Michelle McManus

Michelle McManus (born 8 May 1980 ) is a Scottish singer, columnist, and television presenter who won the second and final series of the UK talent show Pop Idol in 2003.

Michelle McManus was born in 1980 in Glasgow, Scotland to John and Helen McManus, and is the oldest of five sisters.

Before auditioning for Pop Idol, McManus lived in the Glasgow district of Baillieston, to the east of the city with her parents and sisters.

In early 2003, McManus auditioned for the second season of Pop Idol, along with thousands of other aspiring singers from around the UK.

Of the four judges, Pete Waterman in particular was critical as to whether she could make a career in the music industry, mainly due to her fuller figure appearance.

However, she was the favourite of Simon Cowell, and after being put through to the semi-final stages, the public voted McManus into the top twelve, though she entered the finals as the bookmaker's rank-outsider.

Throughout the finals, McManus was in the bottom 3 only once, and on 20 December 2003, she was declared the winner of Pop Idol.

When McManus won the competition, judge Pete Waterman stormed off the Pop Idol set in protest; he later branded her "rubbish".

Louis Walsh, a judge of sister show Popstars: The Rivals, was bewildered by McManus's victory, and lamented that "we have to give her, her 15 minutes [of fame]."

Scotsman reporter Fiona Shepherd said of the win: "McManus's victory was not some triumph of talent over image - the very opposite, in fact... If she was a modelesque girl with as unremarkable a voice, the voting public would not have cared."

George Tyndale in the Sunday Mercury expressed similar sentiments, arguing that McManus won because of the "fat vote".

He disapproved of her professed satisfaction with her weight as well as her elevation to celebrity status, writing: "The harm this has done is incalculable. Lives may, quite literally, be at stake."

Daily Telegraph journalist Viktoria Tolstoy said McManus's victory "seemed to suggest that the pool of talent available to the judges is seriously diminishing".

An Entertainment.ie critic labelled McManus the weakest winner of the Pop Idol series and wrote that she made fellow reality television music competition winners Will Young and Alex Parks "look like worldbeaters by comparison".

Following her win on the second season of Pop Idol, McManus was signed to the Sony BMG record label, and going under the single name Michelle, her debut single "All This Time" was released between late 2003 and early 2004.

The song went straight to number one on the UK Singles Chart, and stayed there for three weeks; it spent eleven weeks inside the UK Top 100.

McManus is the first Scottish female to debut at the top of the UK Singles Chart.

In Ireland, the song debuted at Number 5 before rising to 2.

In January 2004, McManus made history when she became the first Scottish female artist to debut atop the UK Singles Chart with a debut single.

McManus's debut single, "All This Time", entered the UK Singles Chart at number one in January 2004.

Her debut album, The Meaning of Love, was released in February 2004, and debuted at number one on the Scottish Albums Charts and number three on the UK Albums Chart.

Her debut album The Meaning of Love, was released on 16 February 2004 and peaked at number three on the UK Albums Chart, number one on the Scottish Albums Chart, and number 64 on the Irish Albums Chart.

It went on to receive a gold certification from the British Phonographic Industry for sales of over 100,000 in the UK.

The title track of the album was released as the second single, however it peaked at number 16 on the UK chart and number 29 in Ireland, while reaching number seven on the Scottish Singles Chart.

As a result of disappointing record sales, McManus was dropped by her label.

On 22 June 2005, McManus appeared on a 60-minute television special of You Are What You Eat with the author and TV personality Gillian McKeith in a bid to lose weight.

A follow-up was broadcast on 13 December 2005, which profiled McManus and her weight loss since the last programme.

McManus released a book in December 2005 titled You Are What You Eat: Michelle's Diary.

The book documented her journey from winning Pop Idol to appearing on You Are What You Eat, with particular reference to her weight issues and subsequent slimming.

In September 2005, McManus appeared in an episode of the BBC One holiday magazine programme Departure Lounge.

In July 2005 it was announced that McManus had parted company with her management company 19 Entertainment, 19 months after winning Pop Idol.

She then went on to sign with Sanctuary Entertainment.

Further to this, in December 2006 McManus released a DVD called The Life Plan, a guide to healthy living, exercise and eating.

Later that year, BMG dropped McManus from the label, and in 2007 she founded her own record label, McMannii Records.

Later that year, McManus released a promotional single, "Just For You" from her then upcoming second album Dancing to a Different Beat, which was scheduled for release in 2008, but the release was eventually shelved.

From 2009 to 2011, McManus was a co-presenter of STV's lifestyle magazine show The Hour, originally alongside Stephen Jardine and later Tam Cowan.

A return to music in 2012 saw the release of "Take You There", a duet with Mànran, which reached number seventy on the Scottish Singles Charts, and in 2017, McManus was a featured vocalist as part of the Choirs with Purpose release "We All Stand Together".

She was also a columnist for the Glasgow Times until 2018.

In 2019, McManus released her second album, the Christmas inspired Michelle McManus' Winter Wonderland, featuring the SoundSational Community Choir.

In 2023, McManus released the single "Christmas Glow", and featured in a BBC Scotland documentary highlighting her Pop Idol win in 2003 and subsequent career titled Michelle McManus: Talent Show Winners.