[3] Jackson had the best selling single from a British Male Artist in 2007[3] beating the likes of Mika, Take That and Mark Ronson in the best-selling male category, and being beaten by Leona Lewis's "Bleeding Love" and Rihanna's "Umbrella" to the number one and number two positions, respectively.

[7] He was a fan of contemporary jazz, his hero being Michael Bublé, and he has stated that during his early years, karate and singing were the only things that made him happy.

[9] Before he appeared on The X Factor, Jackson was planning to attend Edinburgh Napier University, studying architectural technology.

He wanted to pursue a career in music so he entered X Factor and, after doing well in the competition, deferred his place at Edinburgh Napier.

[8] In 2007, Leon Jackson auditioned for the fourth series of The X Factor in Glasgow, being filmed at the city's Crowne Plaza Hotel.

After progressing through the rounds, he reached the final on 15 December 2007, in which he performed a duet with Kylie Minogue of "Better the Devil You Know", as well as three other songs.

After the public vote, he was declared winner, receiving a £1 million recording contract with Simon Cowell's company Syco, a division of Sony BMG.

[10] Jackson was an outsider to win the competition, and his victory was described as "the biggest shock in the history of reality TV betting.

Some of the controversy centred upon whether 14 and 15-year-olds should be eligible to enter, and also on the high-profile dismissals of judge Louis Walsh and presenter Kate Thornton,[17][18] to be replaced by choreographer and Grease Is the Word judge Brian Friedman and Big Brother's Little Brother host Dermot O'Leary respectively.

Before hiring Freidman and Minogue, Cowell had apparently approached colleague and fellow American Idol judge Randy Jackson, and close friend and X Factor mentor Sinitta.

On 11 February 2008, Jackson began the "X Factor Live" tour in the Odyssey Arena in Belfast, Northern Ireland with Rhydian Roberts, Same Difference and the eight other finalists from the 2007 show.

[21] Bookmakers reportedly stopped taking bets on who would get the 2007 Christmas number-one single, as "Leon [was] practically guaranteed top spot".

[citation needed] Jackson appeared as a celebrity guest on the first live episode of series five of The X Factor on 11 October 2008, to perform the first single, "Don't Call This Love", from his upcoming album Right Now.

[37] Scottish singer and songwriter Sandi Thom had lined up Jackson as a Supporting Guest Act in Glasgow as part of her Homecoming Scotland 2009 Tour.

[42] Even though Jackson has failed to find another record deal since he got dropped by his label Sony BMG in March 2009, he hopes to release the album independently.

He worked with artists, including Ernie Halter, to create piano and guitar led songs, as well as writing some himself.

[44] In May 2010, Jackson was announced as the 2nd biggest reality TV flop, winning 76% of the 1,300 people polled, losing out only to Steve Brookstein.

[45][46][47] He has vowed never to perform When You Believe again, calling his X-Factor success a curse[48] and revealing he was no longer in contact with former mentor Dannii Minogue or Simon Cowell subsequent to being dropped by Syco Music.

[51] The second date was at the ABC Glasgow on 10 July, where he sold out the show and more tickets were put on sale due to popular demand.

[52] The final date of the tour was on 31 July at the O2 Academy Birmingham, where Jackson again performed new songs written by himself and American songwriters.

[57] Jackson has committed time and his influence to charitable causes, including raising money for the Glasgow Children's Hospital.