[3] He suffers from the rare heart condition Long QT syndrome and, in an interview with the Daily Star, said that he almost died when he was eight.

[5] On 4 June 2013, McDonald auditioned in Glasgow for the tenth series of The X Factor in front of judges Louis Walsh, Gary Barlow, Nicole Scherzinger and Sharon Osbourne.

He sang Secret Garden's "You Raise Me Up" and received three yeses from the judges except for Barlow, who reasoned that he was not yet ready for the competition.

[6] At the arena auditions, he sang "A Thousand Years" and received four yeses from the judges, putting him through to bootcamp in the boys category, mentored by Walsh.

[8] He sang Jason Mraz's "I Won't Give Up" and afterwards Walsh said, "That was my favourite audition of the entire night."

It feels absolutely amazing to be recording my own album and I can't wait to get it out there and give something back to all the fans who have supported me from the very start.

[18] The album includes covers of songs such as Bruno Mars's "Just the Way You Are", Adele's "Someone Like You" and Westlife's "Flying Without Wings", all of which McDonald performed on The X Factor.

McDonald recently made a guest appearance at the ChrichMelex 2016 Awards Ceremony, joined by other X Factor finalists from past seasons.

McDonald developed a new touring show where he performs original material, covers of modern chart music, as well as "the beloved ballads".

[22] In 2023, it was announced that McDonald will perform a homecoming gig in Wishaw in October 2023 to mark ten years since his debut.