Leon Jackson

Leon Jackson (born 30 December 1988) is a Scottish singer.

Jackson's debut single, "When You Believe", a cover of a song sung by Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey and composed and written by Stephen Schwartz, sold over 400,000 copies, and was the 92nd best-selling single of the 2000s in the UK, and was the third best-selling of 2007.

He won the fourth series of the British talent show The X Factor in 2007.

Following his win, Jackson was the main star of his on-web series entitled Leon's Life, which ran from 2007 until 2008.

Jackson had the best selling single from a British Male Artist in 2007 beating the likes of Mika, Take That and Mark Ronson in the best-selling male category, and being beaten by Leona Lewis's "Bleeding Love" and Rihanna's "Umbrella" to the number one and number two positions, respectively.

Leon started singing in public in January 2007.

He wanted to pursue a career in music so he entered X Factor and, after doing well in the competition, deferred his place at Edinburgh Napier.

In 2007, Leon Jackson auditioned for the fourth series of The X Factor in Glasgow, being filmed at the city's Crowne Plaza Hotel.

During the show, he was mentored by Dannii Minogue.

After progressing through the rounds, he reached the final on 15 December 2007, in which he performed a duet with Kylie Minogue of "Better the Devil You Know", as well as three other songs.

After the public vote, he was declared winner, receiving a £1 million recording contract with Simon Cowell's company Syco, a division of Sony BMG.

Jackson was an outsider to win the competition, and his victory was described as "the biggest shock in the history of reality TV betting."

X Factor judge Louis Walsh later said that Jackson had won the vote by about 10%.

A number of viewers complained to watchdog Ofcom that they were unable to get through to vote for Jackson's rival Rhydian Roberts, but an Ofcom investigation found that Roberts had not been unfairly disadvantaged.

More than 12 million people watched the final of Leon winning.

Jackson described winning as "not real".

In December 2007, Jackson was invited to perform with Canadian performer Michael Bublé at Wembley Arena, singing Bublé's "Home" because Bublé was so impressed by his singing ability.

Jackson later said this had been the highlight of his life, because Bublé is his idol.

Leon was the first and so far only X Factor contestant to perform at Wembley while still in the competition.

with Rhydian Roberts the runner-up and Dannii Minogue emerging as the winning mentor.

The series hit the headlines even before recording began.

Some of the controversy centred upon whether 14 and 15-year-olds should be eligible to enter, and also on the high-profile dismissals of judge Louis Walsh and presenter Kate Thornton, to be replaced by choreographer and Grease Is the Word judge Brian Friedman and Big Brother's Little Brother host Dermot O'Leary respectively.

Before hiring Freidman and Minogue, Cowell had apparently approached colleague and fellow American Idol judge Randy Jackson, and close friend and X Factor mentor Sinitta.

Walsh, however, was quickly reinstated, with Friedman becoming the show's choreographer.

Jackson's prize as winner was a £1 million recording contract.

His first single release was

"When You Believe", arranged for the finalists by composer Stephen Schwartz and released to download on 16 December 2007, with the physical format following on 19 December.

The single became that year's Christmas Number One in the UK Singles Chart.

The series was Sharon Osbourne's final series as a judge and was replaced the following year by Girls Aloud star Cheryl Cole.

Jackson's début album, Right Now (2008) finished the year as the 75th best-selling album in the UK, and included the singles, "Don't Call This Love", "Creative" and "Stargazing".

On 11 February 2008, Jackson began the "X Factor Live" tour in the Odyssey Arena in Belfast, Northern Ireland with Rhydian Roberts, Same Difference and the eight other finalists from the 2007 show.

As of 2016, Jackson has had one UK number one single, two UK top ten singles and one UK top five album and overall has spent a total number of thirteen weeks in the UK Singles Charts top seventy-five with his three charted singles and nine week in the UK Album Charts top seventy-five with his debut album.

His winners single, "When You Believe" currently ranks as the seventh best-selling X Factor winners single beating off competition from the likes of Little Mix with "Cannonball", Sam Bailey with "Skyscraper" and Louisa Johnson with "Forever Young".

His debut album also ranks as the eighth best-selling debut album from an X Factor winner, beating Ben Haenow with his self-titled debut album and Joe McElderry with Wide Awake.

Leon Jackson was born in Whitburn, West Lothian, Scotland.

Before pursuing his singing career, he worked as a retail sales assistant with Gap.

He is a supporter of Rangers.

He was a fan of contemporary jazz, his hero being Michael Bublé, and he has stated that during his early years, karate and singing were the only things that made him happy.

He got his black belt at the age of 10.

Before he appeared on The X Factor, Jackson was planning to attend Edinburgh Napier University, studying architectural technology.