Will Young says he was told to kiss George Michael on stage if he wanted to perform at Brits

Will Young has said he was once told he needed to kiss George Michael on stage if he wanted to perform at the Brits.

The Pop Idol winner said a record company executive told him that he and the late Wham! star would have to have “a Madonna and Britney moment”, referring to the two singers locking lips on stage at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards.

Opening up about it at Metro’s Pride party, he said: “They tried to get me to perform at the Brits.

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“They were like, ‘We can go only get you on the Brits if you perform with George Michael and you kiss at the end’.”

Young, 43, shared that he said no, adding: “It’s a sign of what it was like then.”

The star came out as gay not long after he won the TV talent show in 2002.

He has previously suggested that navigating a pop career while being open about his sexuality has not always been plain-sailing.

“I think I was really ashamed of it to be honest,” he told Gay Times a few years ago.

“I’d say that 75% of that was my own stuff, and then getting older and being more confident, that’s naturally just going to come out in anything that I do creatively.”

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“I would also say that if I look back on how it was – even 10 years ago – there was no nurturing for it. Some of that shame was also people repressing me. If someone would ask about a boyfriend, the PR would step in and be like, ‘No!’ I was very angry about that for a few years.”

Chart star Michael died on Christmas Day in 2016, at the age of 53.

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