Olly Murs

Oliver "Olly" Stanley Murs (born 14 May 1984) is from Essex, England. He was born to Vicky-Lynn Pollard and Peter Murs, who is of Latvian descent. Murs has two siblings, called Fay and Ben. Ben and Olly are twins. He attended Notley High School where he was a star striker in the school's football team. He also played semi-professionally for Witham Town. He is a supporter of Manchester United and Celtic. He works as an energy advisor in a call centre. He previously appeared on the TV show Deal or No Deal, where in his game he won £10 after inadvertently swapping his box which contained £1,000. He performed Superstition by Stevie Wonder in his first audition and Simon Cowell said it was "the easiest yes I have ever given". On the first live show he sang Robbie Williams' She's the One and on the second, Tina Turner's A Fool in Love, a performance which Cowell described as being "in a different league." For week three he took on Bewitched by Steve Lawrence. Walsh commented that he was the "dark horse of the competition," and Cole said he was "coming into his own each week." He has frequently employed dance moves in his performance including his trademark "Olly wiggle." In week 4 he sang Come Together by The Beatles and again received positive comments, with Walsh predicting, "I think you're in the final three," and Cowell saying he was "progressing better than just about everybody." In week 5 he performed Twist and Shout and in week 6 Don't Stop Me Now by Queen after which he was labelled by Minogue as, "absolutely the best performer we have on the show by far." After a performance of Fastlove, he was in the bottom two in week 7, with John & Edward. Cowell and Cole decided to send John & Edward home, but Walsh voted against Olly. Minogue then decided against taking the judges' vote to deadlock and sent home John & Edward. When the voting statistics were later released on The X Factor website, they revealed that if Minogue had voted to save John & Edward and taken it to deadlock, Murs would have been sent home on popular vote, as John & Edward gained 10.7% of the popular vote against just 9.8% to Murs. In the semi-finals Murs had to miss the wedding of his brother. The ceremony took place just 16 miles from the show's studio, but Cowell, his mentor, had great reservations about letting him off for a few hours on this crucial semi-final day. He sang The Jacksons' Can You Feel It and the John Lennon/Paul McCartney composition We Can Work It Out in the semi-final and ended up as one of the three finalists, breaking down in tears upon hearing the result. In the final on 12 December, he repeated his audition song, Stevie Wonder's Supersition, following which Cowell said putting him in the final 12 was "the best risk I have ever taken in my life". Murs then sang with Robbie Williams on a duet of Angels. Williams fluffed his lines as he walked on stage to join Murs and came in at the wrong time, singing the second line of the song, but was helped by Murs to find the right spot. There was then a repeat performance of his week 2 song Fool in Love. Murs qualified for the final two and first sang a repeat performance of Twist and Shout, following which Louis Walsh commented, "You're a born, born showman and no matter what happens tonight you're going to have a great career in music." In his final performance on the show he performed the winner's song, The Climb, finishing it in tears. He was told by Cole, "You absolutely tore it from your soul. I've never heard you sing like that. I thought it was a beautiful version of the song." He lost the final to Joe McElderry the next day and finished as the runner-up. Following his defeat, Olly was reportedly texted by duet partner Robbie Williams and invited to visit him in his Los Angeles mansion and participate in the upcoming Soccer Aid, organised by Williams.Olly will be performing in the upcoming X Factor tour, alongside Joe McElderry, John & Edward, Stacey Soloman and several other finalists. It was later revealed on the Xtra Factor that Olly was predicted by all the judges and presenters (except Minogue who said Nicole Jackson and Cole who said Miss Frank as a second choice) as the favourite to win the series at the Boot Camp stage. It has been announced that Murs has been signed up to a six-figure record deal with Epic Records.