The X Factor Winners: Where Are They Now?

Things went downhill super quickly after the high of winning the first ever series of The X Factor, and Steve's still bitter… even now, 16 years later. He's written a book about it called Getting Over The X. Come on now Steve, perhaps you should give it a read.He did release an album in 2014, and just to show he's moved on he called it Forgotten Man. It didn't chart.

It's easy to forget Corrie's Aidan Connor was actually; Shayne Ward from The X Factor in a disguise. Alright, that should be: in a new job. He even won Best Newcomer at the National Television Awards in January 2016, but he left the soap in 2018.

You probably won't remember Leona Lewis as she hasn't done much since. Jokes. Leona's a superstar. A superstar that loves animals. A lot.She loves dogs. She released a single with Diane Warren called We Are All (Looking For Home) in support of a dog charity. She loves cats. Well, she starred in Cats on Broadway which is kind of the same thing. But she really loves horses. The star has featured in Horse and Hound in the past, too.

Soulful Scotsman Leon Jackson clinched the Christmas Number One in 2007 but faded fast and was dropped by the label shortly after.

Alexandra Burke's winning single was a cover of Leonard Cohen's classic Hallelujah, which broke records on it's way to Number One. And Alex has had quite the career since; she's released three albums and had an incredibly successful time on the West End, starring in musicals The Bodyguard and Sister Act. We also can't forget when said she brought the phrase 'elephant in the room' over to the UK from America,

In 2009 it was Joe McElderry who won The X Factor but it wasn't him who won the Christmas Number One. It was the anti-X-Factor campaign who scored the top slot with Rage Against The Machine's Killing In The Name Of. Chin up Joe, you've done alright. You've even sung for the Queen. He has sung in a touring version of Joseph and the Technicolour Dreamcoat and did charity cycle rides.

Matt Cardle might be most famous for Harry Styles whispering into his ear, 'think how much pussy you're going to get', but he did release four albums after the show. It was also claimed that, before she met Prince Harry, Meghan Markle even slid into his DMs. There was also a massive lawsuit filed against none other than Ed Sheeran in 2016, claiming Sheeran's huge hit Photographs was a carbon copy of Cardle's Amazing. It turns out it was the songwriters who filed it, and Cardle's distanced himself… it looked murky and in 2017 Ed settled the £16million lawsuit.

Well, where to start with these ladies. As one of the most famous groups this country has ever produced, they hardly need any explanation. They are now working on their own reality show to find the next big music group, called The Search.

James Arthur has had a rocky road since winning the show - like so many of the winners – but he did seem to bring it on himself. After dropping a very dodgy tune with homophobic tones, iTunes offered refunds on his debut album and Syco dropped him.Then he released Say You Won't Let Go, Syco took him back and EVERYTHING changed.

Bexley's Sam Bailey hit the Christmas number one slot with her winning single Skyscraper and toured with Queen Bey in the UK leg of her The Mrs Carter Show World Tour. Then, in what seems like a natural next step for The X Factor winners, she took a role in a popular West End musical. In this case it was Chicago.

We can almost do this as a tickbox list now. Christmas number one: tick. Record breaking sales figures: no tick. Duet with big name real celeb: tick (it was Kelly Clarkson). Album released: tick. Didn't make top twenty: tick. Dropped by Syco: tick.

2015's winner Louisa has had mixed success…her single charted the lowest of all the winners' singles of all of the time, only managing number 12 in the Christmas singles chart. Cripes.Her follow up Tears, with Clean Bandit, did much better by reaching number five. She left Syco in 2018, but she still has 872,000 Instagram followers. Nice.

Matt Terry went on to win the 2016 series with Ed Sheeran-penned winner's single When Christmas Comes Around. He then teamed up with Enrique Iglesias and actual Sean Paul on the Spanglish remix of Subeme La Radio before releasing his proper debut single Sucker for You.Oh, and he made an appearance on Celebrity First Dates in support of Stand Up To Cancer. In June 2018, Terry was dropped by RCA Records. So he did what X Factor stars do best, and moved into musicals. The next month, he made his acting debut in the UK production of Madagascar – The Musical. In 2019, he returned to the Madagascar musical as Alex the Lion.

Rak-Su beat Grace Davies in an epic final showdown on 2017's X Factor. They were even the first group to write their own winner's single with Dimelo, which featured Naughty Boy and Wyclef Jean. Since Myles jetted to Australia for I'm A Celeb in 2019. But the lads are still together, and plan to release their next single Palm Tree later this week as independent artists.

Louis Tomlinson's lad Dalton Harris beat Scarlett Lee to the 2018 crown and released a duet with James Arthur; a cover of Frankie Goes to Hollywood's The Power of Love. He went quiet for a while, as the Jamaican singer revealed he received disgusting death threats after rumours spread he was dating fellow contestant Brendan Murray. However, the singer released new single, Cry, in January this year.