Dressed in Christmas Grinch pyjamas and slippers, a TikTok creator creeps mischievously around his apartment. In the background, Olly Murs’s latest upbeat single Knees Up is playing. ‘Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the show,’ the pop star raps. The short clip has now been viewed 650,000 times.
Only this video, posted on TikTok earlier this week, isn’t promoting the song. Quite the opposite. Its creator is ridiculing the Essex-born X Factor star’s new song, which features on his comeback album after three years in the wilderness: ‘The new Olly Murs song is giving “villain sneaking”’ he wrote to his 180,000 followers, suggesting it would be more fitting as the soundtrack to an anti-hero than a pop song.
Some fans have suggested that Olly, who has spent a break from making records to look after his young family, shouldn’t have bothered returning to the music scene.
Many others on social media have been mocking the pop star’s bizarre new music, which features long segments of rapping, influenced by ‘ska’, a fast-paced Jamaican music genre. And I’m told that some bosses at the singer’s record label EMI are mortified by Knees Up.
The upbeat track is certainly not the sound Olly’s dedicated fanbase, made up largely of middle-aged women, is used to. But 41-year-old Murs has described the new song as ‘going back to his laddish roots’.
Knees Up isn’t the only song in the firing line, however. Another track on the album, Bonkers, about his wild lifestyle and delivered in a cringeworthy exaggerated Essex accent features the lines: ‘They say when I was little, I was loco/Don’t think I was ever dropped on me head though/Maybe that one time I fell off the bed though’. That, too, has been widely ridiculed on social media.
Then there’s Yesterday’s News and its lyrics: ‘Some said I’d be spotted nude/ In Tesco’s by the mangoes in an old pair of shoes.’ To which one TikTok user replied: ‘Olly you need stopped, what is with these weird accents?’ Other listeners wrote: ‘It’s the most embarrassing album ever, who let him do it?!’ and, ‘Genuinely staggered that this has been released. It’s beyond appalling.’
Meanwhile, a former fan wrote: ‘As a girl who used to love Olly, I’m trying to force myself to like this song.’
The cover of Olly Murs’s new album, Knees Up. Released this month, it has already garnered significant criticism on social media
Murs released Knees Up with EMI Records, which also represents artists such as Taylor Swift, Lorde, Lewis Capaldi and Justin Bieber, and where Lucy Dann is the managing director.
One insider said: ‘EMI are so proud to have Olly but you have to wonder what Lucy and the team thought here. I guess they have let him do what he wants.’
Meanwhile, Olly appears to be making the most of the social media attention by playfully responding to the hate. This week, he posted a video replying to a comment making fun of his song. In it, Olly put a dummy into his mouth and pretended to cry, then spat it out and stared angrily at the camera.
It’s not the kind of behaviour that made him the sweetheart of X Factor viewers everywhere when he came second to Joe McElderry in the talent show’s 2009 season.
As one of Simon Cowell’s most successful X Factor alumni, his debut single, ‘Please Don’t Let Me Go’, reached number one in 2010, and since then, he has sold over 30million records worldwide and received multiple award nominations, including six BRIT Awards.
Perhaps what is most bizarre about his latest project is that it is Olly’s own idea – and indeed he has a writing credit on the album which draws heavily on the pop influences of Madness and The Specials, bands Olly adored as a child growing up in the small Essex town of Witham.
In fact, the album is one that father-of-two Olly, who is married to bodybuilder Amelia Tank, 33, has always dreamed about releasing.
Speaking last week, Olly said: ‘This was probably the kind of album that I wanted to launch my career with, but I didn’t.
Olly Murs performs during Radio 2 In the Park in Chelmsford, Essex earlier this year
Olly Murs is consoled by Simon Cowell and host Dermot O’Leary after coming second place in 2009’s The X Factor
Olly Murs went on to co-host The X Factor with the late Caroline Flack in 2015, taking over from Dermot O’Leary
‘For a long time, I was making records for other people, my fans, and what I thought they wanted to hear. This time I wanted to make an album for me.
‘I’m out here doing my thing, and if people like it, great. If you don’t, it is what it is.’
Indeed, sources say that when Olly was signed to Simon Cowell’s record label Syco, following his X Factor success, he was pushed in a more mainstream direction by the music mogul.
‘Simon knew what people wanted and therefore heavily influenced what his artists released,’ said one music source.
‘He spent time and effort choosing the right songs for them and making sure everything was absolutely perfect. You can’t help but think he did Olly a favour. Imagine where his career would have been if he had released this at the beginning?’
Olly went on to co-host X Factor with the late Caroline Flack in 2015, taking over from Dermot O’Leary.
Murs is married to bodybuilder Amelia Tank, 33. The couple have two children
But when it was revealed two years later that Olly was joining the judging panel on rival talent show The Voice UK, sources revealed that Simon was furious.
One source said at the time: ‘Simon isn’t happy Olly’s swapped allegiances, especially as he left the X Factor to concentrate on his music.’
During a TV appearance in 2017, Olly claimed Simon hadn’t been in touch: ‘Simon knows me and he knows where I am if he wants to speak to me.’
Olly left Syco in 2022.
Following the release of Knees Up, a music insider laughed: ‘I wonder what Simon is making of this album?’
Despite getting a hammering on social media, it is not all bad news for Olly. The album going viral for all the wrong reasons worked in Murs’s favour as he peaked at number three on the Official Album Chart. However, his album has now dropped out of the top 100.
