I’m off on my stag do but my missus has warned me there’s party tradition she won’t allow me to do, says Olly Murs
HE is preparing to walk down the aisle with the woman of his dreams in just a few months.
And like any nervous groom, pop star Olly Murs, 38, has one thing on his mind ahead of his wedding to bodybuilder Amelia Tank: his stag do.
Olly says: “Amelia said they’re not allowed to shave any part of my body, especially my hair.”
The singer chuckles, before adding: “She said she loves the way I look and told me not to change it.
“I told her, ‘Babe, I don’t want to f***ing change it,’ it would be the lads. But luckily we’re not those type of guys.”
While Olly hails from Essex, he is as far from the permatanned, party-loving personas associated with lads from his native Witham as you could imagine.
He has had a hand in ensuring his stag do will be respectable, and has also been helping fiancée Amelia, 31, who he has been dating since 2019, put together their big day.
In an exclusive chat to celebrate his upcoming Marry Me tour, which will break for Olly’s big day, the singer says: “I am a person who likes to be involved in things. You have to have a vision and I have a vision for the wedding.
“Amelia and I wanted to make sure our wedding was a joint thing and we planned it together.
“Most of my mates weren’t particularly bothered but I wanted to be more involved.
“Of course there are some things I’m not bothered about, like what the invitations look like, but the big things I want to know.
“I want to know how it is going to look, who is going to be performing, what the cake looks like . . . that is important.
“I am more heavily involved than I thought I would be.”
Olly, who is also the host of ITV prime-time hit Starstruck and a coach on BBC talent show The Voice, adds: “Amelia isn’t the kind of woman who has been dreaming of what her wedding would look like when she was eight or nine years old.
“She is like me, she wasn’t even sure if we would get married.
“Now we are doing it together, it is really exciting.”
While Olly is exerting some control over his stag to ensure there are no mishaps with a razor — and to avoid incurring Amelia’s wrath — he insists he trusts his pals to make the trip “memorable”.
He adds: “There are only about seven of us going, it’s a small stag, I wanted it tight.
“The guys who are coming have been friends of mine for 20 years, they have known me for a long time.
“They know I am a good drinker but I want to have a stag that is memorable, that we can all remember.
“All I said to my best man was, ‘I don’t want to not be able to remember what an amazing stag do this was’.
“I want us to be able to enjoy it as a team. Embrace it, have fun and drink, of course, and play the games, wear the stupid outfits, but I don’t want to be wasted the entire time.
“I want to be able to talk about the stag do on the wedding day and in ten years and say, ‘Wow, that was an amazing time’.
“I’ve been best man for two of my mates and they’re coming on my stag so I am hoping they remember what I was like for them.
“I’ll be drinking fizzy water with ice and telling everyone it’s vodka lemonade.”
After finding fame on The X Factor in 2009, where he came runner-up to Joe McElderry, Olly has carved out a spectacular career.
Along with four chart-topping singles, including Troublemaker and Dance With Me Tonight, Olly landed his fifth No1 album in December with Marry Me.
Celebrations for the achievement had to be delayed due to Olly’s hectic work schedule.
The singer had also challenged himself to go teetotal for a year, so the champagne was put on ice.
He explains: “I didn’t actually celebrate until January, I had so much going on over Christmas.
“And when I got the No1 I was filming The Voice blind auditions.
“I didn’t drink at all last year and I was a bit boring, really. Then in January I landed in Barbados with Amelia and I had a pina colada to celebrate.
“Amelia didn’t see me much at all because I spent so much time on the road doing promo for the album. So it was nice to have some quality time together and to have that first drink.
“Amelia had to put me to bed straight after it though, it was a record for me.”
Olly is now gearing up to go back on the road.
He kicks off his 23 nationwide gigs at Glasgow’s OVO Hydro arena on April 21.
Ever the romantic, Olly announced on Valentine’s Day that he will end his tour with an intimate show in Amelia’s home-town of Plymouth on August 28 .
The tour cannot come soon enough for the popstar, who was forced to cancel his performances last summer to have surgery on his knee.
Olly says with a smile: “I never take doing an arena tour for granted.
“To have a 14-year career in an industry that I love, it means so much.
‘I never take doing an arena tour for granted.
To have a 14-year career in an industry that I love, it meansso much. I’m so thankful to fans’
“I am very lucky to have played venues like London’s O2 and the Manchester Arena, the NEC in Birmingham, the Hydro in Glasgow, I’ve done those quite a few times now and it feels like an honour.
“I am so thankful to my fans really, they are the ones who have bought the tickets and I know times are tough right now, so I really appreciate them coming out to see me.”
Olly’s music now runs alongside a very fruitful television career.
Next Saturday he will do the double on the box, hosting the final of talent contest, Starstruck, and appearing as a coach on The Voice.
He adds: “When you come from a reality TV show, like anyone that comes from any of those shows, the stigma is that you only get 15 minutes of fame.
“To get over that and get to the point where your name is known and you’re not just ‘that guy from The X Factor’ . . .
“I was only saying this to a voice contestant the other day, because we are now filming the final, I was saying I didn’t know I was going to be a TV presenter.
“I didn’t know I would be a coach on The Voice, I didn’t know I would be a TV personality as well as a pop star or whatever you want to call me.
“I was on tour when I got the call to do The Xtra Factor [in 2011].
“I got the call from ITV saying they had a feeling that I could be a host alongside Caroline Flack.
“And that was it, that was the start of my TV career and it kind of worked.
“I wasn’t so sure after my presenting on Xtra Factor that I’d ever get asked to do presenting again, but I got Starstruck.
“ITV have seen potential in me but I do not think I am anywhere near the finished article.
“I never take anything for granted.”
In which case, he really had better watch out for that razor . . .