Alexandra Imelda Cecelia Ewan Burke (born 25 August 1988 in Islington, London) is an English singer and winner of the fifth series of The X Factor in 2008. As the winner of The X Factor, Burke released her debut single, "Hallelujah", originally a Leonard Cohen song, that became the current European record holder for single sales over a period of 24 hours: selling 105,000 copies in one day; but also, the top-selling song of the year in the UK as well as becoming the 2008 Christmas number one single in the UK. By January 2009, sales of Burke's version of "Hallelujah" had passed one million copies which made her the first British female soloist to sell that amount of copies in the UK. Her debut album, Overcome, was released in October 2009 and entered the UK Albums Chart at number one. ...show more

Alexandra Imelda Cecelia Ewan Burke (born 25 August 1988 in Islington, London) is an English singer and winner of the fifth series of The X Factor in 2008. As the winner of The X Factor, Burke released her debut single, "Hallelujah", originally a Leonard Cohen song, that became the current European record holder for single sales over a period of 24 hours: selling 105,000 copies in one day; but also, the top-selling song of the year in the UK as well as becoming the 2008 Christmas number one single in the UK. By January 2009, sales of Burke's version of "Hallelujah" had passed one million copies which made her the first British female soloist to sell that amount of copies in the UK. Her debut album, Overcome, was released in October 2009 and entered the UK Albums Chart at number one.

The album's lead single "Bad Boys" was released a week in advance to the album and debuted at number one in the UK: becoming her second consecutive number-one single and first Brit-nominated single. She has sinced followed "Bad Boys" with singles that have consecutively stole top ten places in the UK Singles Chart. To date, Alexandra has achieved 4 Number one singles across the UK and Ireland: "Hallelujah", "Bad Boys", "All Night Long" and "Start Without You". Burke has been nominated twice for Brit Awards and has achieved four solo number one singles: her most recent single "Start Without You" became her third solo UK number one hit; as well as two number one singles as a featured artist in charity singles "Hero" and "Everybody Hurts".

As of December 2010, Burke has sold over 4 million records in the U.K alone with combined sales of her singles and her debut album Overcome. Burke auditioned for the second series of The X Factor in 2005 (which was eventually won by Shayne Ward). She made it through to the final seven in Louis Walsh's 16-24 category, effectively the top 21 of the competition; however, Walsh did not choose her for his final four as he felt that she was too young for the competition. Burke however did not give up and went on to seek professional singing lessons over the next three years, proving her dedication and commitment to becoming a pop star. ...show less