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23.08.13 MusicWeek 15
anywhere near the level of success McElderry has. In the case of fellow former winner Matt Cardle it was with the So What label with Silva Screen with the album in question The Fire reaching a credible No.8 in the Official artist albums chart last November.
X FACTOR’S DOMINATION OF SONY SALES Eleven of Sony’s 20 biggest-selling singles since
The X Factor launched are by the programme’s artists, underlying its huge importance to the major. While Hand Me Down/Columbia act Kings Of
Leon’s Sex On Fire is its overall top seller in the period since the release of first winner Steve Brookstein’s debut RCA single Against All Odds at the end of 2004, immediately below the Nashville rock band are a string of releases by graduates from the show. Alexandra Burke and James Arthur’s debut Syco
singles Hallelujah and Impossible are respectively its second and third top singles sellers over this period, while Shayne Ward’s That’s My Goal is fifth, Leona Lewis’s Bleeding Love sixth and Matt Cardle’s When We Collide on Columbia eighth, according to Music Week research of Official Charts Company data. Further X Factor releases by Lewis (A Moment
Like This and Run), One Direction (What Makes You Beautiful), Joe McElderry (The Climb) and Alexandra Burke (Bad Boys featuring Flo Rida) are also among Sony’s Top 20 singles sellers since the programme launched, as is the 2008 finalists’ cover of Mariah Carey hit Hero, while 26 of its Top 100 hits over this period are by artists from the programme. In all Sony has sold around 29.4 million singles
in the UK by X Factor acts since the programme launch, making up the bulk of sales by artists from the show. This accounts for about 12.9% of all its singles sales over this time or more than one in eight of every single it has sold. Although not quite as significant, X Factor acts
have also very healthily contributed to Sony’s album sales since initial winner Steve Brookstein’s debut album Heart and Soul appeared in May 2005. The major has sold around 17.7 million albums by artists from the programme, representing
around 10.3% of its sales of non-budget artist albums during this period. Fifteen of its 100 most popular artist albums
since Brookstein’s album are by X Factor contestants with Leon Lewis’s introductory Syco effort Spirit its overall top seller with 3.1 million takers. JLS’s eponymous debut is at 7, while Olly Murs has three albums among its 40 top artist titles. Alongside the 15 X Factor albums are several by
other acts from reality shows, including Susan Boyle’s Syco debut I Dreamed A Dream at No.4. This further underlines comments made earlier this year by Sony UK chairman and CEO Nick Gatfield that his company had relied too much on TV shows.
X FACTOR INTERNATIONAL SUCCESS James Arthur has become the latest X Factor star
to taste success overseas with Impossible turning into a huge sales hit across Europe and beyond. Since Leona Lewis’s international breakthrough,
a steady stream of graduates from the programme have been embraced by foreign markets, most obviously One Direction. However, acts including Olly Murs, Little Mix and most recently 2012- winning Arthur have all shone brightly, too. In Arthur’s case it has delivered him a quadruple
platinum single in Australia where Impossible peaked at No.2 on Aria’s weekly sales chart, while it reached 2 in New Zealand and was a Top 10 hit in a number of European territories including France, Germany and Spain. His success comes in a year in which 2011
winners Little Mix got off to a record-breaking start in the US with their album DNA, released there by Columbia, debuting at No.4 in June on the Billboard 200. This gave them the best start on the countdown to date by a British female group, beating the Spice Girls’ entry at No.6 back in 1997. The US has also delivered this year for Olly
Murs with a Top 20 entry for his Columbia-issued album Right Place Right Time and around 1.3 million sales there of his Troublemaker single featuring Flo Rida, according to Nielsen SoundScan. In Germany he has been even more
ABOVE LEFT Pointing the way | One Direction are leading the charge of X Factor exports
enthusiastically welcomed with Heart Skips A Beat topping the sales chart there and Troublemaker reaching No.2. Peaking even higher across the Atlantic than
ABOVE RIGHT Take a look at him now | Steve Brookstein quickly fell from commercial favour after his Against All Odds cover
Murs has been Cher Lloyd whose popularity in the States is now arguably greater than it is back home. This is reflected by her album Sticks + Stones going Top 10 in the market and the single Want U Back reaching double platinum status.
SIMON COWELL ACTS DOMINATE TOP X FACTOR SELLERS
Simon Cowell quit the UK version of the show as a judge after 2010’s final, but it remains largely his mentored acts that have had the most commercial impact. Three of the four X Factor acts with the highest
singles and album sales in the UK were mentored by the programme’s founder: Leona Lewis, Olly Murs and One Direction. Only one of these acts – Lewis – actually won the programme, but particularly in the case of One Direction, Cowell’s involvement post show has helped to deliver greater retail success than most of the winners. The only act to come anywhere near rivalling
those three acts’ UK sales are JLS who were paired with Louis Walsh during the 2008 series and finished as runners-up behind Alexandra Burke. As Cowell’s record company with Sony, Syco
naturally dominates the charts of the programme’s biggest commercial successes, having released nine of the 10 highest-grossing singles by X Factor contestants and five of the 10 leading albums. However, fellow Sony company Epic is strongly
represented, thanks largely to Olly Murs and JLS. Murs has three of X Factor’s 10 most successful albums and JLS two, while both have a string of hit singles behind them. Several X Factor acts have appeared on Syco
parent company RCA’s own label, including Rebecca Ferguson whose album Heaven has sold around 640,000 copies in the UK to date, while Columbia of the frontline Sony companies has had the least involvement in the franchise with its main interest to date Matt Cardle who has since exited.
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