Stripping down to his boxers in between outfit changes, Olly Murs has the confidence of someone who knows he’s in the best shape of his life. Not just physically, but mentally too.
The ever-endearing pop star is keen to give credit where it’s due – he’s quit drinking and is following a diet and training plan designed by his fiancée Amelia Tank.
“I was eating f**king everything,” admits Olly at our cover shoot at a barber shop in north London. “I’d be like, ‘What’s that? Percy Pigs. Bang. Jaffa Cakes, ham sandwich, Chinese. Bang. Anything in my hand, gone. I got big!”
Olly returns this week with his first new music in four years. It was during this lengthy hiatus, and after four years of being single, that Olly met bodybuilder and fitness model Amelia, 30, at an Essex gym in 2019.
Since then, she’s supported him through some of the darkest, most challenging times in his life.
She was by his side when, while on holiday in Bali in 2020, Olly heard the devastating news that his dear friend Caroline Flack had died.
And in February this year, she secretly nursed him back to health after emergency knee surgery left him unable to walk for 12 weeks, leading him to fear his performing career was over. It’s no wonder then that Olly, 38, proposed last June.
“I knew after six months of being with Amelia, genuinely, this is it,” says the singer. “I thought at the time, ‘I can’t propose now, it’s too soon, she’ll run a mile!’
Then lockdown came and what happened with Caz came. It was a f**ked-up time. Amelia saw me at my worst, at my lowest, proper bad.”
This week marks a new dawn for Olly, who is making his music comeback on label EMI after deciding to part ways with Sony, which launched him to superstardom 12 years ago.
His seventh album, Marry Me, has been two years in the making, with the lead single Die Of A Broken Heart – written with Dave Stewart – identifying a new sound that’s a step away from his “cheeky chappie” persona.
“I just felt it was time for a fresh change,” he explains. “I had the most amazing 12 years with Sony. They changed my life, they signed me, I’ve had six albums with them, four No.1 albums, four No.1 singles. In the end, it just felt a bit lazy.
The juices just weren’t flowing.
“I needed a minute to refresh and wanted to come back with something that was different for the ears. When I heard Die Of A Broken Heart, with the steel drums and a sort of Police or Sting vibe, I was like, ‘I’m f**king vibing off this.’ It was quirky and different.”
Unsurprisingly, Amelia has inspired not just the album title, but much of the feeling behind it, although there’s only one ballad, a track called Let Me Just Say.
Stripped back and packed with emotion, Olly sings, “My darling, my love, I get the feeling all eyes are on us, we’re standing close, but baby close ain’t enough, my heart needs the touch of you.”
“The first few lines of that song is that moment of us on our wedding day, all eyes on us,” says Olly, who confesses he’s yet to play it to Amelia. “We’re just about to have our first dance, this is our moment.
“She definitely inspired the conversations we had in the studio, little nuggets about how she makes me feel,” Olly continues.
“I’m in love, I’m feeling great, I’m going into work happy. I’m not under any stress, like, ‘I’ve got to go on a date tonight and I don’t know what she’s going to be like,’ or, ‘What if a pap gets me going out on a date?’ It was such a stress being single.
“Now I don’t care who sees me. As long as I’m with her,
it doesn’t matter. It’s a weird feeling – the album came naturally and it just felt great.”
Despite being known for his happy-go-lucky nature, Olly’s carefree persona hasn’t always painted an honest picture of how he’s feeling.
“I don’t want to bang on about mental health and the difficult times because I’m feeling great at the moment,” says Olly.
“But all the cheekiness and the fun in the years I was single, it was just a facade. I was in quite a bad place at times. I didn’t talk about it to anyone. I just felt really s**t, down and lonely. I didn’t like being single.”
The star, who shot to fame on The X Factor in 2009, continues, “My private life was nonexistent, I had no girlfriend, no one to share it with. I was always insecure about that.
I was like, ‘Are people with me for the right reasons?’”
It took Olly a while to let down his guard when he and Amelia first started dating.
“I thought, ‘She’s a right sort,’” he says. “To be fair, our first dates were pretty crap – even she admits that. I was very wishy-washy, very noncommittal. I was all over the place.
“I broke it off, but we rekindled things in the summer. I had an epiphany. I was like, ‘What am I doing, she’s f**king perfect, she’s the one for me. Stop being an idiot!’”
Olly asked Amelia to move into his Essex mansion during that emotional holiday in Bali in February 2020 – just weeks before England was plunged into a national lockdown. Isolating together proved to be the making of them and Olly had no hesitation in popping the question 16 months later.
Sharing the details of his proposal for the first time, Olly says he didn’t tell a soul about his plans.
“It was on top of a cliff in this little place in Cornwall,” he reveals. “We were on a walk with her family, but nobody knew what I was going to do.
"Not many things in my life are private and this moment for me was the one thing I wanted to keep private. Her mum was videoing it – she was going, ‘Oh my God, he’s doing it!’ They were over the moon.”
Creating that moment wasn’t easy for Olly. In February,
he was forced to cancel his summer shows after undergoing his third major knee surgery to replace a torn ligament.
“I couldn’t walk,” he says. “For 12 weeks I was sat in a chair staring at four walls with crutches and Amelia having to help me to the toilet and get me in the shower.
“I wasn’t in a good place. I had a lot of negativity about my career and whether I’d be able to perform again.
“Every time I took a step it would be so painful, as they had to break my bone and put metal and screws in there. My whole shin got broke. I was thinking, ‘How am I going to dance on stage again?’”
“[Ahead of] getting engaged, I trained for 12 weeks to get up that cliff. I managed it up the cliff and got down on one knee, but getting up was horrible. Amelia had to help me.
“But Amelia gave me a diet and exercise plan, and slowly my fitness started improving. I started going swimming and boxing, and everything began to fit into place.”
Olly says the experience has made him appreciate his health. It was the catalyst for his newfound sobriety and fitness regime, especially as he’s now at a stage where he’s thinking about starting a family.
“It makes you appreciate things much more,” says Olly. “I want to be a healthy dad, I want to have children. I don’t want to be hobbling on a stick – I don’t want that to be me.”
The couple are yet to set a date to walk down the aisle but they’ve decided on next year and they’re currently scouting out venues.
“We’ve got lovely ideas and plans, we’re just trying to find
a venue. We’ve looked at three or four, but they didn’t feel right. I’m not stressing, she’s stressing!”
Olly didn’t even have a sip of champers while celebrating his engagement, but does plan on breaking his sobriety at his wedding.
“It’s not like I can’t control myself when I have a drink, I’m just over getting absolutely wasted and hangovers.
"I think as you get older you just see things differently. I’ve met the love of my life and going out isn’t really my thing any more. I’ll go out with the boys every once in a while and I’m sure we’ll have a laugh at my stag next year.
“I’m happy in my own little bubble with Amelia and our dog Missy. I want to savour – and remember – every moment.”
