After many failed attempts to make it in the music industry - initially in the duo Girls Next Door with Julie Nunney, later singing on cruise ships and even failing an X Factor audition in 2007 - Sam Bailey was a 35-year-old prison officer in Leicester when she decided to enter the 2013 series of X Factor. Breaking the mould of reality TV talent shows, audiences fell in love with her natural personality, while judges were stunned by the emotional power of her big voice. She received a standing ovation from the judges at her first audition when she sang Beyoncé's Listen and there was an air of inevitability about her subsequent rise as she went on to be mentored by Sharon Osbourne, duetted with Nicole Scherzinger and beat Nicholas McDonald and Luke Friend in the grand final. Immediately afterwards she received a £1 million recording contract and quit her job as a prison officer. Her first single - a power ballad version of Demi Lovato's Skyscraper - became the UK's 2013 Christmas Number 1, selling 149,000 copies in its first week. With one of her childhood heroes Gary Barlow promising to write songs for her, she was touring the UK in February supporting Beyoncé with her debut album being recorded in the spring of 2014. She is married with two children.
