Cardle's Christmas gets even better

NO.1: Album cover

JUST over a week after winning the X-Factor, Matt Cardle’s Christmas has got even better, after he was officially crowned as the winner of the Christmas No.1 on Sunday night.  Cardle’s winners single, his rendition of Biffy Clyro’s massive hit ‘Many Faces of Horror,’ which he titled ‘When we Collide,’ held off challenges from protest campaigns on Facebook about X-Factor’s domination of the coveted prize.

Other competitors included a hit from Rihanna, one of Cardle’s closest friends with ‘What’s My Name,’ which finished in second place and John Cage’s protest against Simon Cowell, known as ‘Cage against the Machine.’  Their idea was to record a 4min 33sec song of complete silence and was supported by bands such as Madness, The Kooks and Pendulum.  In the end, it didn’t launch a serious threat to the final outcome. 

FORMIDABLE: Matt with his mentor, Dannii Minogue

17.2million viewers watched Matt, 27, the former decorator from Colchester overcome Rebecca Ferguson and One Direction in last Sunday’s final.  Mentored by Australian Dannii Minogue, he was the red-hot favourite to win the ITV talent show for a large proportion of the show, highlighted by the fact that he topped the phone votes on nine of the ten live show weeks.  Cowell will be hoping that Cardle’s success starts a new trend of X-Factor domination of the Christmas charts, which has seen No.1’s for Alexandra Burke, Leona Lewis and doomed Scottish singer Leon Jackson.  It was halted last year, by a successful Facebook campaign to get Rage Against the Machine’s 1992 hit ‘Killing in the Name’ to the top of the charts, overhauling last year’s winning single, ‘The Climb’ by Joe McElderrey. 

On hearing the news of his success, Cardle was gobsmacked; "I can't believe it.  As if winning wasn't enough. I honestly didn't think I'd even make it on to the live shows, let alone win and now be the Christmas number one.  "I can't even begin to describe how it feels.”

Congratulations to Matt, a fitting Xmas No.1, I hope he can build on this success for a long-time to come.