39. Joe McElderry
Joe McElderry gained recognition as the winner of the sixth season of UK’s The X Factor in 2009. McElderry first auditioned for The X Factor in 2007 but opted to walk away from the competition because he felt he was too young compared to the other contestants. In 2009, he again decided to audition for the show and wound up winning with his cover of Miley Cyrus’s “The Climb.” His cover of Cyrus’s song went on to reach No. 1 on both the UK and Ireland’s single charts.
McElderry’s prize as winner of The X Factor was a recording contract with Simon Cowell’s Syco record label worth an estimated £1 million. McElderry was also featured on the charity singles of R.E.M.’s “Everybody Hurts” for the 2010 Haitian Earthquake and in July 2010, McElderry posted on his official website that he is gay and gave an interview to the UK’s Daily Mail in which he declared “I’m really happy, I now know who I am…. I’ve had time to think about things. I wasn’t attracted to anyone anyway, male or female. It never really entered my head I was gay. But I just know. It’s how I feel.”
The release party for his debut album Wide Awake was held at London’s famous club G-A-Y on October 23, 2010 and the track “Someone Wake Me Up” is featured on the soundtrack for Disney’s The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
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