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Leon Jackson was born in Whitburn, West Lothian, Scotland, and currently lives there with his mother Wendy, who brought him up as a single parent. He formerly worked as a retail sales assistant. Jackson only started singing properly in 2007 when his friends entered him into a karaoke competition, which he won. Apart from his hobby of karate, in which he is a black belt, Jackson says that singing is the only thing that makes him happy. He is a huge fan of contemporary jazz, his hero being Michael Bublé. Before he made it through to the finals of The X Factor, Jackson had been planning to start an architectural technology course at Napier University.
The X Factor
In 2007, Jackson auditioned for the fourth series of The X Factor in Glasgow. He made it through to the final stages and was announced the winner on 15 December2007, winning a £1 million recording contract with Syco Music/Sony BMG. He was mentored by Dannii Minogue. In the final, he performed a duet with Kylie Minogue of "Better the Devil You Know". Jackson was an outsider to win the competition, and his win was described as "the biggest shock in the history of reality TV betting." ITV have confirmed that Jackson won on the night of the final by around 10% of the popular vote.
In December 2007, Jackson performed with Michael Bublé at Wembley Arena, singing Bublé's "Home". Jackson said this was the highlight of his life as Bublé is his idol.
Post-X Factor career
Jackson's debut single, a cover of the Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey duet "When You Believe" went on sale as a download from midnight on Sunday 16 December2007 and as a CD on Wednesday 19 December2007. The debut single is set to be the fastest-selling single of 2007, with sales predicted to reach 300,000 by Sunday. At Woolworths the single at its peak was selling 40 copies per minute. Bookmakers reportedly stopped taking bets on who would get the 2007 Christmas number-one single, as "Leon practically guaranteed top spot". "When You Believe" indeed reached number one in the UK on 23 December2007. Thus making Jackson the first Scottish artist to achieve a Christmas number one (though it could be argued that Midge Ure holds this distinction through his work on the Band Aid singles)
Simon Cowell has said a debut album will not be rushed out, following the success of previous X Factor winner Leona Lewis's debut album Spirit, which was released 11 months after Lewis won series 3 of the show.