Will Young Refuses To Do Charity Cd?

[Chicagoholic]

I'm not saying he's a bad person, it's just a shame that he refused considering everyone else was willing.

[steveyboy]

You have to remember though, that Will won this 2 years ago! a long time in the Pop world.

He is not so much being associated with it anymore, and he has overcome his critics, and the British media, for him to do a charity single as UK pop Idol winner, would be going back to the beginning, and losing credibility, he has done loads of charity work, and has done a charity single for Children in Need, and a huge charity concert in Exeter, I'm sure Guy would be alot more willing, its not going to hurt him, he's right in the peak of his win, and maybe the Australian media arn't quite so harsh on Reality tv as the British media.

[Accordionhat]

Will has done a lot for charity including the Feat Beat Run, the Mencap charity, CIN...There is only so much you can do for charity. He wouldn't be turning this down because he's a primadonna, because he isn't. He is polite and far from that. But he has moved on. Yes Pop Idol made him, but we all know that it made Gareth, and he isn't doing that well. So I think that seeing as it is 2 years on now, if he cant be recognised as a credible artist without the pop Idol tag then this world needs serious help.

Yes Pop Idol can make you, but it can also break you eg Gareth. This hasn't happened to Will, even after a year out, so I feel he deserves to be taken seriously.

[guest]

Chicagoholic said:

Guy has a CD to promote as well as doing the Australian Idol tour, yet he was still willing to do the CD.

guy has only just won idol - for will this was almost 2 years ago. he done the tour - he done the promo for the dvd, video, cd etc. the only reason he done WI was contractual obligations. he has worked hard to become a credible artist - something that the british press dont like to see, and now theyre asking him to rewind his career 2 years and go back to promoting 'idol' products?
will has done masses of charity work - and no one here blames him for refusing to do it, in fact most of us are cheering for him

[la la]

its bad enough that he is in the show, he was right to turn down the single!!

the whole show is cheesey ;D

[anita]

Sorry folks but Will has done many charity performances, ok in the Uk, for for many charities, i.e. HIV, Help a London Child (a 10 mile run!!), a London Palladium concert for Milly (a girl who was murdered and her family have now set up a charity to help teenagers in danger!!), ok i have been to all, he may a done more??? Oh, sorry, Children in Need, where he performed a private concert for a person who paid about £50,000?? ok, i may be corrected for this sum, he is a charitable person but perhaps on this occasion he might have thought he was being conned?? OK, me myself yes he was gonna, so good on you Will for turning this down, mwah, xxx

nita

[Guest]

Will has done more than his fair share of charity work including Mencap, PASW etc and proceeds from his single You & I went to Children in need. As previously said it is 2 years on since he won Pop Idol and it's taken him all this time to get himself known as a credible artist. The media hate reality TV shows in the UK and anyone winning shows like this are slated for it. It takes a lot of hard work to gain the respect of the British media. Now they asked him to take it all back and do World Idol. He only did this because of his contract. Knowing what a farse it would be he has just done what he was supposed to do and refuses to do any more than needs be. Good for him I say. Put WI behind him and get back to the real work of being a talented singer/songwriter and not a PI puppet.

[Miss Evergreen]

I think that if Guy was 2 years down the road, and had put up with the kind of stick that Will got in the beginning from the music industry - I pray it doesnt happen to Guy, I saw him Tuesday night and thought he was fab! and a really nice guy - and the Australian judge was a proper judge and gave good praise and criticism, without tearing someone apart I dont think Guy would want to be associated with something like this - I was there, it was terrible to witness.

Good luck to Guy.

S

[Chicagoholic]

It's not the whole thing about not doing the cd for Charity that's annoyed me, it's the fact that everyone was willing BUT Will. Everyone has had to put up with the Idol image yet WILL was the only one to refuse.

[la la]

yes, but the others have nothing to loose

[Chicagoholic]

No offence to any Will fans here, but I'd say Kelly Clarkson has a lot more to loose than Will.

[lindab]

Chicagoholic said:

No offence to any Will fans here, but I'd say Kelly Clarkson has a lot more to loose than Will.

What utter rubbish, Will has just had his second album as double platinum in 12 days, he has had brilliant reviews and apologies from the press, and is now a bona fide credible artist, and this could go completely downhill.

So please tell me what more Kelly Clarkson could lose.

[Please hear me out]

Since winning Will has used his new found celebrity status to help many charitable causes, sometimes high profile sometimes not depending on if he thought his public profile would help the cause or not.

He's an ambassador for the Princes Trust and Mencap and has helped to raise money for both organisations. He took part in the Capital radio Feetbeat 10 mile charity run and raised money through sponsorship.

He is also now a patron of PAWS, Positive Action Southwest an aids related charity organisation. He put on a charity concert for them earlier this year in Exeter in the grounds of a stately home which 6000 fans attended and all proceeds went to the charity. This kind of activity isn't new to him because whilst he was still at university he helped to organise with a couple of friends a charity ball in aid of PAWS and ended up raising £22,000 for them.

He's also supported several organisations close to his hometown of hungerford but these have all been very low key and are not widely known about and as has already been said he released the official Children In Need charity single in 2002.

I can understand that reading a few bare facts about refusing to do the WI charity single may have given people the wrong impression of Will's character but you really need to put it into context.

Will's one of the nicest guy's there is. He's donated a lot of his time and energy to helping others both before and after he became famous and a lot of it's been done this year when he's been out of the public eye and had nothing at all to sell or promote himself, he's simply done it because he does care.

Almost immediately after Will won PI in this country the media backlash started against so called "manufactured pop" and "reality TV stars" it seemed like everyone and their mother jumped on the bandwagon of running down anyone who came from PI, Popstars or similar shows, TV and media pundits, Journalists other artists in the music industry, anyone who was asked for their opinion on it seemed to tow the party line by declaring the artists were nothing but manufactured puppets who only produced cover versions and the shows themselves and by association Will was an indication of everything that was wrong with the music industry in this country.

During PI and for a very short while after it was cool to like Will, it was ok to say you liked him because everyone you spoke to about him at school, in the workplace, down the pub acknowledged what a naturally gifted singer he was and that he managed to make any song that he sang sound uniquely like Will and not a carbon copy of anyone else. However due to the backlash and the fact that Will made the announcement about being Gay it swiftly became very uncool.

Will's had to fight against that kind of prejudice for nearly two years now but throughout it all he's retained his dignity, he's kept his feet firmly on the ground and has treated others with respect, refusing to slag off either PI the show or other artists in the business despite many attempts in interviews to make him do so. He has made a point of saying that he's very proud to have won PI and that without it he really doesn't think a record company would have looked at a 24 year old middle class gay man as a potential popstar and as more and more people ran down PI the more pro it he became.

He has criticised the way some of the judges went overboard in their put downs because it can crush someone’s dreams and that there are ways of being honest and giving your opinion without being insulting at the same time and that he thinks World Idol is a pretentious title, which frankly it is but that's the only ever criticism of the show I've heard him make.

Will's been away from the public eye for nearly a year now working on and writing and recording his second album. The turnaround in attitudes towards him since it's release has been frankly astonishing, some of his fiercest critics have apologised in print, the album has received great reviews almost across the board and the public love the new single. That praise has translated into sales as he's sold half a million albums and over a quarter of a million singles in just under a month. The music and Will's personality have turned people around, it is once again cool to admit to liking Will.

Then WI happens, he's contractually obliged to take part and he's told it's going to be more like a showcase for all the Idols from the different countries than an actual competition. He's worried it may turn out like the Eurovision song contest where voting politics come into play and it ends up being nothing about the actual music itself but nationalities voting instead for other nationalities that they like but decides he's going to treat it with good humour and not take it too seriously.

In view of everything I'm not at all surprised he refused to make a WI charity record. It's a backwards step for him just when things are starting to go right for him in his career and he's finally getting the respect he deserves as a multi platinum selling artist who is also held in genuine affection by the public after nearly two years of struggling to be accepted for what he is, a talented singer.

I'm sure Guy's a lovely person going by some of the comments I've seen by his fans but I don't think it's necessarily fair to compare his situation to Will's. Guy's just starting out on his career, I don't know if there's been any backlash in Australia or if there ever will be for him. What I'm trying to say is that what's right for Guy isn't necessarily right for Will because they are at two different stages in their respective careers and will therefore have been through many different experiences.

I am a Will fan and I'm not saying others have to be, I'd just like people to give him a fair break and not judge him or make assumptions about him without all the facts.

Thanks to those who've taken the time to read this and i'd just like to say I'm really looking forward to seeing and hearing Guy on WI because I've heard good things about him on the net and also from people that went to the recording itself. It seems a shame that the judges tried to hijack the show and make it about them instead of the contestants themselves, I personally would have much prefered simply to watch a showcase with all the idols performing as a kind of celebration, a pity it didn't happen that way but I guess there's not as much money in that, no phone votes.

[Chicagoholic]

Guest-lindab said:

What utter rubbish, Will has just had his second album as double platinum in 12 days, he has had brilliant reviews and apologies from the press, and is now a bona fide credible artist, and this could go completely downhill.

So please tell me what more Kelly Clarkson could lose.

Kelly is more well known. More people will take notice of what she's doing. Here in Australia a lot of people thought Gareth Gates won Pop Idol. And you don't have to say it's rubbish, it's my opinion and I'm entitled to it Thank you very much.

[Miss D]

Well okay then! LOL. I had no idea that he had done all that stuff, and like I said from reading the posts over here and at Digital Spy, most people don't have that idea either!

Like you say the Guy/Kelly whoever fans are turning you off them, well from the way you talk about Will, well sorry you did talk him up to sound like he was too good for the whole thing.