Matt Cardle

The 2010 season of The X Factor crowned its first male champion, falsetto-voiced Matt Cardle, whose emergence contrasted with the soft rock direction taken by American Idol winners Kris Allen and David Cook after the show's earlier success in launching female R&B stars Leona Lewis and Alexandra Burke. Born in Southampton, Hampshire in 1983, Cardle attended the same sixth form college as X Factor host Dermot O'Leary and 2009 runner-up Olly Murs. Before his breakthrough, he held various positions including bricklaying, painting, and decorating while performing with several indie rock bands. In 2010 his group Seven Summers issued their self-titled debut album independently, and that same year he tried out for the seventh season of Simon Cowell's hit series. His version of Amy Winehouse's "You Know I'm No Good" earned him advancement to the live shows, where Dannii Minogue served as his mentor. Interpretations of songs originally associated with female artists such as Kelly Rowland, Britney Spears, and Roberta Flack propelled him into the final, where he defeated soul singer Rebecca Ferguson and boy band One Direction with 44-percent of the vote.

His debut single, a reworking of Biffy Clyro's "Many of Horror" retitled "When We Collide," diverged sharply from the Miley Cyrus track previously assigned to winner Joe McElderry, signaling more serious and credible treatment for the artist. The track secured the Christmas number one position, remained there for three weeks, and received a nomination for Best British Single at the BRIT Awards. Cardle issued his debut full-length album, Letters, in 2011. He left Simon Cowell's Syco Music in 2012, a decision that granted the rugged crooner increased creative authority on his sophomore release, The Fire, which appeared later that year. His third album, Porcelain, followed in 2013 and earned favorable notices that emphasized his expanding creativity after exiting Syco. In 2015 he entered acting for the first time, portraying Huey Calhoun in the stage musical Memphis from July to October. He resumed his music career in 2016 with a nationwide summer U.K. tour, and the live recording Intimate and Live, drawn from one of those concerts, surfaced that fall. Following the demanding tour, Cardle took time to compose his fourth album. He entered the studio in 2017 with Jim Eliot (Kylie Minogue, Ellie Goulding), resulting in Time to Be Alive, which Sony released in spring of the following year.