Alexandra Imelda Cecelia Ewan Burke (born 25 August 198[1] is an English singer and winner of the fifth series of UK television singing talent show The X Factor. 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 Music Entertainment. 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.[2]

On 15 December 2008, Burke became the current European record holder for single sales over a period of twenty-four hours, selling 105,000 copies of her debut single, "Hallelujah", in one day.[3] 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.[3] Hallelujah went on to become the Christmas number one single of 2008. It was also announced as the top-selling song of the year on the BBC Radio 1 Chart Show on 28 December 2008, beating The X Factor finalists' song "Hero". It is the first time that an X Factor winner has topped the end of year chart in the UK with their winner's single. Sales of "Hallelujah" passed 1 million by 9 January 2009, making Burke the first British female solo artist to sell a million copies of a single in the UK.[4]

Her debut album, Overcome, was released on 19 October 2009 and entered the charts at number one. It will be released in the US at a later date. Lead single and BRIT-nominated single[5] "Bad Boys" featuring Flo Rida debuted at number-one in the UK, becoming her second consecutive number-one single. Alexandra has enjoyed a total of seven non-consecutive weeks at Number 1 on the UK Singles Chart (three with "Hero" with the X Factor Finalists of 2008, three with "Hallelujah", and one with "Bad Boys"). She has been nominated twice for a BRIT Award.[5] Alexandra has achieved 4 number 1 single in United Kingdom and Ireland, (though only 2 as a solo act) with singles, Hero, Hallelujah, Bad Boys and Everybody Hurts.
Contents
[hide]

* 1 Early life
* 2 Career
o 2.1 2005–2008: The X Factor
o 2.2 2008–2009: Hallelujah
o 2.3 2009–Present: Overcome
* 3 U.S. launch
* 4 Discography
o 4.1 Studio albums
o 4.2 Singles
o 4.3 Music videos
* 5 Awards and nominations
* 6 References
* 7 External links

[edit] Early life

Burke was born on 25 August 1988 in Islington, London. Her middle names come from her great grandmother (Imelda) and grandfather (Cecil) and her mother's maiden name (Ewan). She is the daughter of Jamaican-born David Burke and British-born Melissa Bell of Jamaican, Irish and Dougla descent, who is a former Soul II Soul member. Her parents split up when she was six. She has lived in Islington all of her life and has four brothers and one sister.

Burke started singing when she was five and, prior to The X Factor, had no professional vocal training. At nine years old, she sang on stage in Bahrain with her mother. At the age of twelve, Burke entered the TV talent show Star for a Night where she was the youngest person in the competition. She was beaten to the number-one spot by Joss Stone. At age twelve, she also sang down the phone to Stevie Wonder. When Burke's mother asked her to sing to Jean Carne, Carne was so impressed that she asked her to perform at her show the next night.

Burke attended Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School in Islington and after her GCSEs she left school to pursue a career in music. Before her X Factor success, she had been working as a singer, gigging at weekends in clubs.[1] She also went on tour with "Young Voices", a charity that raises money for children with leukemia, where she performed at large venues such as the Royal Albert Hall.
[edit] Career
[edit] 2005–2008: The X Factor

2005

Burke auditioned for the second series of The X Factor in 2005 (which was eventually won by Shayne Ward). She made it through to the final seven in Louis Walsh's 16–24 category, effectively the top 21 of the competition; however, Walsh did not choose her for his final four as he felt that she was too young for the competition.

2008

Burke's second bid to win The X Factor came in 2008. Falling into the "Girls" category, she was mentored by Girls Aloud's Cheryl Cole who selected her for the finals—a series of ten weekly live shows in which contestants are progressively eliminated by public vote. On the first live show, Burke performed Whitney Houston's classic "I Wanna Dance with Somebody". For the second live show she covered "I'll Be There" by The Jackson 5. In week three, big band week, Burke performed Christina Aguilera's "Candyman" and received her first standing ovation. For the disco-themed fourth live show, Burke performed Donna Summer's "On the Radio". During Mariah Carey week on 8 November, Burke and the other finalists met Carey for individual masterclasses, with Carey complimenting Burke on her voice. Burke performed "Without You" and received a standing ovation from the judges who all gave her positive comments. Cowell commented that "by any standard, that was just outstanding". Following the show Burke's performance was also praised by Carey who called her rendition of the song "absolutely amazing".

In weeks 6 and 7, Burke received positive comments from the judging panel for her performances of Joe Cocker's "You Are So Beautiful" and Dan Hartman's "Relight My Fire" (the popularity of which in the UK is mostly a result of Take That's 1993 revival thereof). Week 8 saw her replace Diana Vickers as the bookies' favourite after performing Britney Spears' "Toxic" and Beyoncé Knowles' "Listen", for which she received yet another standing ovation. In week 9, Burke performed Rihanna's hit song "Don't Stop the Music" and again received positive comments, with Louis calling her "the British Beyoncé" and Simon commenting "...We may be seeing the birth of a star here [...] you've got it all, that was a terrific performance". Diana Vickers was eliminated in the semi-final, to the shock and upset of both Burke and Eoghan Quigg. Burke confessed after Vickers' final performance that she thought Vickers was going to win.

Burke was joined in the grand final by Irish teenager Eoghan Quigg and boyband JLS. She sang "Listen" as a duet with Beyoncé (who later performed her UK number-one single "If I Were a Boy"), and after performing with the American singer she proclaimed: "I have achieved a dream".
[edit] 2008–2009: Hallelujah

After the elimination of Quigg she sang what became her debut single, a 1984 song by Leonard Cohen, Hallelujah, for the first time. Finally, with over eight million votes cast in total, Burke was revealed as the winner with 58% of the final vote.[6] The single went on to become the Christmas number one of 2008, holding the top spot for three weeks and selling one million copies. There was also a campaign to take Jeff Buckley's cover of Hallelujah to the top of the Christmas chart to deny Burke the top spot.[7][8] The campaign was fuelled by Jeff Buckley fans' dislike of The X Factor's commercialism and the song's arrangement,[9][10] as well as a desire by this contingent to introduce younger music fans to Buckley's version.[11] Burke herself was not enamoured of the choice of song, remarking "It just didn’t do anything for me".[10]
[edit] 2009–Present: Overcome
Main article: Overcome (Alexandra Burke album)

On 13 February 2009 it was reported that Burke signed a £3.5 million, five-album US record deal with Epic Records.[12]

Burke's first album was originally scheduled for March 2009 however, Simon Cowell confirmed that her album was scheduled for release later in the year to allow Burke to polish her skills and find the right songs for the album and that it would not be rushed, as previously happened with Leona Lewis' debut album. The album was released on 19 October 2009 in the UK, titled Overcome.[13]

Burke's first commercial single from her debut album is titled "Bad Boys" which features Flo Rida. The single premiered in the UK on The Chris Moyles Show on BBC Radio 1 on 25 August 2009.[14] On 18 October 2009 Bad Boys topped the UK Singles Chart.[15] After visiting Burke in the studio, Beyoncé spoke of possibly recording a duet with Burke[16] and also for Burke to join her for Beyonce's second European leg of her I Am… Tour.[17]

Bad Boys was certified platinum by the British Phonographic Industry on the 7th of January 2010.

American rapper 50 Cent has expressed an interest in Burke, correctly predicting that she would win The X Factor and invited her to appear in an upcoming music video of his, most likely for a song from his upcoming album Before I Self Destruct.[18]

On 19 July 2009, Burke confirmed that she had signed a six figure contract with Italian fashion designers Dolce & Gabbana, to become the face of a new fashion line. She will also model their clothes and accessories in her music videos.

Burke performed on the Royal Variety Show on 7 December 2009.[19]

It was confirmed by Burke on 17 November 2009, that "Broken Heels" will be the 2nd commercial single, (3rd overall), from Overcome.[20] She also confirmed via her Official Twitter page that the video was shot in Los Angeles on 22 and 23 November 2009.[21] The single was released on 18 January 2010. Burke appeared on the The Paul O'Grady Show on 3 November 2009 to perform "The Silence". She performed on the penultimate episode on 17 December 2009 singing "Broken Heels". She also performed on So You Think You Can Dance on 16 January and GMTV on 19 January 2010.

Burke was confirmed for the Haiti Charity Single, commenting "I hope the single raises lots of money. It's great that we can come together and do this. It's a very special song." Soon after, Alexandra revealed she would be travelling to Haiti so she can physically help the people out there, saying "For me, singing two lines on a single doesn't mean I have really helped. I wanted to go out and physically help the kids. I'm not a doctor, but I can give clothes, food and love. At least I'll be able to make a couple of kids smile." Alexandra will visit and help in the week beginning 8 February 2010.[22]