Matt Cardle

Matthew Sheridan Cardle (born 15 April 1983) is an English pop singer.

He was born in Southampton and grew up in Halstead, Essex.

Cardle has been involved in music since his early teens and has been a member of two different bands; Darwyn and Seven Summers.

Cardle was born in Southampton, Hampshire, to David and Jennifer Cardle (née Horner) on 15 April 1983.

He has an older brother called Dominic with whom he has a close relationship.

His family lived in Bristol before moving to Essex.

He started playing guitar and writing songs at aged 11 and knew from that point that music was what he wanted to do with his life.

At this time he also started singing lessons but stopped going after missing a class.

He attended a summer band camp through his teens and played in bands.

He attended the independent Stoke College in Suffolk, then studied a music course at the Institute in Colchester.

He then went on to do a media course at Braintree College.

Cardle is a keen skateboarder and spent a lot of his college years at skate parks instead of studying and therefore felt that education wasn't the right path for him.

When he was a young adult, he interviewed for a music course at Bournemouth University but he didn't make it.

He said he was "probably rubbish at the time."

In 2005, Cardle joined alternative rock/pop band Darwyn and the band recorded an 11-track album, When You Wake, the band also released a follow-up EP, Little Sunlight in 2006.

The band described themselves as an acoustic rock band.

The band's first album contained tracks "Violet" and title track "When You Wake".

They were awarded an Arts Council England grant which they used to record the EP Little Sunlight.

The band played at many festivals including Stortford Music Festival and Brownstock Festival and regularly played at the venue and recording studio Highbarn in Essex.

Cardle and Darwyn band member Ali McMillan also played as a two-piece under the name Darwyn, playing acoustic cover versions of popular songs in venues in and around the Suffolk area and videos of them playing together have gained many views on YouTube.

In 2009, Cardle became the lead singer and guitarist of rock band called Seven Summers.

Cardle rose to fame after winning the seventh series of The X Factor in 2010, and received a £1 million recording contract with Syco Music and later signed a deal with Columbia Records.

Following Cardle's victory on The X Factor, the winner's single and his debut single, "When We Collide", was released.

The track was made available to purchase on 12 December 2010, shortly after the show had ended.

On 19 December 2010, the track debuted at number one on the UK Singles Chart, as well as on the Irish Singles Chart.

The track also became the second biggest-selling single of 2010 with 815,000 copies sold within two weeks.

Cardle went on to release his debut album, Letters, in 2011, which debuted at number two on the UK Albums Chart and the Irish Albums Chart.

The album saw two more singles released, "Starlight" and "Amazing".

In June 2012, it had sold 1 million copies, the fourth single by an X Factor contestant to have done so.

"Run for Your Life" was the follow-up single released by Cardle which charted at number 6 on the UK Singles Chart.

Cardle then parted ways with record labels Syco Music and Columbia Records, and signed a recording contract with So What Recordings in early 2012.

He released his second studio album, The Fire, which charted at number eight on the UK Albums Chart.

South Africa,Asia and Ireland on his Letters Tour in 2012, Unplugged Tour in 2013, Porcelain Tour in 2014 and Intimate and Live Tour in 2016.

Cardle has combined album and single sales of over 2 million.

In October 2013, Cardle released his third album, Porcelain, in association with Absolute Marketing as an independent release.

It reached number 11 on the UK Albums Chart.

The lead single was a duet with Melanie C, called "Loving You", which was released on 18 August and reached number 14 on the UK Singles Chart.

Cardle is a guitarist, and plays frequently on tour and other performances.

He also plays other instruments including drums and piano.

He has toured the United Kingdom,