In 2002, the song was chosen to be the winner's single for the first series of Pop Idol and was recorded by the show's three finalists: Will Young, Gareth Gates and Darius Danesh. During the final, the song was performed by both Young and Gates. Young went on to win the show, and released "Evergreen" as a double A-side single, along with "Anything Is Possible", which was also recorded by the final three and performed by the final two. The song was later included on Young's debut album, From Now On (2002). Gates' version of the song was also released as a B-side to his single, "Unchained Melody".
"Evergreen" was written by Swedish musicians Jörgen Elofsson, Per Magnusson, and David Kreuger.[3] Westlife was less impressed with Young's version, dismissing the song chosen for the Pop Idol winner as one of the "weakest" on their third studio album World of Our Own (2001).[4] Band member Kian Egan told BBC News: "When we heard the song at first we always knew it was going to be a great song. But when we recorded, it just wasn't a contender for our singles."[4]
"Evergreen" went straight to the number one spot in the UK Singles Chart and stayed there for three consecutive weeks, before being knocked off the top spot by Gates' debut single, "Unchained Melody". It was the best-selling song of 2002 and was also the fastest-selling debut in UK chart history,[5] selling 403,027 copies on its day of release[6] and over 1.1 million copies by the end of the week.[7][8] The song went on to sell over 1.79 million copies and in 2012 it appeared 14th in the official list of the all-time best-selling singles in the UK.[9] It was the biggest selling single of the 21st century in the UK until 2015,[10] when it was overtaken by "Happy" by Pharrell Williams.[11]
A music video for "Evergreen" was filmed in February 2002.[12] In 2011, Young express his dislike of the video in an interview with Elle magazine, saying: "I can't bear 'Evergreen' or 'Anything Is Possible', they're absolutely shocking. And you wouldn't believe the amount of money that was spent on those videos [...] Dreadful videos. At one moment it looks like I'm in love with a tree! Dreadful. Really odd. Dreadful. No, no, no. No."[13]
