Steve Brookstein

Encyclopedia : S : ST : STE : Steve Brookstein

-->

Steve Desmond Brookstein (born 10 November 1968) was the winner of the first ever X Factor talent search in 2004. He was mentored by Simon Cowell and was announced as the winner during the 11 December 2004 final after receiving over two thirds of the telephone votes.

On 8th January 2005 his cover of Against All Odds reached number 1 in the UK chart, although it only stayed there for one week. He donated all proceeds to the Thailand Tsunami Disaster Fund. His first album Heart & Soul debuted at the top of the UK album chart on May 16, 2005.

Prior to appearing on The X Factor, he had previously appeared on another talent show: The Big Big Talent Show, compered by Jonathan Ross and produced by LWT ITV1 where he came second.

His latest TV appearance was on reality show The Match, where he was joined by such names as Big Brother 6 winner Anthony Hutton and Philip Olivier from The Games. He survived a few matches but was eventually put on the bench with two other celebrities and voted off.

Steve parted company with his record label eight months after winning the competition when they could not reach a deal for a second album. Steve had expressly stated publicly from the start that he didn't want to do an album of covers but was forced to compromise with his first album. He stood his ground over the second which ultimately cost him his signing.

In his own words he said

"The album went to No.1 and sold 150,000. The label accepted that they had waited too long to release it and without single support the sales figures were lower than expected, but still acceptable.

I felt isolated and unrepresented. My manager and PR representative had been appointed by Simon Cowell. I had to sign my publishing to Simon before I could proceed to the live finals. Yet he had no plans to use my songs. I was told not to worry, a new series would be on soon and I would be performing on that, but I was worried. I enquired why I wasn’t writing for my new album. The year was slipping by with no tour, no promotion and nothing but bad press.

I knew I had a good fan base but was being publicly humiliated as merely a covers artist. I badly wanted to record my own songs. I was willing to compromise, but it wasn’t considered.

We parted company in September 2005.

In the eight months prior to The X Factor I had sung over 200 hours of paid gigs and supported Dionne Warwick. Two of my songs were being covered and I was starting work on an album. In the same period after the show, I had sung for a mere 35 minutes and recorded an album of covers!

I’m forever thankful for the exposure that came from winning the show, though I am disappointed they haven’t invited me back to this years show. I’m also thankful to the millions that voted for me and to Simon for initially giving me the chance.

I am now recording my new album."

In February 2006, Heart & Soul won the Naomi Award for Worst British Album. Steve accepted the award with his trademark, self efacing good humour and it now has pride of place in his downstairs toilet.

He is now (May 2006) close to finishing his new album of mostly original material, with a couple of select covers to please his fans. It is rumoured to contain a track featuring fellow X Factor contestants 4Tune. He is set to release a new self-penned single, Fighting Butterflies in August 2006, the new album in September and begin his UK tour in October. You can find out more on his website: http://www.stevebrooksteinonline.co.uk and hear some of his new songs on Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/stevebrookstein .

|- style="text-align: center;"

External links

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.