Alexandra Burke

Alexandra Imelda Cecelia Ewan Burke is an English singer from Islington, London, and is known as the winner of the fifth series of The X Factor in 2008. She is associated with pop and R&B, and her releases appear on Syco Music and Epic Records.

Career beginnings and The X Factor

Burke first auditions for The X Factor in 2005, reaching the final seven in Louis Walsh’s 16–24 category before missing out on the final four. After that, she takes professional singing lessons for three years. She returns to the programme in 2009 and reaches the finals in Cheryl Cole’s Girls category.

During the live shows, she performs songs including Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance with Somebody”, The Jackson 5’s “I’ll Be There”, Christina Aguilera’s “Candyman”, Donna Summer’s “On the Radio”, and Mariah Carey’s “Without You”. Her performance of “Without You” draws praise from the judges and from Carey, and she wins the series.

Breakthrough singles and albums

As the winner of The X Factor, Burke releases “Hallelujah”, a version of the Leonard Cohen song. It becomes a major seller in the UK and across Europe, sets a 24-hour single-sales record at the time, and becomes the UK’s Christmas number one in 2008. By January 2009, it sells more than one million copies in the UK, making her the first British female soloist to reach that figure there.

Her debut album, Overcome, is released in 2009 and enters the UK Albums Chart at number one. Its lead single, “Bad Boys”, also reaches number one in the UK, giving her a second consecutive chart-topping single. She later adds further UK and Ireland number ones with “All Night Long” and “Start Without You”, and also has number-one singles as a featured artist on the charity records “Hero” and “Everybody Hurts”.

Record sales and recognition

Burke is nominated twice for the Brit Awards. By December 2010, she has sold more than four million records in the UK alone across her singles and Overcome. She signs a US record deal with Epic Records and continues to work on later material, including the single “Elephant”, on which she begins to shape a more risk-taking sound and names RedOne among the collaborators she works with. She also says she hopes to work with David Guetta, Bruno Mars, Stargate and Ne-Yo.