Steve Brookstein Wins X Factor Against All Odds

The Week in UK Number 1s: January 3, 2025

The Week in UK Number 1s goes back in time - ten years at a time - to explore what was hitting the top of the UK Singles Chart. This time, there is only one new number 1, as the X Factor begins its reign of terror as Steve Brookstein becomes the first-ever winner of the show against all odds…

2005

“Against All Odds” by Steve Brookstein

The autumn of 2004 brought forth the behemoth that was The X Factor, which for at least the next ten years dominated not only Saturday night telly but also the Christmas number 1 spot. The show conquered the former quickly but failed to claim the festive chart-topper at its first attempt due to the charity bonanza that was Band Aid 20.

This annual assault on the chart would come from the winner of each series of The X Factor. Taking the place of the Pop Idol franchise, The X Factor was the brainchild of record mogul Simon Cowell, who had earned a level of fame as a judge on Pop Idol. Wanting the judges to play a bigger role and have more control, Cowell adapted the Pop Idol concept and gave the contestants judges as mentors. The winner of each season would win a recording contract with Cowell’s Syco Music, part of Sony BMG, plus £1 million (although a large part of this was used for marketing and recording costs). The first step on this recording journey was to release a single almost immediately after the final, as had proven successful for Pop Idol winners. Timing the end of the series with the Christmas number 1 period also set the winner up well for Yuletide success.

The winner in the show’s first series was Steve Brookstein. The son of a council worker who was initially rejected in his audition by judges Sharon Osbourne and Louis Walsh, Brookstein was given a second chance by Cowell. Returning the next day, Brookstein made it through to the live shows and proved a hit with the viewing public.

Despite fluffing some lyrics in his series-closing performance, much to the chagrin of Sharon Osbourne, Brookstein clocked 6 million votes to become the inaugural winner of the competition. His single was a cover of Phil Collins’s 1984 #2 power ballad “Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)”.

In its first week, it debuted at #2 sans the parentheses of the original but was unable to dislodge Band Aid 20. However, a week later it was able to move up and take the top spot, giving The X Factor its first chart-topper. Brookstein had a good voice and while not as distinctive as Collins’s vocal style, he did a decent job at interpreting the song.

Setting the stage for many who would follow him over the next decade and a half, Brookstein lasted a week at the top. His album, Heart and Soul, appeared in May and debuted at number 1 before falling down and off the chart within six weeks. Despite these successes, it was announced in August that Sony had dropped Brookstein. He would not be the last to find his recording contract cut short.

Brookstein was then a vocal critic of The X Factor for the rest of its run, levelling accusations of fixing at the show and personally attacking people from the show, particularly Simon Cowell himself. In the twenty years since he has released a couple of albums on independent labels but without the success of those initial, X Factor-derived few months.

The X Factor continued all the way to 2018, with Brookstein’s brief flash of success the more common story for winners of the series. Steve Brookstein offered a cautionary tale to aspiring contestants, that there was no guarantee of longevity by securing the coveted record deal. Yet it didn’t seem to matter, as thousands would arrive at audition centres around the country over the next decade and a half, many of whom had already forgotten the first X Factor winner and believed that their story would be different. For some - as we shall see - this was the case. But for most, Steve Brookstein’s week at the top would forever be an impossible dream.

Next time! Dickie Valentine and the Stargazers point the finger of suspicion, Cotton Eye Joe stops people from being married and Elvis experiences jailhouse rock - in 2005…