WHERE WERE YOU WHEN Team Will beat Team Gareth - YOU Magazine Fashion Beauty Celebrity Health Life Relationships Horoscopes Food Interiors Travel Sign in Welcome!Log into your account Forgot your password? Password recovery Recover your password Search Sign in Welcome! Log into your account Forgot your password? Get help Password recovery Recover your password A password will be e-mailed to you. YOU Magazine Fashion Beauty Celebrity Health Life Relationships Horoscopes Food Interiors Travel Home Celebrity WHERE WERE YOU WHEN Team Will beat Team Gareth By You Magazine - June 2, 2019 The country was split between the Pop Idol finalists, remembers Will superfan Bella Younger. The final two Pop Idol contestants on the campaign trail. Image: Myung Jung Kim. Back in 2002, before anyone was Leave or Remain, the country was divided. Then, the issue wasn’t the EU but which Pop Idol contestant you had pledged your allegiance to. In the climax of its first season, battle lines were drawn between Team Will and Team Gareth. This was the start of the golden era of TV talent shows – when Simon Cowell was revered as a tastemaker and winning guaranteed more than a trip to the I’m a Celebrity… jungle. Pop Idol’s frontrunners were two normal lads who just loved to sing: 23-year-old Will Young, a politics student from Berkshire, and 17-year-old Gareth Gates, a spiky haired A level student from Bradford. My school was down the road from Will’s family so geographical loyalty immediately bound me and my friends to his team. We wanted him to win more than we’d ever wanted anything and, in our eyes, baby-faced Gareth – favourite of the bookies and Simon Cowell – had the edge. A squeaky-clean Christian who could only overcome a debilitating stammer when he sang, it was clear that mums everywhere loved him. But as far as I was concerned, Will was the music lover’s choice (and he looked great in a vest). Will was not just one of our own, he was the underdog. A week before the final, the pair took to the streets in ‘battle buses’, met with adoring fans and released tongue-in-cheek manifestos. With the risk of a Gareth victory looming large (Will was 0.5 per cent behind Gareth in a previous public vote), my friends and I took matters into our own hands. We headed to the school art block, armed with paint and card, and snuck out into the nearby village to canvass the area. Every time a car beeped when they saw our Vote For Will posters, we convinced ourselves it was his eternally grateful mum. When Will won with just 53.1 per cent of the vote, we cried for hours. Almost as much as when he came out as gay a month after winning. Also that month… B. Potter/Express/Getty Images. Comedian Spike Milligan (above) died. His headstone has an Irish translation of his quip ‘I told you I was ill’. Ocean’s Eleven was released in the UK. The BBC launched two new children’s channels: CBeebies and CBBC. The funeral of Princess Margaret was held at St George’s Chapel in Windsor. Great Britain’s women’s curling team won the country’s first Winter Olympics gold medal for 18 years at Salt Lake City. RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR 50 of the best celebrity Halloween costumes of all time Shirley Ballas ‘ Strictly gave me back my hope’ Davina McCall discusses how men can help women going through the menopause Popular in Celebrity TV chef Gino D Acampo on Sardinia Sophia Loren and scary salads May 25, 2017 The Evergreen Goddess Exercise guru Diana Moran on looking fit and July 10, 2017 More more Julianne Moore November 13, 2017 Author Jill Mansell on designer notebooks commissioning art and the family January 16, 2018 EMOTIONAL TIES Kelly Hoppen on vodka vintage finds and being a April 4, 2018 ‘ I have no regrets’ Millie Mackintosh on divorce debt and reuniting May 20, 2018 EMOTIONAL TIES TV presenter and tennis player Annabel Croft shares her July 1, 2018 Stella Parton ‘ Dolly and I have always been close’ August 12, 2018 Anna Friel on getting jeered in the street shared parenting with September 23, 2018 Queen of primetime Charlotte Riley on juggling rising stardom with pregnancy October 21, 2018 Popular CategoriesFood2704Life2496Fashion2240Beauty1738Celebrity1261Interiors684 Sign up for YOUMail Thanks for subscribing Please check your email to confirm (If you don't see the email, check the spam box) Fashion Beauty Celebrity Life Food Privacy & Cookies T&C Copyright 2022 - YOU Magazine. All Rights Reserved