Posted December 9, 20159 yr The winner takes it all? The biggest selling X Factor winner's singles revealed 13 December 2014 By Justin Myers http://i66.tinypic.com/16iuyxj.jpg They’ve won the show, but who scores the ultimate prize as the biggest-selling winner’s single of them all? The X Factor celebrates 12 years of Saturday night domination and unmissability in 2015, and while we await the coronation of the 12th winner of the ultimate talent show this weekend, we take a look at the 11 who came before. As diverse artists as they all are, they have at least two things in common – first of all, they won the show and released a winner’s single. And secondly, they all released at least one album. So when we count out the numbers, who comes out on top? It’s the ultimate display of public approval, the actual purchase of their music. So when the studio lights have gone down and they’re on their own, did their onscreen popularity guarantee them hefty sales? It’s a close-run thing when it comes to singles, with the Top 2 artists benefitting from the digital age. There have been four million-selling winner’s singles and it’s pretty close at the top. Winner's singles 3: Shayne Ward – That’s My Goal The second winner of The X Factor, all the way back in 2005, super-talented Shayne Ward was the first winner to score a million-seller. Shayne is also the only champion to release a totally original song – everyone else has launched their career with a cover version. Despite not having the advantage of convenient downloads when he won, Shayne still shifted an impressive 740,000 copies in his first week on sale. That’s My Goal has sold a total of 1.11 million copies in the UK. 2: James Arthur – Impossible Finishing a very close second is 2012’s winner James Arthur, who scored the fastest-selling single of the year with this Shontelle cover. Impossible has sold 1.289 million copies in the UK. 1: Alexandra Burke – Hallelujah The champion is series 5’s victor Alexandra Burke, who was the first X Factor winner to have her single immediately available for download. Alex still managed to sell over 570,000 physical copies of her cover of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah, and altogether the song cleared a million copies in just four weeks – over 576,000 in its first sales week alone. It’s sold a total of 1.291 million copies in the UK, giving Alexandra another win to add to her haul. And the rest… There’s one more million seller courtesy of 2010’s winner Matt Cardle, whose Biffy Clyro cover When We Collide has sold 1.01 million copies. Series 3 winner Leona Lewis has a million in her sights – she’s currently on 914,000 with A Moment Like This. Further down the tally, last year’s winner Ben Haenow notched up a healthy 501,000 sales of Something I Need, a figure which doesn't include streaming, while the very first winner of the show Steve Brookstein scores a sales tally of 204,000 for his winning single Against All Odds, originally a hit for Phil Collins and a Number 1 in 1999 for Westlife and Mariah Carey. Here’s the full Top 10 ranking of all The X Factor’s winning singles so far… TRACK ARTIST SERIES 1 HALLELUJAH ALEXANDRA BURKE 2008 2 IMPOSSIBLE JAMES ARTHUR 2012 3 THAT'S MY GOAL SHAYNE WARD 2005 4 WHEN WE COLLIDE MATT CARDLE 2010 5 A MOMENT LIKE THIS LEONA LEWIS 2006 6 THE CLIMB JOE MCELDERRY 2009 7 WHEN YOU BELIEVE LEON JACKSON 2007 8 SOMETHING I NEED BEN HAENOW 2014 9 CANNONBALL LITTLE MIX 2011 10 SKYSCRAPER SAM BAILEY 2013 11 AGAINST ALL ODDS STEVE BROOKSTEIN 2004 © 2015 The Official Charts Company. All rights reserved. Debut albums So once the winning single is out, talk turns to debut albums, but who had the selling power for their long-player? Let’s just say it’s not exactly a close-run thing. 1: Leona Lewis – Spirit Way out in front of all her fellow winners is 2004’s victor Leona Lewis, whose debut album Spirit has sold an incredible 3.13 million copies, making it one of the bestselling albums of all time in the UK. Leona is behind only Adele and Amy Winehouse when it comes to bestselling albums by Britush female acts. Spirit’s success may well have been helped along, of course, by Leona’s launch single Bleeding Love, which is a million seller and was Number 1 for an astonishing seven weeks. 2: Alexandra Burke – Overcome Another Top 2 result for our singles’ winner, Alexandra’s debut album Overcome has shifted almost 820,000 copies since its release in 2009. The album contains three Number 1 singles, Hallelujah, Bad Boys and Start Without You. 3: Shayne Ward – Shayne Ward Good news for Shayne Ward too: he scores Number 3 position in our albums countdown too, with his debut shifting 539,000 copies. And the rest… The only group to win The X Factor, Little Mix, score fourth bestselling debut thanks to DNA, coming in with a sales tally of 376,000 so far. 2009 winner Joe McElderry comes in 10th place, with just over 200 or so copies separating him and nearest rival Steve Brookstein. Here’s the full rundown… ALBUM ARTIST SERIES 1 SPIRIT LEONA LEWIS 2006 2 OVERCOME ALEXANDRA BURKE 2008 3 SHAYNE WARD SHAYNE WARD 2005 4 DNA LITTLE MIX 2011 5 LETTERS MATT CARDLE 2010 6 JAMES ARTHUR JAMES ARTHUR 2012 7 THE POWER OF LOVE SAM BAILEY 2013 8 RIGHT NOW LEON JACKSON 2007 9 HEART & SOUL STEVE BROOKSTEIN 2004 10 WIDE AWAKE JOE MCELDERRY 2009 11 BEN HAENOW BEN HAENOW 2014 © 2015 The Official Charts Company. All rights reserved.
December 9, 20159 yr Its interesting that all of those winning artists with the exception of Little Mix are no longer successful and Ben Haenow will shortly be added to that list.
December 9, 20159 yr Its interesting that all of those winning artists with the exception of Little Mix are no longer successful and Ben Haenow will shortly be added to that list. But how many acts from the last 10 years remain successful? Only handful of the Top 50 singles are by acts that have been successful since the previous decade and only Rihanna and Maroon 5 can manage to go beyond 10 years, but only just. 1 - 1 - 1,723,000 - 2,209,500 - Mark Ronson ft Bruno Mars - Uptown Funk - 20/12/14 - 1 9 - 12 - 893,000 - 893,000 - Adele - Hello - 05/11/15 - 1 11 - 10 - 869,500 - 869,500 - Maroon 5 - Sugar - 24/01/15 - 7 16 - 15 - 807,000 - 807,000 - Rihanna, Kanye & Paul McCartney - FourFiveSeconds - 07/02/15 - 3 34 - 33 - 551,000 - 551,000 - Tinie Tempah ft Jess Glynne - Not Letting Go - 04/07/15 - 1 43 - 43 - 464,000 - 464,000 - Flo Rida Ft Sage The Gemini - Gdfr - 17/01/15 - 3 48 - 47 - 435,000 - 437,500 - David Guetta/N Minaj/Afrojack - Hey Mama - 06/12/14 - 9
December 9, 20159 yr It would be interesting to see how all X Factor acts' debut albums slotted into that list, not just the winners - Olly and 1D would push 'Overcome' down in to at least 4th place, though I'm not sure how well JLS' debut album sold.
December 9, 20159 yr Its interesting that little mix have one of the lowest winner singles yet they are now at probably their best sales ever wih black magic and get weird Whereas most other winners start high and decline fast
December 9, 20159 yr AMLT will take decades to hit the million mark at this rate then. It sold 4k in about 1 year 4 months from the last estimate for it (910k). :lol:
December 9, 20159 yr I think it was Leona who was the first to release a download the same night of the show
December 9, 20159 yr I think it was Leona who was the first to release a download the same night of the show Yes it was. Didn't she sell 50,000 downloads in 30 minutes?
December 10, 20159 yr But how many acts from the last 10 years remain successful? Only handful of the Top 50 singles are by acts that have been successful since the previous decade and only Rihanna and Maroon 5 can manage to go beyond 10 years, but only just. 1 - 1 - 1,723,000 - 2,209,500 - Mark Ronson ft Bruno Mars - Uptown Funk - 20/12/14 - 1 9 - 12 - 893,000 - 893,000 - Adele - Hello - 05/11/15 - 1 11 - 10 - 869,500 - 869,500 - Maroon 5 - Sugar - 24/01/15 - 7 16 - 15 - 807,000 - 807,000 - Rihanna, Kanye & Paul McCartney - FourFiveSeconds - 07/02/15 - 3 34 - 33 - 551,000 - 551,000 - Tinie Tempah ft Jess Glynne - Not Letting Go - 04/07/15 - 1 43 - 43 - 464,000 - 464,000 - Flo Rida Ft Sage The Gemini - Gdfr - 17/01/15 - 3 48 - 47 - 435,000 - 437,500 - David Guetta/N Minaj/Afrojack - Hey Mama - 06/12/14 - 9 I agree most acts only have a relatively short shelf life of 3-5 years maximum but X Factor Acts tend to get a lot more publicity through the media and the show than many other acts will ever get. A lot of the winners have been dropped after their first album due to poor sales and then they vanish into obscurity. Edited December 10, 20159 yr by slowdown73
December 10, 20159 yr Its interesting that all of those winning artists with the exception of Little Mix are no longer successful and Ben Haenow will shortly be added to that list. That's not really true though, many are still successful, just not in the music world. Winning X-factor opened other doors for them and they found success elsewhere.
December 10, 20159 yr That's not really true though, many are still successful, just not in the music world. Winning X-factor opened other doors for them. In some cases, the door to the job centre... :P
December 10, 20159 yr I agree most acts only have a relatively short shelf life of 3-5 years maximum but X Factor Acts tend to get a lot more publicity through the media and the show than many other acts will ever get. A lot of the winners have been dropped after their first album due to poor sales and then they vanish into obscurity. Probably because they're rubbish. And I'm not being mean spirited for the sake of it.
December 10, 20159 yr Probably because they're rubbish. And I'm not being mean spirited for the sake of it. I agree with you. Also, poor marketing. Take Sam Bailey - quite a nice voice but she was given an album of predominately dull cover versions.
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