Darius World

Come and get me girls

Daily Star 24 February 2003

Squeaky clean pop hunk Darius Danesh has a sensational secret……he loves to be surrounded by groupies. The gorgeous hunk admits he contacts girls who send him fan mail and has had “giggles and good nights” with them.

“I get underwear sent to me by girls offering to give me a massage and providing their phone numbers for me to call them,” he grins. “I don’t think it would be right for me to say if I have called any of them……which indicates that I have!”

And there’s hope for all of us, girls – because the 6ft4ins Scot says he always reads his mail, often drops in on fans who have written to him and gives them tickets to his gigs. “We phone up girls who write clever messages or show their personality in a note,” he says. “My band and I will be on the way to the next gig and if we know a girl who is there we will call her up and give her tickets. We’ve had giggles and good nights with a bunch of girls in lots of different cities.”

And Darius gets LOTS of fan letters, something he couldn’t have imagined when he first shot to fame by making the nation cringe with a truly awful rendition of Britney Spears’ Baby One More Time on telly talent show Popstars.

But the Darius of three years ago – the long-haired, goateed 19 year old who became a laughing stock when he asked his fellow wannabes: “Can you feel the lurve in this room?” – is someone today’s confident assured version remembers almost with affection.

“You’ve just got to look back and laugh, haven’t you?” he says. “Two years and nine months ago I walked through the Popstars doors and I was an insecure and naļve, cocky kid. I tried too hard, I tried to be who I wasn’t, so I got a battering from the media and maybe rightly so. But we all grow up, don’t we?

Darius certainly has – and the complete change of image which helped him claim third place in last year’s Pop Idol has helped him bloom into a genuine, charming hunk idolised by thousands of girls

In the old days he might have let it go to his head. There’s no chance of that happening now – even though, to coin a phrase, you can feel the lurve in his life.

“I am young, free and single and enjoying being a bachelor at the moment,” says the 22 year-old Glaswegian. “I dated a girl after Christmas. She wasn’t famous, she worked for a charity in Scotland. She was very down-to-earth and very caring but it fizzled out.

“She was an older woman”, he adds, but when quizzed further, becomes more discreet. “I’d never reveal a woman’s age”

Darius also enjoyed a holiday romance when he and his 18-year old brother Aria enjoyed a New Year break in Mauritius – thanks to the first royalties cheque from his smash hit debut album Dive In.

“The CD went platinum within a month of release,” he grins. “I had a wild and ‘debaucherous’ Christmas. Two bachelors in the sun, enjoying themselves for two weeks was great. We’re quite a team when we are together. We had a right giggle.

“We met two sisters, both beautiful South African girls who we spotted when they were playing beach volleyball. My brother and I were drinking cocktails on the beach and I commented on what a beautiful view it was – and I wasn’t talking about the horizon.

“That night we all went out on a double date. Our first kiss was after I winded myself messing about on the doughnut rings. She rushed over to me and said: ‘Do you need the kiss of life?’

"I haven’t had a holiday romance since I was 18,” he recalls, dreamily. “She had no idea who I was and it was wonderful. It was the first time in a while that I have had the chance of pulling without someone knowing who I am.

"I told her I was a pop star when she was about to get on her plane home, and I gave her a copy of the album. She texted me later to say she loved it. But I probably won’t see her again unless I go to South Africa.”

Darius is happy to stay a single man and was keen to scotch rumours that he’s planning to wed Mirella Dell’Aquila from Canadian Popstars band Sugar Jones.

“She’s not even the pretty one in the group!”, he laughs. “They could at least have said I was marrying the fit one! It’s a complete fabrication. I don’t plan on getting married for another ten years.”

But Darius knows enough about lost love and regrets to make it the theme of his third single Incredible (What I Meant To Say), which is released on March 3.

“It’s about those times when you say things and wish later you could go back and say what you had really meant,” he sighs.

“I broke up with a girl last year and to make the break up easier, when she asked me if I loved her, I told her I didn’t. That was one of the harshest things I could have ever said,” he says sadly. “I wrote her a letter after to explain I didn’t mean I didn’t love her at all – and that I really regretted what I’d said.”

But all in all, Darius seems pretty content. “Now I’m in a position where I am just me,” he says.

“I am just enjoying focusing on enjoying life, on my music, having a good time with my mates and enjoying the company of girls.

“I wouldn’t be here without the very loyal and kind support of my family, my friends and my fans. People come up to me in the street and say well done, others write to me and email me to say they like my songs, and of course I’m so grateful to the people who buy my records.”

All he needs now is the love of a good woman.

“I wouldn’t say I am looking for a girl,” says Darius. “The one thing that I have learned from the past few years is that you don’t need to run after something when it is meant for you. It comes to you.”

So what next? “It’s time to look after my family now. They’re my priority at the moment I am going to pay for a holiday for my mum and dad. I have put them through so much over the past few years. Can you imagine being my mum and dad? What a nightmare!”