Another week, another X Factor double for Leon Jackson and Leona Lewis.
Despite the controversy surrounding his win, Leon Jackson remained top of the charts for a second week with his single ‘When I Believe’. Although it was only released on Wednesday 19th December, Leon’s single was officially the fourth biggest selling track of the year.
The award the the biggest selling title of the year went to 2006 X Factor winner Leona Lewis, for her track ‘Bleeding Love’.
Christmas 2007 is now officially an X Factor double-bill after Leon Jackson topped the singles chart whilst 2006 X Factor winner Leona Lewis topped the album chart.
Leon’s single ‘When you Believe’ sold 276 000 copies, the highest weekly total for any track this year. This is despite numerous complaints that Leon’s win was due to problems with telephone lines, a claim ITV vigorously denied earlier this week. Our own poll gave Leon just a 10% approval rating with readers.
Leona Lewis’s album ‘Spirit’ has been the top seller for the last six weeks, and held off competition from Westlife and Michael Buble.
We’ve received many hundreds of comments here at X Factor Blog since Leon’s shock win last Saturday night. Many of these comments spoke of difficulties getting through on the voting lines – for both Leon and Rhydian.
ITV have now come out publicly to deny any irregularities in the voting.
“Phone lines were monitored through the night and there were no irregularities on the voting lines. Call levels for the final were very high and depending on phone operators some callers may have experienced an engaged tone or network busy message. A tiny number of mobile customers did experience problems getting through because of high call volumes but viewers can be reassured that this would absolutely not have affected the outcome of the show. As all numbers go through to the same lines and vote platform it is impossible for there to be any bias in favour of or against a particular contestant.”
An ITV insider also commented that Leon had been consistently the most voted-for throughout the series, topping five of the eight polls prior to the final.
Rhydian’s mother has also spoken out, telling fans “We are just asking the nation to let it go and move on. The competition is overstaying.”
Don’t forget there’s still time to vote for your favourite contestant of the whole series before our poll ends on Sunday evening!
Leon Jackson was announced as winner of the X Factor on Saturday, and in this special video he talks about his experiences of the competition. It’s been a long and emotional journey for the former shop assistant from Scotland, who was something of an underdog throughout the competition.
Don’t forget you can vote for whoever you think should have won X Factor 2007, and make your opinion heard by posting a comment.
Leon’s X Factor winner’s single is in shops on Wednesday.