Joe McElderry has become a fitness fanatic on tour and travels everywhere with his weights and boxing pads.

Joe McElderry

Joe McElderry

The former 'X Factor' winner is currently playing a series of shows across the UK but rather than spend his downtime watching TV or partying, he has been working hard on maintaining his newly chiselled physique.

Joe - who was subjected to hurtful comments from social media trolls following a TV appearance in 2015 which showed that he had gained weight - says you can now catch him in his dressing room lifting weights rather than lifting snacks to his mouth.

Speaking exclusively to BANG Showbiz, he said: "I'm pretty low key when it comes to backstage stuff. As long as I've got coffee and tea and honey and lemon and a laptop to watch Netflix when I'm on long journeys then I'm happy.

"Recently I've been doing a lot of exercise and training backstage, so I have weights with me now and boxing pads, things like that. Other than that really that's kind of it, I don't have any white puppies or white flowers or anything!"

Joe is currently getting ready to perform at a musical celebration of Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber London in June this year and has been invited to part of the concert along with Olivier Award-winning star Tyrone Huntley - who starred as Judas in 2017's run of 'Jesus Christ Superstar' - Imelda May, Mica Paris and Ben Forster - who won ITV's 'Superstar' talent search.

The 26-year-old star has chosen due to him playing the lead titular role in Lord Webber and Tim Rice's musical 'Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat' and he hopes he gets to perform some of the show's famous numbers for the theatre genius.

Joe said: "It's very exciting and I can't wait. Because it's part of the Andrew Lloyd Webber birthday celebrations, everything will be related to Andrew's music and shows. Obviously, I've played Joseph on the tour for the past two years so hopefully I'll get to do a bit of that - I can certainly remember the lyrics to those. But I don't know what I'll be singing yet. Hopefully there'll be a chance to do some duets. The music is so catchy and when you sing it those songs become so embedded in your brain that the minute you start thinking about the lyrics, your brain just completely loses it. But once you know the colours it never leaves you, thankfully!"

'Andrew Lloyd Webber - A Musical Celebration' takes place at the Royal Hospital Chelsea on 17 June 2018. You can go to Liveatchelsea.com to buy tickets.

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