Olly Murs has an aim with his new album Knees Up: to get more lads into his music. “Is there geezers out there that might go – ‘You know what? Olly’s new album ain’t too bad?’” he wonders. His concert crowds certainly tend to be overwhelmingly female. “I always laugh on stage and say, ‘Where are all the fellas tonight who got dragged in?’” He’d also like a bit more recognition generally. “I’ve always been a bit of an underdog. In the industry and around my peers, I don’t think anyone holds me in any sort of regard.”
The evening before we meet, Murs won Outstanding Contribution to Music at the Variety Club Showbusiness Awards: recognition of his 15 years straddling the music and entertainment worlds with chart-topping hits like “Dance With Me Tonight” and “Troublemaker”. “But the last award I won prior to that was in 2013, and it was Rear of the Year. I would never normally say this, but I’m someone who’s had four No. 1 singles, five No. 1 albums. I’m currently three shows away from the 21 Club at the O2. But definitely in my industry, that vibe is just not there.”
I wonder if the same qualities that have made him such a hit with the general public – his Essex cheeky chappy, “‘avin’-a-laugh” persona, as much light entertainer as pure pop artist – play less well to a serious-minded industry. His new song “Bonkers” even admits he can be a bit much (“cause the things that I think in me head / are comin’ out my mouth instead / say I can’t say it, and I’m gonna make a joke of it / super inappropriate.”)
“I know I’m a bit limited edition,” he says. “Might not be everyone’s cup of tea. I think I’m pretty normal in my head. But my fans, particularly my family and people around me, they say I’m a bit bonkers.”
But ultimately, he thinks the lack of respect for his achievements is because his career came from TV. Murs won heart and minds when he came second to Joe McElderry in the 2009 edition of The X Factor; he later presented the show alongside Caroline Flack and was a judge on The Voice between 2018 and 2023. But his journey in music hasn’t been easy. “Listen, it’s been fucking tough. People would never know that, but getting songs on radio in the early days was hard. I struggled. And people will think, Oh shut up. I did. There was a bit of a stigma with [The X Factor].”
The year Murs came second was the same year as the Christmas campaign to get Rage Against the Machine to No 1. A social media campaign against the dominance of X Factor winners in the charts meant winner McElderry’s song “The Climb” was pipped to the top spot by the Californian rock band’s 1992 song “Killing in the Name”. “Yeah!” Murs says, as if he’s just remembered. “This Rage Against the Machine mentality was everywhere. There was real anger towards people coming off TV and getting the success.”
We are sitting in the corner of a very nice bar in central London, Murs as chatty as you’d expect. This, despite some sleepless nights: just weeks ago, Murs became a father to a second child. He and wife, Amelia Tank, a bodybuilder, have a one-year-old daughter, Maddie, and now a son, Albert. Fatherhood, marriage and the 15-year career milestone has clearly made him take stock.
He’s calling Knees Up “Ollie. 2.0” – a meeting of the artist he wanted to be after his 2010 self-titled debut album with the person he is now: no longer “a bit of a lad” (or at least not as much of one) but a settled 39-year-old family man with changing priorities. It’s a fun and energetic album – bar the UB40-ish ballad “Love = Madness”, it’s full of chipper, catchy ska-pop – stamped with Murs’s cheekily self-reflective lyrics. BMG, his new label, have given him the “flexibility” to be himself, he says.
“As in any walk of life, sometimes you just got to be a bit selfish. That can happen in relationships, in marriages – I just want to do what I want to do today. I just wanted to be honest and have some fun with this album. Be a bit daring.”
He says he hopes it will chime with the communal feeling that came with the Oasis reunion. “They were really showing the new generation proper f**king music. Noel and Liam would probably say Olly Murs’s music is not proper music. But I love their music, and I’m saying there is a market out there of people that still love music, not just a 30-second video.”
Knees Up is notably personal and truthful, particularly about his adjustment to married life: “Still Getting Used (To The Ring)” and “Save Me” paint him as learning on the job (and at times being a lowkey pain for his wife.) The latter is about a boys’ night out after an “over-dramatised” argument. “What would most guys do [after a fight]? You’d go straight to meet your mates, get a kebab, do some shots. And then the realisation of it when you have to go home.” He says it happened a while back. “God, I would never leave an argument like that now. But I just feel it was a relatable concern.”
He seems to credit Amelia with making him grow up. “100 per cent,” he says. “I was a cheeky lad, boy next door, going out weekends. And I’m a pop star. I’m at parties, I’m there, I’m here.” But he eventually asked himself: “Why am I actually doing it? It’s just going nowhere. As soon as I met Amelia, as soon as I was in her company, that old life was just not it. I don’t need to go out any more.”
That said, he says he wishes he saw more of his mates, many of whom he’s kept since his pre-fame years. “Chin Up” is a rally for male solidarity and for men suffering with their mental health. “A few of my mates have had some real dark stuff happening privately. And just me being such a positive person, they will ring me up and talk to me. I suppose I try and give them one per cent positive out of whatever the situation is. A friend of mine took her own life, Caroline Flack [the X Factor and Love Island presenter died in 2020]. Suicide in men is at ridiculous levels now. This song for me is hopefully a song that a guy can listen to and keep going, don’t give up.”
“Yesterday’s News” is about his relationship with the press. He says relations are generally good, and he knows he needs press coverage. But the song is a tongue-in-cheek swipe at the bad headlines. “There’s also a bit of a message of me feeling sometimes I am yesterday’s news.” He says the song’s lyrics are fictional, but it was inspired by a news story earlier this year that criticised Murs for losing his “huggable” physique in favour of a six pack. “Olly, no-one loves you any more because you’ve not got a dad bod,” says Murs. “A really shit story. I’ve been asked about this a lot actually, this year.”
He finds it dispiriting. He says he was on a “really nice personal journey, a mental health journey, being a dad, writing an album, going on tour to celebrate 15 years. I’m buzzing. And then you see a story like that? But I hope [the song] doesn’t cause any backlash. It’s more a case of just having a bit of fun.”
Murs is used to backlash. In November 2017, he made negative headlines when he tweeted during a supposed terror scare on London’s Oxford Street: “Everyone get out of @Selfridges now gun shots!! I’m inside.” He was widely ridiculed when the Met Police later confirmed there was no evidence anything of the sort happened.
When I bring it up, I can see he gets a bit uncomfortable, but I actually come in support: I also got caught up in the commotion that day, when there were false reports of gunfire during an altercation on a tube platform, causing crowds of people to flee in panic and some shopkeepers to barricade their doors. And I can testify that in the moment, it was absolutely terrifying. While appreciating Murs’s reaction makes for a fun pop culture story, I feel he took some unfair criticism.
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“What annoyed me was that it was made to look like I just went into Selfridges and decided to cause mayhem. I was just reacting off the back of the drama with hundreds of other people. I remember Piers Morgan coming for me. I just remember thinking, this is really bizarre because I’m in Selfridges right now in a back cupboard, really scared. I have never felt that scared.” He says there was a guy hiding with him, “breaking wood, saying I’m going out there! He was genuine.” He still suspects the truth about the incident has been covered up. “There’s never been a good explanation. I would love to know what happened. Maybe one day on Amazon or Netflix, there’ll be some documentary.”
He says people still mention it to him in the street. In fact, he says lots of people approach him in the street, wanting a photo or to say hello. But they are mainly women, or men doing it on behalf of their partners. He’s officially calling for lads to do it off their own back. “If you went and spoke to a guy on Oxford Street now and said, What’s Olly Murs to you? I don’t know if I would be someone that they would relate to. And on this album, and this journey I’m on now, I suppose I want more guys to know it’s all right. Just because I sing a few pop songs, it’s okay to come and say hello, mate. Don’t get scared.”
‘Knees Up’ is out on 21 November
