27th April, 2024
25th September, 2015For those who have followed The X Factor closely, the name Olly Murs would be an easy connection, having success at the 2009 season of The X Factor, finishing runner-up to Joe McElderyy in the hotly contested final. Though not very well known this part of the Suez, Olly Murs is in the news for his Right Place, Right Time (2012) album which was released on Sony Music and is creating quite a flutter on the music channels.
Oliver Stanley "Olly" Murs was born on 14th May 1984 in Witham, Essex to Vicki-Lynn (Pollard) and Peter Murs. Olly as he came to be known also has a younger twin brother, Ben Murs, and a sister, Fay Murs. Murs attended Howbridge Junior School in Witham and Notley High School in Braintree, Essex. He enjoyed playing football and was striker in the school's football team. He is a great supporter (like many of us here) of Manchester United. He also played for his town, but had to give the game a miss when he suffered a serious injury.
Murs worked as a recruitment consultant at Prime Appointments in Witham, and performed with a band called Small Town Blaggers. The band played mainly cover songs and within s short time it disbanded. Moving ahead to 2006, Murs tried to make it to the reality show The X Factor sixth season. He then took a shot in 2007, where he appeared on Deal or No Deal, where he won a lowly £10. He returned to The X Factor again in 2008, but he fell through only to return in 2009 to audition again, a decision that made him what he is today. Most of the judges kept him in good spirits to reach the final top, commenting every week on his progress and how better he could be. It was his performance of Stevie Wonder's classic Superstition that enabled him to show off his talents. Mentored by Simon Cowell in the live stages, he wowed judges with renditions of songs by the Beatles, Queen, and George Michael and soon became the favorite to win the show. However, despite a duet with musical hero Robbie Williams in the final, Murs finished a respectable second.
On 15th December that year, two days after the final, it was reported that one of the judges Simon Cowell was going to offer Murs a record deal in early 2010. But the deal never really took off and he was finally on the job with a six-figure record deal recording his debut album with Epic Records in the United Kingdom, and Columbia Records in the United States, and Syco Music. Producers and writers flocked to lend a helping hand to Murs who was battling it out by himself. In 2010, after signing the record deal he embarked on the sold-out X Factor arena tour.
Murs confirmed the first single from the album Please Don’t let me go which was released on 27th August 2010 following the circulation of the accompanying music video. The song was written by Murs himself and with other songwriters like Claude Kelly and Steve Robson. Trying his hand at writing his first few songs, and Murs seemed to find the job really interesting. In the song Murs speaks about a minor relationship he was in where he ended up feeling something for the other person. He is reported to have commented: "Sadly she kept giving me the impression that she didn't like me as much, and ultimately it didn't work out, so that's where the idea of me singing 'Please Don't Let Me Go' camefrom”. The song topped the UK singles chart beating Katy Perry's hit song Teenage Dream.
His debut album soon followed a few months later which came to be known simply as Olly Murs. The album boasted of tracks like Thinking of me and the James Morrison penned Heart on my Sleeve. The album entered the UK Albums Chart at number two with the biggest week one album sales for a debut album in 2010, with over 108,000 albums sold. The album went on to sell over 600,000 copies, and was certificated double platinum by the BPI.
After tasting mils success, Murs was rumored to be working on his second album. By the year end, Murs had released the promised album that came to be known as In case you didn’t know. The albumentered the charts at number one and has spawned two number-one singles to headline the album namely the album title and Dance with me tonight. The album peaked at Number 1 on the UK Albums Chart, went to Number 2 on the Irish charts and was in the Top Ten in Germany.
Murs' keen interest in football, and support of Manchester United means that he has also frequently appeared on sport based TV shows and radio stations either during promotion of his music or as a talking head giving his opinion on matches. He also released a special DVD, Olly Murs: 7 Deadly Sins of Football in November 2011.
With his name getting noticed in the music circles, Murs has also been involved in some modeling/fashion work and was the face of European clothing store New Yorker in March 2012 for their men's spring/summer 2012 range. Participating stores in Germany and Luxembourg ran a promotion in this period where customers were able to have their picture taken with a cardboard point-of-sale display of Murs. Murs has also modeled for the autumn/winter 2012 range of Robbie Williams' clothing label Farrell.
Murs released an illustrated autobiography, Happy Days, in October 2012. Photography for the book was been shot by Dean Freeman, who has also worked on books on Michael Buble and footballer David Beckham. Murs also recorded an audio version of the book that was made available to download. In April 2013 Murs was guest star in a Season 5 episode of the American drama series 90210.
Though his albums that fuse a mix of Pop, Jazz, R&B didn’t really garner the required fan following, Murs still went ahead and released his third album exactly a year later in November 2012. Murs has once again taken the help of writers Steve Robson and Claude Kelly. He also roped in Ed Drewett (best known for his work for the Boy band The Wanted) and Andrew Frampton and Steve Kipner (producers of both albums for The Script). The first single from the album was Troublemaker collaboration with Claude Kelly and Steve Robson which features American rapper Flo Rida.
After a successful tour of the UK for his first album, Murs was soon setting foot on Europe, after UK and Ireland early this year to promote his album Right Place, Right Time. To support the album, Murs toured his first live European dates in Germany, Switzerland, Sweden and Denmark in April 2013. Soon after the tour he released his second single Army of Two and a month later Dear Darlin’ and much later the album's title track Right Place, Right Time. To date, Murs has sold over 10 million records worldwide. 2013 also marked his foray into the US market with this album.
2013 has seen Murs spending a large part of his time touring as well as promoting his album, which by industry standards has performed well, compared to his two other albums. He was opening act for UK boy band One Direction on the North American leg of their Up All Night in Toronto.
Murs lived with his parents until the Easter of 2012, after which he moved into a house of his own near Chelmsford in London. Even today he is good friends with singers Robbie Williams, Michael Buble, Niall Horan and a few other music artists. Unlike almost all male and female music artists the cherubic looking Murs, doesn’t seem to be dating anyone at the moment. Even rumor mongers have not really linked him up to anyone. The paparazzi seem to be giving the cool and calm singer a break to find his own someday. The 29 year old is fancy free at the moment and maybe the New Year 2014 might just find him getting linked to someone, until then fans know that Murs is probably one of the few music bachelors on the planet.
On that note we also look forward to new material from this English singer-songwriter, musician and television presenter who is going places.
Discography:
-- By Verus Ferreira
