Rebecca Ferguson

Rebecca Caroline Ferguson (born 21 July 1986) is a British soul singer and songwriter.

Rebecca Ferguson was born on 21 July 1986 at Mill Road Hospital in Liverpool to a father of Jamaican descent and a white British mother.

She has a younger brother, Sam.

She spent the first two years of her life in Huyton.

Her family moved to a house on an estate in Woolton Village when her parents separated.

Ferguson received her primary education at Woolton Primary School and her secondary and sixth form education at Gateacre Community Comprehensive School.

As a teenager she later moved to Anfield, where she became pregnant with her first daughter.

Two years later she had her first son.

Ferguson revealed that she always wanted to become a pop star when she was young and said that her family fully supported her passion of becoming a professional singer, helping her through two previous X Factor auditions.

She also revealed that she was, "bullied as a kid because my family was poor, and I never had the right clothes or toys."

Despite having a difficult start in life, Ferguson insisted that she wanted people to focus solely on her talent.

She revealed on Loose Women that she was sexually abused in a care home when she was 8 years old.

Ferguson is a qualified legal secretary, having studied at Hugh Baird College, Bootle.

She later commented, "There is only so long you can chase the dream when you are a mum. I wanted the kids to see me do well and be a better role model. They were always seeing their mummy fail. That was why I started college."

Ferguson had previously unsuccessfully auditioned for The X Factor and for P. Diddy's Starmaker in New York.

She later commented "I went to other auditions, I was invited to New York to audition for P.Diddy's Starmaker and I was told ‘no’. It was really upsetting because I spent money to get there. I also tried out for The X Factor but it did not turn out too well."

Ferguson sang "A Change Is Gonna Come" for her audition in front of judges, Simon Cowell, Louis Walsh and guest judge, Nicole Scherzinger.

At her bootcamp audition, she sang "Like a Star".

She sang "Fireflies" in the Judges' Houses round and was sent through to the live shows by mentor Cheryl in her Girls category (solo females aged 16–27).

For the first live show she sang "Teardrops" and in the second live show she sang "Feeling Good".

In the third live show she sang "Why Don't You Do Right?" and in the fourth live show she sang "Wicked Game".

In the fifth live show, Ferguson received a standing ovation from Cowell and Cheryl following her performance of "Make You Feel My Love".

In the following episode, Ferguson received another standing ovation from Dannii Minogue and Cheryl after singing "Candle in the Wind".

In the final, she performed a duet with Christina Aguilera, performing Aguilera's hit single "Beautiful".

Ferguson's winner's song was a cover of Duffy's "Distant Dreamer".

She avoided the final showdown every week and finished second to Matt Cardle, making her the first female runner-up on The X Factor.

After the finale, it was announced that Ferguson had been signed by Syco Music.

In 2010, Ferguson finished in second place in the seventh series of The X Factor. She later released her debut album titled Heaven in December 2011.

The album peaked at number 3 on the UK Albums Chart.

In January 2011, it was reported that Ferguson had signed a joint record deal between Syco Records and Epic Records.

Ferguson and nine other contestants from the series participated in the X Factor Live Tour from February to April 2011.

The tour saw Ferguson performing for 500,000 people throughout the UK.

Ferguson released her debut single "Nothing's Real but Love" on 20 November 2011, which was written by Ferguson and Eg White.

The single peaked at number ten on the UK Singles Chart.

Her debut album Heaven followed and was released 5 December 2011 in the UK.

The album features Ferguson collaborating with Eg White, Steve Booker, Fraser T. Smith, Xenomania, Paul Barry, Mark Taylor and Brian Higgins.

Ferguson later revealed that she would be co-writing the whole of her album for her to "connect" with the songs.

The album would feature genres like Soul, Pop and Blues.

Since then, Ferguson has released 4 more albums: Freedom (2013), Lady Sings the Blues (2015) Superwoman, and Heaven Part 2 (2023).

She cites Aretha Franklin, Kings of Leon, Christina Aguilera and Amy Winehouse among her influences.