Michelle McManus

Early life

Michelle McManus was born in 1980 in Queen Mother's Maternity Hospital, Glasgow, Scotland to John McManus 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 city with her mother and sisters.

2003: Pop Idol

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 size. 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.

Criticism

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 McManus's 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".

2003–05: The Meaning of Love

Following her win on the second season of Pop Idol, McManus was immediately 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. Her debut album, the critically panned 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 200,000 in the UK. The title track of the album was released as the second single, however it stalled at number sixteen 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 entitled 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. Further to this, in December 2006 McManus released a DVD called The Life Plan, a guide to healthy living, exercise and eating.

In September 2005, McManus appeared in an episode of the BBC One holiday magazine programme Departure Lounge. The episode showed McManus travelling to and around Memphis, Tennessee in the United States, with a budget of £500. As part of the trip, McManus visited Graceland, home to her idol Elvis Presley. 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. During a 2007 appearance on ITV's Loose Women, McManus stated that she believed that she was dropped due to her weight, as her record company could not build any merchandise around her image. In 2006, McManus began guest-presenting on the Scottish radio station Clyde 1, and then gained her own regular Saturday show on the station. McManus then hosted two series of the BBC Radio Scotland show titled Let's Do The Show Right Here. On television, McManus announced the Scottish votes during the Making Your Mind Up 2006 programme in March 2006, and in November 2006 she was a reporter on Children in Need live from Scotland. In June 2006, McManus performed in the theatre production, The Vagina Monologues, a role which she has subsequently repeated for various tours.

2007–09: McMannii Records and Different Beat

In 2007, after taking time away from the music industry, McManus decided to set up her own record label to release new material, named McManii Records. She made two appearances on the television show Loose Women. On the first she stated that she was taking her time with her second album as she wanted to make it something to be proud of, and on her second appearance she talked of her departure from Sony BMG, stating that it was a mutual agreement. In November 2007 a single, "Just for You", was released. It was intended to be on her second album, Dancing to a Different Beat, which remains unreleased.

In June 2007, McManus guest-starred as herself in an episode of the BBC sitcom Still Game. In December 2007, McManus was seen in a run of the musical Discotivity at the Arts Theatre in London's West End. In January 2008 she toured Asia in a theatre production of The Rise and Fall of Little Voice. In November 2008, McManus switched on the Christmas Lights in Kilmarnock, Scotland.

2009–present: The Hour and presenting

McManus appeared regularly as a guest co-host of the weekday Scottish lifestyle TV programme The Hour during the summer of 2009. In October 2009, McManus became a permanent main presenter alongside Stephen Jardine. The programme was relaunched in September 2011 as a weekly peak-time programme, with McManus co-hosting with new presenter Tam Cowan, but was axed after four weeks due to low viewership.

In addition to The Hour, McManus has also presented Hogmanay programming for STV including the 2009 documentary special Scotland's Always Had Talent and a year later, Midnight, a pre-recorded special edition of The Hour.

In September 2010, McManus performed two songs for Pope Benedict XVI at a ticketed Mass of the Feast of Saint Ninian in Bellahouston Park, as part of the Pope's state visit to the United Kingdom.

McManus is currently a columnist for the Glasgow Evening Times, and was a judge for the papers Glasgow's Star Turn talent contest in 2012.

In September 2012, McManus with Mànran released "Take You There" as the official single of the 2012 STV Children's Appeal. It reached number 70 on the Scottish Singles Chart.

McManus attended and gave tribute and also sang two songs at Martyn Hett's funeral on 30 June 2017. Martyn was one of the 22 victims of the Manchester Bombing on 22 May 2017.

Personal life

McManus plans to marry in 2017.