Alexandra Burke

Alexandra Imelda Cecilia Ewen Burke (born 25 August 1988) is a British soul/pop singer and winner of the fifth series of UK television talent show The X Factor. She is the show’s second female winner after fellow Londoner and now global recording artist, Leona Lewis. Burke had previously auditioned for the 2005 series of the show, where she reached the last seven in her category but was not selected for the live shows. Burke’s prize, as winner, was a recording contract with Simon Cowell’s Syco record label, whose parent company is Sony BMG. The contract has a stated value of £1 million, of which £150,000 is a cash advance and the remainder is allocated to recording and marketing costs. As of 15 December 2008, Burke became the current European record holder for single sales over a period of 24 hours, selling 105,000 copies of her debut single, “Hallelujah”, in one day. The figure beats that of her X Factor predecessor, Leona Lewis, who previously held the record for selling 82,000 copies of her single, “A Moment Like This”, over 24 hours. “Hallelujah” went on to become the Christmas number one single of 2008. It was also announced as the Number one Top-Selling Song of the Year on the BBC Radio 1 Chart Show on 28th December 2008, beating the X Factor Finalists song Hero.