Olly Alexander's Years and Years split, his famous ex and TV and film roles

Olly Alexander is the UK’s 2024 Eurovision Song Contest representative.

Olly will be hoping his song Dizzy will rule the continent at the end of the competition’s grand final in Swedish city Malmo. Fans will be able to watch Eurovision 2024 from 8pm on Saturday, May 11 with all the fun being screened on BBC1.

Graham Norton and the gang will be on-hand for your Eurovision Song Contest parties. Having Years and Years singer Olly Alexander as the UK’s representative has been seen as a major coup.

Read more: Irish Eurovision entry tipped to go far

You’ll likely know Olly through his Years and Years fame thanks to their songs King and Shine among others. While, Olly also received lots of plaudits for his moving performance in Channel 4’s groundbreaking drama It’s a Sin.

You can take a scroll below to get to know Olly Alexander that little be more.

Early beginnings

Olly was born in Harrogate, in North Yorkshire, before moving away. He attended St John's Primary School in Coleford and Monmouth Comprehensive School. During his younger years, he developed his love for performance and music.

In 2010, Years and Years formed with the music act topping the charts. Their debut album Communion charted at number one. Down the years, the group performed across the globe and gained lots of fans.

Years and Years split

Formed of Olly, Mikey Goldsworthy and Emre Türkmen it was announced Years and Years would continue as a solo project in 2021. Discussing the split, Olly said: "The honest truth of what happened (is that) me, Mikey and Emre met, like, 10-years-ago. We've been in this band for a decade, and in that time, we've just kind of grown apart musically. We kind of stopped making music together, and when we announced that I was going to be Olly Years and Years, it had kind of been a long time coming, if that makes sense.”

In 2023, Olly dropped the Years and Years title with him now recording and touring musically as Olly Alexander. In recent years, Olly has collaborated with Sir Elton John and the Pet Shop Boys.

Acting roles

In terms of acting, Olly received critical acclaim for his performance as Ritchie Tozer in the Channel 4 drama series It's a Sin. For his portrayal he was nominated for a British Academy Television Award for Best Actor and the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actor.

Other acting credits include parts in Skins, Penny Dreadful, Lewis and film The Riot Club.

Dating

In May 2015 it was reported Olly was in a relationship with musician Neil Milan Amin-Smith from music group Clean Bandit. However, the pair split up later that year, reportedly due to scheduling conflicts with their respective careers.

Speaking to Attitude at the time, Olly said: "We've had less and less time to spend together and the time we did have together were such short periods it put so much pressure on our relationship."

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