Darius World

Who's laughing now?

Company Magazine June 2003

Darius Danesh has come a long way since being rejected from Popstars and ridiculed in the tabloids. He tells Victoria White how he proved everybody wrong.

The name Darius Danesh elicits pretty extreme responses depending on who you talk to. 'twat' seems to be the attitude of most men (and women, not a million miles from my desk). "God, I really fancy him, is that embarrassing?" or, "Phwoar, he's really sexy," are two more common female reactions. "Top Man, top tunes," say the Gallagher brothers (not to me, you understand, but they said it on CD:uk and seemed to mean it). And, of course, there is the ubiquitous 'cheesy' moniker that seems to follow him like, well, a stinky cheese.

The truth is, in the flesh, Darius is incredibly tall and utterly charming with only the vaguest hint of cheese - more medium cheddar than year old stilton. He is however, the kind of man your mum would say was "well-brought-up." And, I suspect, this is both his blessing and his curse. Being well-spoken and courteous, while winning over those who spend time with him, can come across on TV as, sorry, but it's that cheesy word again. He really doesn't want to be cheesy - cheddar or otherwise. Of course when I report back to the Company office that Darius was charming (or, to put it in more detailed terms - he didn't try to trash the location, throw a strop or refuse to wear any of the clothes, and he certainly didn't walk away with a bag full of them as some pop types have done - no names, you understand), my colleagues say, "He's cheesy, then." So, bear with me and I promise we'll get to some swearing and womanising tales by the end of the interview and you'll believe me when I say he's just a normal, er, well-brought-up, 22 year old. Honest…

From Dodgy To Dishy

Today, Darius is feeling pretty hungover - there, that's a good start. "I filmed Top of the Pops yesterday and my mates came along, so we went out and got pretty drunk afterwards. We were staggering out of the Met Bar at about 3am."

He looks fairly rock 'n' roll in a woolly hat hiding his bed hair and has some decent stubble. It's quite a departure from the ponytailed, polonecked Darius who walked through the audition doors of Popstars almost three years ago. And, as he explains, it's not just the clothes that have changed.

"It's easy to say now, with hindsight, because I've built up a more natural, quiet confidence, but I was young and naļve and that came across as cocky. At 19, we're all finding our feet and feeling a bit insecure - you're lucky if you've worked out what you want to do with your life by the time you're 30. We all make mistakes - I just made mine on TV."

And how. From the dody goatee beard and ponytail to the now infamous rendition of Britney's Baby One More Time, finishing off with his much ridiculed "There's a lot of love in this room," quote. The TV show Popstars gave Hear'Say temporary fame, but it made Darius front-page news.

"I was on the front page of four tabloids in three weeks - how crazy is that?" he recalls. "Fame made me miserable. I remember working out how they were manipulating the people on the show and that something was awry. It appealed to all the essential elements of human nature - there was the comedy of watching people who couldn't sing, the drama of who was going to get in and the tragedy of those you thought would get in not making it. You have to remember, too, that it was my first music audition and I was there with people who'd been to music college or been in bands before - but I was just a university student. I didn't even realise they were auditioning for a band, I wanted to be a solo artist, but then I saw all these pretty girls sitting in the corner and thought, Hey, I could get into this band thing! I look back now at the whole thing and laugh - I'm glad it knocked me off my feet because it forced me to make a choice."

His choice, at that point, when he didn't make it into Hear'Say, was to return to studying English Literature at Edinburgh University and try to get on with his life.

"My plan was to keep writing songs, go out with the boys and date as many girls as I could, like any normal student. Then, six months after I'd filmed them, the auditions for Popstars aired and I became a household name for all the wrong reasons. I used to run club nights, but I had to stop because the press started turning up. It became impossible for me to live a normal student life."

And this became the Darius 'dark time'. "I gave up music, stopped playing the guitar and didn't think I'd sing again. I thought, if this is what it's like to be a musician, I don't want it. But then I heard Travis's Why Does It Always Rain On Me? And it made me laugh at how ironic that was in relation to me. Immediately afterward, I heard Coldplay's Trouble with that, 'They spun a web for me' line and again thought, This is my life! It made me really want to write music again…"

So he wrote Colourblind and tried to work out a way to get a music career off the ground. Then, as if by magic, Pop Idol emerged as a second chance saloon for Darius. "I'd grown up a lot, got rid of the ponytail. I heard about Pop Idol and it sounded perfect because it was for solo performers and it was live, so I couldn't be edited. I chased Nigel Lythgoe and Nikki Chapman [who would both be involved in the new show - Nikki as a judge and Nigel as producer]. Neither would return my calls at first, but eventually they did and both advised me not to do it. Nikki said, 'Darius, the media will have a field day; they'll bury you!' Nigel said, 'Mate, I don't know anyone who could turn it around.' He then said - and this was the first time I heard the name Simon Cowell - 'There's a guy called Simon Cowell doing it and if you thought I was nasty, this guy's a bastard! My parents and friends all thought I was mad to put myself through it again, but I felt I'd been used by Popstars.

This was my chance to use Pop Idol to do me some good. They had the best people in the business involved and I thought I could learn from them - use them."

So, against everyone's advice, Darius turned up clutching his guitar to try out for another reality TV show. The naysayers were proven wrong when Darius made it into the final ten (albeit by default when the winner of his heat, Rik Waller, dropped out because of a throat infection),. His relationship with Simon Cowell was, to say the least, fraught.

"Nigel Lythgoe is lovely, a genuinely good man and he's not that nasty - it was all just an act. As for Simon, he does it [the nastiness] to get laid!"

Charming Darius may be, but there is a steeliness to his ambition when it comes to music that meant he and Simon Cowell were never destined to form a lasting working relationship. At the end of Pop Idol, Will walked away the winner ("He's one of the most charming, funny and endearing people you will ever meet - and he's got a great voice," says Darius). Gareth Gates's success hardly needs explanation but, for the record he is, according to Darius, "a true teen idol. He's got the most beautiful voice and he's very handsome. We had a great friendship and still have, although we don't see each other much any more. The press tries to make out we're all rivals but that's bollocks."

And as for Darius? "I'm the one who's robbed the bank and got away with it!" he laughs. "Not in terms of money, because I was offered a lot by BMG (the record company Simon Cowell works for), but I turned it down. I realised they weren't interested in me as a singer songwriter, just as a product and I didn't want to turn into Hear'Say. It wasn't arrogance or thinking I was better than the show, but when I got down to the final ten I really didn't want to win. I didn't want to be at the mercy of a record exec with a marketing degree, telling me what to wear and what to sing. When I can't see the logic of something, I have a problem doing it and so, no, I don't think Simon and I would have got on."

"Again, my friends and family were saying, 'You're crazy turning down a multi-million-pound deal,' but I would have felt like I was selling out. It's like being offered a suitcase full of money and being told not to ask where it comes from. I believe in fate."

Mates and Models

And fate seems to have smiled on Darius Danesh. Because, without the help of Simon Cowell, he's had his much longed-for Number One single, Colourblind, and a platinum-selling album, Dive In. And, best of all, he's written the songs himself. Oh and he counts credible musicians among his fans. Aside from the Gallaghers' on-air raise, Chris Martin of Coldplay dedicated Trouble to him at a concert after Colourblind stayed at Number One for two weeks, stopping Coldplay's In My Place claiming the top spot, and he counts Travis's Fran Healy among his friends.

So, has it all been worth it? "Absolutely. But, has it been different to how I imagined it? Absolutely."

There's no mistaking Darius' passion for his music, so, if you asked him what was the best bit of all the fame, he'd probably say getting his songs heard by the world (well, Britain for now, but as we speak, he gets a call to say Colourblind has been picked as this week's Power Play in Holland - this is apparently, a very big deal!). But, unfortunately for us, there are slightly less ephemeral plus sides which he's not shy of talking about.

In the last month he's been linked with at least three incredibly beautiful models. Finally, a chink in his cheesy armour: he's definitely no Ronan Keating when it comes to his sex life. I suggest dating models is a perk of the job and he is forced to agree. "I'm not going to get married before I'm 30," he declares. "I love women in all their shapes and forms. If I hit 50 and am talking to my kids about the time I was 22 and had the opportunity to go out with charming, beautiful women and didn't go for it - I'd be kicking myself! I don't want to be sitting on my rocker saying, I was mad to let things slip by me. That said, I've never had a one-night stand - that just doesn't appeal."

"I'll never have any kiss and tells done on me, because I'm friends with all my exes. My dad taught me that. If you see a kiss and tell about me, I can pretty much guarantee I've majorly slipped up and really pissed a girl off - unless she's doing one of those I'm-great-in-bed ones! And, I don't put myself in positions where things will be sleazy - I'm not going to do a Jamie Theakston. I'm all for great sex, but I don't think that's how you get it."

So there's good news and bad news, if you were hoping to win the heart of Mr Danesh. On the plus side, he claims not to have a type: "At university, my friends joked that I went from leggy blondes to curvy brunettes to fiery redheads in the space of 18 months…"

On the other hand, the last girls have all been fairly willowy models…

"I find it attractive if a woman has a passion for something. That passion for me is music, but for them it could be anything. I like being a free spirit, but one day I hope to have a family and kids and I suppose if I meet the girl I'm going to marry tomorrow there's nothing I can do to fight that."

He tells me a great story about his eight-year-old brother Cyrus chatting up girls at Blue's aftershow party - a chip off the old block, then. "He's the apple of my eye. He wants to be a footballer, but I've bought him a guitar, so we'll see…."

So, there you have it. I get several kisses goodbye, and have to say it's been one of the most pleasant interviews I've ever done - in fact, there was a lot of love in the room. And, if that makes him cheesy, then good luck to him. He's handsome, rich and dating some of the most beautiful girls in Britain - so, who's having the last laugh?

Darius is currently on a UK tour.