Alexandra Burke

Alexandra Burke

Alexandra Imelda Cecelia Ewan Burke (born 25 August 1988) 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 BMG. 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.

As of 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. 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. "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. Her debut album, Overcome will be released on 19 October 2009 and in the US at a later date. Lead single "Bad Boys" featuring Flo Rida debuted at number-one in the UK, becoming her third consecutive number-one single.

History

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 Afro-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's mother was previously in a girl band.

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. 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. She was bullied for having a big mouth.

2005-2008: The X Factor and Hallelujah

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. 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's 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". After the elimination of Quigg she sang what would become 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. The single would go on to become the Christmas number one of 2008, holding the top spot for three weeks and selling one million copies.

2009-Present: Overcome

Burke's album was originally scheduled for a March 2009 release in time for Mother's Day. However, Simon Cowell confirmed that her album is now scheduled for release later in the year to allow Burke to polish her skills and find the right songs for the album. On 13 February 2009 it was reported that Burke signed a £3 million, five-album US record deal with Epic Records.. In March 2009 Cowell announced that he believed Burke will enjoy a similar success to previous X-Factor winner Leona Lewis. Producers Pharell Williams and Akon are said to be producing songs for the album. British singer-songwriter Taio Cruz also confirmed that has produced songs for the album and commented that "Burke's vocals sound amazing". Burke has recorded tracks with British dance duo The Freemasons who are best known for their remix of Kelly Rowland's "Work".Ne-Yo has confirmed that he is currently working on tracks for Burke. Pixie Lott is also on the album's credits after writing the song "You Broke My Heart". New production team ELEMENT which is best known for producing the European #1 hit "Beggin'" with hip-hop group Madcon, has announced on their website that they have produced two songs for Alexandra Burke.

After their duet of Listen on The X Factor, Burke claimed on the companion show The Xtra Factor that Beyoncé had expressed an interest in having Burke join her as a support act on her upcoming British tour. 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. After visiting Burke in the studio, Beyoncé has spoken of possibly recording a duet with Burke,. Beyoncé also announced that Burke could become an international artist after she visited Burke in the studio. Burke was asked to support Beyoncé on her European leg of her I Am… Tour, but couldn't accept as she was still recording her debut album. However it has since been revealed that Burke will be one of two support acts for Beyonce's second European leg of her I Am... Tour.

On 11 and 12 July 2009 two previously unheard songs surfaced on the internet believed to be produced by The Stereotypes and Ryan Tedder. It is unknown whether these songs will appear on the album or not but Cowell did confirm that they were early demos that were stolen by hackers who gained access to one of the producer's computers at his record label, Syco's HQ in London. A criminal investigation has been launched into the incident. A new song, "Before The Rain", written by Ina Wroldsen and Steve Mac and produced by Mac has been confirmed for inclusion on Burke's debut album. HMV have confirmed that the album is currently scheduled for release on October 26, 2009 in the UK and is called Overcome On July 19 2009, Burke confirmed that she had signed a six figure contract with Italian fashion designers Dolce & Gabbana, which would see her become the face of a new fashion line. She will also model their clothes and accessories in her music videos.

Burke's first commercial single from her debut album is title "Bad Boys". The single featuring Flo Rida and produced by upcoming production group The Phantom Boyz premiered in the UK on The Chris Moyles Show on BBC Radio 1 on 25 August 2009.. In early reviews Popjustice has called the song "literally amazing".. On The 18 October 2009 Burkes single "Bad Boys" topped the top of the UK charts and is currently the fastest selling single of 2009.

Discography

Studio albums

Year	Title	Peak chart positions
		UK	IRE
2009	Overcome Debut studio album Released: 19 October 2009 Label: Syco, Epic	—	—

Singles

Year	Title	Peak chart positions			Certifications	Album
		UK	IRE	EU
2008	"Hallelujah"	1	1	6	UK: Platinum	Overcome
2009	"Bad Boys"(featuring Flo Rida)	1	1	—
As featured artist
2008	"Hero" (with The X Factor Finalists 2008)	1	1	8	UK: 2× Platinum	Non-album single

Awards and nominations

Year	Nominee / work	Award	Result
2009	"Hallelujah"	BRIT Award for Best British Single	Nominated
	"Hero"		Nominated
	Alexandra Burke	MOBO Award for Best UK Newcomer	Nominated

External links

• Official website
• Alexandra Burke website