In contrast to Shayne Ward and Breathless, it underperformed with first-week sales of under 23,000, and missed the top 10 in both the UK and Ireland.

Ward was born on 16 October 1984 in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England to Irish Traveller parents who settled in the United Kingdom.

[7] Prior to his participation in The X Factor, Ward was in a band called Destiny with two women named Tracy Murphy and Tracey Lyle, performing at pubs, clubs and weddings.

[7] In early 2005, Ward auditioned for the second series of The X Factor in front of judges Simon Cowell, Sharon Osbourne and Louis Walsh.

Ward quickly became the bookmakers' favourite to win the show, and after making it to the grand final, he defeated Cowell's duo Journey South and Osbourne's over-25 singer Andy Abraham and was crowned as the winner.

Immediately after his victory on The X Factor, Ward signed a recording contract with Syco Music and his first single, "That's My Goal", was released in the UK on Wednesday, 21 December 2005.

[9] In August 2006, it was reported that Ward had developed vocal cord nodules — the same condition that stopped the singing career of Julie Andrews — and was to be flown out to Los Angeles in early September to see a specialist surgeon.

Walsh released a statement that he was confident Ward would be fine and would be back at work by the end of the month.

In early 2007, Ward embarked on a solo tour of UK & Republic of Ireland venues, taking in eighteen concerts in twenty-eight days from late January to mid-February.

Ward's second album, Breathless, was released on 26 November 2007, and after selling over 95,000 copies in its first week, debuted at number two on the UK Albums Chart, held off the top spot by his X Factor successor, Leona Lewis's, multi-platinum selling debut, Spirit.

He also performed his complete show as a support act for Westlife's 2008 tour in front of a crowd of over 80,000 at Ireland's Croke Park.

Ward also played on the opening night at The O2, Dublin, at the Cheerios Childline concert on 16 December 2008.

[11] The singer worked with songwriters such as Savan Kotecha, Quiz & Larossi and Lucas Secon, while the songs produced by RedOne and Taio Cruz were not included.

On 8 March 2011, Ward performed the title track from the album Obsession on The Alan Titchmarsh Show.

On 9 June 2011, it was announced that Ward would star as Stacee Jaxx in 1980s-themed musical Rock of Ages at the Shaftesbury Theatre, London.

In 2014, Ward joined the cast of Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds for the final arena tour of that production, as the Artilleryman.

[17] On 19 September 2014, Ward announced was working on a new album with Mike Stock, with a then-projected release of February 2015 through PledgeMusic.

[18] Ward later postponed the release to April, with the video for the first single "My Heart Would Take You Back", due to be filmed on 25 February 2015 in London.

He revealed that he gained three stone (42 lbs) and said that the tempting canteen food at Granada studios was partly to blame, although he was largely unconcerned by negative comments he received regarding this.

From 14 September 2024, Ward starred in series 22 of Strictly Come Dancing, partnering with Nancy Xu.

[31] On 2 August 2016, Ward announced he and his partner, former Hollyoaks actress Sophie Austin were expecting their first child.