Biggest-selling X Factor contestant

Leona Lewis (UK) has sold more than 30 million records worldwide since winning the third UK series (2006) of the ITV reality show The X Factor. As of March 2015, her debut album Spirit (2007) had sold more than eight million copies around the world, including 3.1 million copies in the UK alone. In the UK, Spirit became the fastest-selling debut album of all time, debuting at No.1 on 24 November 2007 with 375,872 first-week sales. The record stood until 5 December 2009, when Susan Boyle's I Dreamed a Dream bowed at No.1 with 410,000 first-week sales.

"Bleeding Love", Lewis' debut single and the lead track from Spirit, went to No.1 in 35 countries worldwide (the first track to top that many charts since Elton John's "Something About the Way You Look Tonight"/"Candle in the Wind 1997"), including the UK, the USA, Ireland, France, Germany and Australia. It was the UK's biggest-selling single in 2007, and was ranked No.2 on Billboard's end-of-year Hot 100 chart in 2008, behind Flo Rida and T-Pain's "Low".

Lewis was the first British female solo artist to achieve eight UK Top 5 singles - "A Moment Like This" (No.1, 2006); "Bleeding Love" (No.1, 2007); "Better in Time"/"Footprints in the Sand" (No.2, 2008); "Forgive Me" (No.5, 2008); "Run" (No.1, 2008); "Happy" (No.2, 2009); "Collide" (No.4, 2011, Leona Lewis/Avicii); "One More Sleep" (No.3, 2013).