of the decade at the end of 2009, with Gates' debut finishing in second place.[32]

Notes

See also

References
General
  • "(Will Young > Discography)". AllMusic. Retrieved 22 January 2010.
  • "(Gareth Gate > Discography)". AllMusic. Retrieved 22 January 2010.
  • "(Darius > Discography)". AllMusic. Retrieved 22 January 2010.
  • "(Michelle McManus > Discography)". AllMusic. Retrieved 22 January 2010.
  • "(Sam & Mark > Discography)". AllMusic. Retrieved 22 January 2010.
Specific
  1. "Will wins Pop Idol". BBC News. British Broadcasting Corporation. 10 February 2002. Retrieved 22 June 2009.
  2. "Will Young wins Pop Idol contest". The Daily Telegraph. London. 9 February 2002. Retrieved 22 June 2009.
  3. "Young scores record number one". BBC News. British Broadcasting Corporation. 3 March 2002. Retrieved 11 July 2009.
  4. "Michelle captures Pop Idol crown". BBC News. British Broadcasting Corporation. 21 December 2003. Retrieved 24 June 2009.
  5. "Pop Idol's Michelle tops charts". BBC News. British Broadcasting Corporation. 11 January 2004. Retrieved 24 June 2009.
  6. "Pop Idol's Gareth is number one". BBC News. British Broadcasting Corporation. 24 March 2002. Retrieved 11 July 2009.
  7. "Comic Relief tops record total". BBC News. British Broadcasting Corporation. 15 March 2003. Retrieved 22 June 2009.
  8. Pool, Hannah (19 April 2007). "Hannah Pool talks to Gareth Gates". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 22 January 2010.
  9. "Darius scores first number one". BBC News. British Broadcasting Corporation. 4 August 2002. Retrieved 24 June 2009.
  10. "'Latin' Latvia win Eurovision". BBC News. British Broadcasting Corporation. 26 May 2002. Retrieved 23 March 2010.
  11. "Sam And Mark Top The Chart". MTV. 1 August 2006. Retrieved 22 January 2010.
  12. Wilkes, Neil (2 August 2004). "Sam and Mark 'axed'". Digital Spy. Retrieved 22 January 2010.
  13. "Will Young – Top 75 Releases". The Official Charts Company. Archived from the original on 3 May 2010. Retrieved 13 April 2010.
  14. "Gareth Gates – Top 75 Releases". The Official Charts Company. Archived from the original on 15 June 2011. Retrieved 13 April 2010.
  15. "Darius – Top 75 Releases". The Official Charts Company. Archived from the original on 17 February 2011. Retrieved 13 April 2010.
  16. "Rosie Ribbons – Top 75 Releases". The Official Charts Company. Archived from the original on 15 June 2011. Retrieved 13 April 2010.
  17. "Zoe Birkett – Top 75 Releases". The Official Charts Company. Archived from the original on 15 June 2011. Retrieved 13 April 2010.
  18. "Jessica Garlick – Top 75 Releases". The Official Charts Company. Archived from the original on 15 June 2011. Retrieved 13 April 2010.
  19. "Rik Waller – Top 75 Releases". The Official Charts Company. Archived from the original on 15 June 2011. Retrieved 13 April 2010.
  20. "Sarah Whatmore – Top 75 Releases". The Official Charts Company. Archived from the original on 17 February 2011. Retrieved 13 April 2010.
  21. "Michelle McManus – Top 75 Releases". The Official Charts Company. Archived from the original on 15 June 2011. Retrieved 13 April 2010.
  22. "With a Little Help from My Friends / Measure of a Man". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 22 June 2009.
  23. "The Sun Has Come Your Way". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 22 June 2009.
  24. "Pop Idol album hits the shops". Newsround. British Broadcasting Corporation. 8 April 2002. Retrieved 23 March 2010.
  25. "Pop Idol stars hope for Xmas hit". Newsround. British Broadcasting Corporation. 24 October 2003. Retrieved 23 March 2010.
  26. "Pop Idols: Where are they now?". BBC News. British Broadcasting Corporation. 21 May 2003. Retrieved 21 June 2009.
  27. "Singer who knows Eurovision story". BBC News. British Broadcasting Corporation. 14 May 2009. Retrieved 21 June 2009.
  28. Youngs, Ian (15 November 2004). "Pop stars sample Band Aid reality". BBC News. British Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 14 January 2010.
  29. "Alexandra Burke's 'Hallelujah' joins 'million-selling singles list". NME. 9 January 2009. Archived from the original on 4 June 2011. Retrieved 22 January 2010.
  30. "Pop Idol single 'flying off shelves'". BBC News. British Broadcasting Corporation. 26 February 2002. Retrieved 22 June 2009.
  31. "Band Aid 20 singles storms to No. 1". BBC News. British Broadcasting Corporation. 5 December 2004. Retrieved 19 December 2009.
  32. "Will Young and James Blunt win biggest selling single and album of the noughties". NME. 31 December 2009. Retrieved 22 January 2010.
  33. "Idol singer picked for Eurovision". BBC News. British Broadcasting Corporation. 3 March 2002. Retrieved 21 June 2009.
  34. "Pop Idol's Jessica third in Eurovision". BBC News. British Broadcasting Corporation. 26 May 2002. Retrieved 21 June 2009.
  35. "Comic Relief charity singles over the years". Yahoo! Music. Retrieved 22 June 2009.

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