X Factor winner Leon Jackson scooped the coveted Christmas number one spot on Sunday - the third consecutive time it has gone to a contestant on the ITV reality show. According to reports, the 18-year-old former shop assistant from Scotland, sold more than 275,000 copies of his debut single 'When You Believe.'
And Leon may be busy celebrating achieving the number one spot - but his love life has taken a downturn since his meteoric rise to fame.
Despite rumors of a possible romance between the 18-year-old Scot and fellow contestant Emily Biggs from girl band Hope, Leon says he doesn't want the “distraction” of a girlfriend.
He says, “I don't think I'm going to get distracted with a lady companion. There's no time for nothing like that. Any time you get off you just need to sleep.”
Jackson's record - which was originally recorded by Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey - is the fastest selling single of 2007.
Fellow contestant Emily Biggs was rumoured to have been in a relationship with Leon.
It was already at No 1 in the mid-week charts on the strength of download sales alone.
But the 18-year-old's phenomenal success very nearly never happened, as he entered The X Factor only after winning a karaoke competition in his native Scotland.
His mother Wendy forced him out of the family home just before his audition, labelling him a "waster" who wouldn't succeed at singing.
She might have had to revise her opinion now he has a £1million recording contract with Simon Cowell's company SyCo.
Jackson said last night: "I'm absolutely over the moon. Having the Christmas number one is an amazing ending to an amazing year and I'm overwhelmed and thrilled."
Cowell added: "I'm absolutely thrilled for Leon, what a fantastic Christmas present. He will have a terrific year next year."
Celebrity Dannii Minogue, Jackson's mentor during the X Factor, said: "It's amazing to have been a part of 'The Leon King's' success story.
"He totally deserves this Christmas number one as the nation have been with him every step of the way since we fell in love with him at his first X Factor audition.
"It's been a pleasure to nurture Leon's raw talent and I know he will deliver a debut album we will all be proud of."
However, not everyone is impressed with Leon's performance in the Christmas singles charts.
Gennaro Castaldo, a spokesman for HMV said that The X Factor seems to have taken the monopoly on the Christmas No.1.
"No one has a chance against the might of The X Factor," he added. "You get a sense that people are getting a bit frustrated." Jackson's release is the third consecutive X Factor winners' single to top the Christmas chart and follows in the footsteps of A Moment Like This, last year's festive hit from Leona Lewis, and Shayne Ward's 2005 track That's My Goal.
Alan Jones, chart consultant with industry magazine Music Week, added to Britain's Daily Mirror newspaper: "The charts do tend to be cyclical and you get runs of things.
"Every Christmas number one of the 21st century has been either a novelty, reality or charity single.
"Even though it's the third Christmas in a row we've had an X Factor winner at number one, the last two singles have done rather less well than Shayne Ward."
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