Olly Murs and Will Young likely to score No 1s

Olly Murs and Will Young likely to score No 1s
Olly Murs and Will Young likely to score No 1s (Image credit: PA Wire/Press Association Images)

TV talent show stars are set to dominate the charts this weekend with Will Young and Olly Murs likely to have number ones. Will - the winner of Pop Idol in 2001 - is on course to score the number one album with his dance release Echoes. And Olly Murs, runner-up in The X Factor in 2009, is heading for his second number single with Heart Skips A Beat. Olly is now also a presenter of the ITV2 spin-off of the contest The Xtra Factor. Another X Factor star, Joe McElderry - who beat Murs to the 2009 title - is set to go into the album chart at number two this weekend, according to figures from the Official Chart Company. His album success with new release Classic comes after he won ITV1 show Popstar To Operastar. And it is a revival of fortunes after he was dropped from his record deal with Simon Cowell after just one album. When charts are announced on Sunday it may also mark the first time that Adele has been out of the top two of the album charts for 31 weeks with her world-conquering release 21. It is on course to be number three when the new chart is confirmed. Former Oasis star Noel Gallagher is on course to chart at number nine in the singles chart with his first solo release, The Death Of You And Me.

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.