"Friday's Child" is a song by British singer

Will Young William Robert Young (born 20 January 1979) is a British singer-songwriter and actor who came to prominence after winning the 2002 inaugural series of the ITV talent contest '' Pop Idol'', making him the first winner of the worldwide '' Idol ...

. It was written by Stephen Lee and Dina Taylor and produced by

Stephen Lipson Stephen J. Lipson (born 16 March 1954) is an English record producer, audio engineer, guitarist and songwriter. As a record producer, he has worked with many artists including Annie Lennox, Propaganda, Act, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Will Youn ...

for Young's second studio album, '' Friday's Child'' (2003), based on original production by Lee. The song was released as the album's third single on 5 July 2004. "Friday's Child" reached number four on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

and number 31 on the Irish Singles Chart.

Music video

A video for "Friday's Child" was directed by

Dougal Wilson Dougal Stewart Wilson (born August 1971) is an English director of commercials and music videos. His work includes directing several John Lewis Christmas adverts and the Grammy-nominated music video for "Life in Technicolor II" (2009) by Coldpla ...

and inspired by Young's grandfather who swam in the Olympics. It depicts Young on his journey to ultimately becoming an

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a vari ...

swimmer. He is seen starting lessons with

armbands An armband is a piece of material worn around the arm. They may be worn for pure ornamentation, or to mark the wearer as belonging to group, or as insignia having a certain rank, status, office or role, or being in a particular state or conditi ...

and later with floats, then undertaking

lifesaving Lifesaving is the act involving rescue, resuscitation and first aid. It often refers to water safety and aquatic rescue; however, it could include ice rescue, flood and river rescue, swimming pool rescue and other emergency medical services. ...

lessons and doing time-trials with an instructor. At the second chorus he is seen taking part in a swimming race, which he wins. A representative for the Olympic Games is among the spectators and is seen holding a clipboard, which the camera zooms into paperwork on the clipboard bearing the question "Good enough for Olympics?" to which the 'yes' box is ticked. He later becomes the new Olympic champion when representing England at swimming in the Olympic Games. The last shots of the video depict him on the

podium A podium (plural podiums or podia) is a platform used to raise something to a short distance above its surroundings. It derives from the Greek ''πόδι'' (foot). In architecture a building can rest on a large podium. Podiums can also be used ...

with a gold medal at the Olympics and later swimming the

English Channel The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...

and being presented with a medal for his efforts.

Track listings

Notes * denotes original producer(s) * denotes remix producer(s)

Credits and personnel

Tracy Ackerman Tracy Ackerman is a British singer and songwriter. She works with several other British songwriters including Andy Watkins and Paul Wilson of Absolute and Mark Taylor. Ackerman has written for artists including Geri Halliwell, Cher, Boyzone, ...

– backing vocals * Niall Acott – recording engineer * Tim Cansfield – guitar * Mark Feltham – harmonica * Isobel Griffiths – orchestra contractor *

Nick Ingman Nicholas Ingman (born 29 April 1948) is an English arranger, composer and conductor in the commercial music field. His collaborators include Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Björk, and the British X-factor. Born and educated in London, Ingman moved ...

– orchestal arranger * Tim Jenkins – recording assistance * Stephen Lee – harmonica, original producer, programming, writer *

– producer * Heff Moraes – engineer * Steve Price – recording engineer * Dina Taylor – writer * Phil Todd – flute solo * Steven Wolf – drum programming

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Release history

References

2003 songs 2004 singles Bertelsmann Music Group singles Song recordings produced by Stephen Lipson Songs written by Steve Lee (songwriter) Will Young songs {{2000s-pop-single-stub