Leon: 'I didn't know I'd been dropped'

Leon Jackson did not know that he had been dropped by Sony until he read about it in a newspaper, he has revealed.

News that the 20-year-old X Factor winner would part company with Simon Cowell's SyCo subsidiary first leaked to the press earlier this week.

Speaking to the Daily Record about his setback, Jackson explained: "The label never told me I had been dropped. I never heard it directly from anyone.

"Word filtered through the management about the likelihood of it happening but I was never told a date. No one at the label ever told me. The first time I knew was yesterday in the paper."

The Scottish singer insisted that the decision comes as a relief following Cowell's claim that he did not deserve to win The X Factor.

"I'm happy and not at all bitter. I think, in fact, this could be a blessing in disguise," he said. "It's evident that I wasn't Simon Cowell's favourite choice to win X Factor."

Jackson's debut album Right Now has sold 130,000 copies since its release last year. The star has now claimed that poor promotion prevented him from following in the footsteps of 2006's champ Leona Lewis.

"Leona was given a real push and even went to the States for massive promotion. I had a few TV adverts pushing the album," he admitted.

"My last major promotion was in 2008 for Children In Need. There were very few gigs to promote the record."