Leon Jackson: 'When You Believe'

Has your jaw come up from the floor yet? Leon Jackson, the 18-year-old shop boy from West Lothian, Scotland, staged an almighty upset on Saturday's X Factor final, trumping 1/6 favourite Rhydian Roberts, the classically-trained Welsh warbler who recently nicked Brigitte Nielsen's haircut. His prize? To breathe new life into 'When You Believe', a gooey spoonful of musical treacle that Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston took into the top five back in 1998. It's a tough job, but, hey, the British public voted for him to do it.

Wisely, Jackson's warm, manly tones aren't caked in too much production gloop: the percussion's relatively subtle, the strings are as tasteful as the Nigella Express kitchen, and the obligatory gospel choir doesn't swoop in until after the three minute mark - pretty restrained by X Factor winner's single standards. Most impressively of all, Jackson brings some real dignity to the song's anodyne lyrics, repaying the faith that the British public has placed in him. The Scottish swingster has navigated this rite of passage with ease; what he comes up with next is almost as appetising as that Sharon vs. Dannii catfight we've all been promised.


> Click here to watch the video for 'When You Believe'