OLLY MURS has a lot on his plate with a 41-date tour alongside Take That and the birth of his first child looming.
But the pop star is far from feeling fazed.
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“It’s a crazy time but we’ll get through it,” says Olly with a grin.
“My wife is outrageously pregnant, it is getting close.
“We had a scan today, which was amazing.”
Even if Amelia, who Olly married last year, goes into labour while he’s on the road, there is already a plan in place.
He adds: “Every few days on tour I get a day off, so if it happens, I can get back.
“We have got some stadium shows over the summer so I think Amelia will be coming along to them with the baby.
“We are so ready to have children now and ultimately, it all came naturally and it was beautiful.
“I am hoping we have a baby who will sleep. Everyone has said to me, ‘Just get into a good routine.”
The tour with Gary Barlow, Mark Owen and Howard Donald kicks off in Sheffield on April 13 and Olly can’t wait to get on stage.
He says: “I sold out my arena tour last year but when this opportunity came up, it felt right.
Watch moment ex-Chelsea star intervenes as Olly Murs squares up to Ally McCoist in football tournament
“If it was someone else, I might have said no.
“Take That is a big part of my journey so it means a lot.
“We did Hyde Park in 2016 and I went through all my old photos the other day and found a DVD of it.
“I watched it and thought, ‘Wow, I’ve changed’.
“Me and Gary have been going back and forth and I start my rehearsals next week.”
When the tour wraps in Manchester on June 12, Olly will take some time out to focus on being a dad.
The singer, whose last record, Marry Me, came out in 2022 and went straight to No1, says: “I still have goals I want to achieve but sometimes you have to step back and think, ‘What’s important?’.
“For me, that’s being there for Amelia.
“I have been with her every step during this pregnancy.
“I feel being present in my wife’s life while she’s having a baby is really important to me and her.”
For now, Olly is getting in as much downtime as he can and was yesterday calling the shots in his role as co- manager during the talkSPORT football match, between the radio station’s All Stars team and the Breakfast side.
Chatting to me from the touchline, the All Stars boss said he was banned from playing properly.
“But it didn’t stop the football-mad star from taking a penalty.
He adds: “I came on. It was a stupid decision and it didn’t go our way.
“We lost by a goal. But it was brilliant.”
Olly, you should have taken the £1,000 bribe the Breakfast team’s Tom Skinner tried to hand you before kick-off and legged it.
As Breakfast team boss Ally McCoist said after the match: “Tom Skinner got off a plane from Tenerife to play but he looked like he’d eaten the cargo.”
- Watch the game back on talkSPORT’s YouTube channel.
CORDEN STYLES IT OUT
THEY became good mates during One Direction’s heyday so it’s great to see Harry Styles and James Corden are still close.
The cool pair were spotted hanging out in London ahead of James’ return to the West End.
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He will star in The Constituent at the Old Vic from June 13 to August 10.
I’ve been a fan of James since his Fat Friends days and I can’t wait to see him get back to work.
As for the next Gavin & Stacey special, which our paper revealed was in the works, I can barely sit still.
Did Smithy say yes to Nessa’s proposal?
MARGOT GAME FOR NEW SIMS BLOCKBUSTER
MARGOT ROBBIE made Barbie the biggest blockbuster of 2023 – and now she is turning her attention to another children’s favourite.
The Aussie star who was lead actress and producer on the summer hit, is producing a movie about The Sims, one of the biggest-selling video games of all time.
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And after she worked with toy maker Mattel on Barbie, The Sims publishers Electronic Arts will be creatively involved.
Kate Herron, who directed the Marvel series Loki, will lead the production, which is currently being written.
It could be a very clever move given how obsessed millennials, me and my mates included, were with it back in the day.
The simulation computer game sees users play as a character who moves through life, achieving goals and aspirations as well as fulfilling daily tasks.
That doesn’t exactly sound like the most exciting plot.
But given there’s no set storyline to The Sims, anything could happen.
TRAVIS are returning with their first new music since 2020.
Their tenth album, L.A. Times, is due out on July 12 and follows on from 10 Songs.
The Scottish band have given fans their first taste of the record today, with lead track Gaslight.
VICK HOPE dressed down at the launch event for Radio 1’s Big Weekend in London.
The annual festival will take place in Luton in May.
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DJ Vick joined other stars including Clara Amfo and Traitors winner Harry Clark at a bash to celebrate the line-up announcement on Wednesday.
Coldplay and Raye will lead an all-star selection of acts and Bizarre will bring you all the backstage goss.
WHO’S A LUC-Y GIRL?
SHAKIRA has been romantically linked to Tom Cruise And Lewis Hamilton since splitting from footballer Gerard Pique.
But it was British actor Lucien Laviscount who she chose to play her lover in a new video.
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The Colombian singer has released new album Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran today and dropped the video to the lead single Punteria with Cardi B, in which Shakira gets steamy with Emily In Paris star Lucien.
It’s not the first time he has got hot and bothered with a singer but she is definitely the most famous.
In 2011, he was on Celebrity Big Brother and had a whirlwind romance with ex-Atomic Kitten star Kerry Katona.
Then he had flings with Leigh-Anne Pinnock as well as her Little Mix bandmate Jesy Nelson.
He’s got the gift of the gab and is drop-dead gorgeous, so I wouldn’t blame Shakira if she took a shine to him, too.
Paloma Faith has confirmed the release of her first book, five months after Bizarre revealed she was working on one.
The hardback has the provocative title MILF: Motherhood, Identity, Love and F***ery, and will be out on June 6.
In it, she will write about whether it is possible for women to have it all, delving into issues around juggling being a mum with work, challenges of IVF and battling the patriarchy.
If there’s one thing Paloma never does it’s bite her tongue – I’m sure it will be a page-turner.
SWEDE’S VOTING FOR OLLY
UK Eurovision entry Olly Alexander has got the backing of former contestant Benjamin Ingrosso after they teamed up for a tune.
The pair have today released a new version of Benjamin’s song Kite, six years after he came seventh representing Sweden at the song contest.
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Benjamin said of Olly’s entry Dizzy: “It’s a very subtle pop song and it’s stuck in my head.
“I told him to have fun and not take it too seriously, because I was pretty young when I was in Eurovision and if I did it today I would have done it completely differently.
“I would have had much more fun and enjoyed the time because it is a very fun thing to do.
“I had a lot of weight on my shoulders to represent my country.
“But it’s not that serious at the end of the day.
“It’s just a fun thing to do.”
But on Olly’s chances, he added: “I think it’s definitely a top five.”
Benjamin, who is the cousin of Swedish House Mafia’s Sebastian Ingrosso, will perform at Heaven in London on April 4 and has plenty more music on the way.
He said: “I wrote more than 100 songs last year so there is definitely an album coming.”
