Pop sensation Will Young has signed a global publishing deal with Universal Music Publishing Group, it was announced today. 

The past two decades have seen Will remain at the forefront of pop. Since bursting onto the scene in 2002 after winning the inaugural series of Pop Idol aged just 22, he’s released 6 albums and won two Brit Awards. Will’s achievements include 4 UK Number 1’s with hits such as ‘Leave Right Now’ and ‘Evergreen’, and 11 UK top 10s.

All of this has brought Will Young to where he is now, and his latest release ‘Lexicon.’

Speaking of the signing, UMPG MD Mike McCormack said: “It’s so good to be working with Will again. We go right back to the very beginning when Eg White wrote ‘Leave Right Now’ which transformed not only Will’s career, but also firmly established Eg as a world class writer. I’d consider Will a friend as much as a client and he really is such a pleasure to work with. He’s most definitely back and ready to take on the world!”

For the first time since 2003’s ‘Friday’s Child’, the album sees contributions from other writers, including the following UMPG songwriters: Eg White who wrote ‘Get Me Dancing’ and ‘I Bet You Call,’ – which Will called a “brilliant pop song”, Danny Shah and Filly who wrote ‘Ground Running’ and Tom Walker, who wrote ‘Faithless Love’ – a booming, soulful ode to moving on from a toxic relationship. 

Time, experience, and “doing it for the sheer wonderful joyousness of it” have given Will Young the space to find himself again and to rebuild the parts that were broken. "It's a success story," he says. "That's wonderful, because it's not the success that is on the surface, you know? It's successful like, actually, bloody hell, I managed to do it. And now I'm 40 I've got the rest of my life to just carry on doing it. Where I am is exactly where I'm meant to be. And that's a great thing to feel." 

Manager Jake Leighton-Pope shared “It’s great to sign with Mike and Dougie who have been friends of mine for a long time. It feels like home”

We’re thrilled to be working with Will in this very exciting chapter of his career.