In recent years, talent show alumnus has been known more for his work as a TV judge, his love life and for his practical jokes on his fiancée than for his music. That’s all set to change now though, with the release of a new album and tour. Called Marry Me, Olly has already ruffled feathers with one particular track (more on that later).
Talking as he walks his dog, a Shiba-Inu called Missy, Olly opens up about life as a popstar. ‘Today I’ve been doing all these popstar interviews and talking about the album, doing things for that, but then I get taken straight back down to earth on a dog walk. In about two or three minutes time I’m going to have to put my hands down and pick up a warm, soggy poo and put it into a bag – but I wouldn’t change it for the world,’ he laughs.
‘It’s the simple things in life you know, I’m a popstar by day and I’m a dog walker picking up poo at night.’
Olly proposed to his fiancée Amelia Tank earlier this year and, with his reputation for playing pranks on her, she wasn’t sure if it was for real at first. ‘She doesn’t really believe much that comes out of my mouth anyway, to be honest,’ he confesses.
‘When I got down on one knee – I’ve got a video of it – she’s like, “Are you being serious? Like is this actually for real?” And I’m like, “Yes, this is for real, I’m about to propose,” and she got really emotional and started crying.’
Olly’s penchant for pranks could lead to his undoing, he jokes. ‘I hope it doesn’t get to the point where I’m actually like, “Babe, I’m choking,” and she’s like, “Yeah whatever, you’re just pranking me,” but I need an ambulance.’
Olly hopes that fans will dress up for the Marry Me tour and would love to see some proposals. ‘I hope it’s going to encourage people, male or female, to pop the question! A few marriage proposals on tour would be nice. I want it to feel like a big wedding party!’
He doesn’t want fans to get their hopes up of an actual wedding, though. ‘I won’t be getting married on tour. There’s not going to be some mad TikTok video where me and Amelia tie the knot!’ he insists. ‘But, yeah, I want it to be a big party and if someone in the mix of that gets engaged, that’d be amazing.’
With weddings comes booze, and the album includes a new song that has proven to be controversial. Called I Hate You When You’re Drunk, fans and fellow musicians including Self Esteem have hit out, calling the lyrics ‘misogynistic’. The lyrics talk about a partner who has had a few too many on a night out, and during our conversation (which took place before the backlash) Olly said he was excited to play it live.
He explained: ‘There’s always a designated driver, isn’t there? There’s always one person who’s goes, “I’ll drive tonight, darling, you have a drink!” But at the end of the night, you’re like, “Oh, my God, I hate you when you’re drunk, I forget how bad you are,” so there’s a song that I wrote which is about that.
‘We all have friends, we have partners, we have people that you just hate them when they’re drunk.’ He pauses. ‘You love them! They’re amazing, it’s not that… you just hate that moment when they’ve had a few too many drinks. It’s a real feelgood song. It’s really big and very anthemic, and I can’t wait to hear that live. I mean, there might be a few arguments, but it’ll still be fun.’
Which brings us to those ruffled feathers. Olly has since shared a tweet, saying, ‘I don’t just HATE YOU, I hate me when I’m drunk… I’m sure you can all relate to this one,’ alongside a video of him inebriated and getting up to no good. Whether he’ll still perform the song on tour though remains to be seen.
Olly Murs’ tour starts on April 21, 2023 at
