Alexandra Burke made her name on television talent contest, X Factor when she won over the judges to take home the coveted prize in 2008. Her wholehearted rendition of the Leonard Cohen classic, Hallelujah made her a superstar. Burke broke the record for volume of sales achieved across Europe in 24 hours when her cover of the song hit the shelves and sent the music download market into overdrive. She sold over 100,000 of the title before another day broke - cementing her position as one of the countries finest, most famous singers. Alexandra never rested on her laurels and has had further smash hit singles with such songs as Bad Boys featuring Flo Rida, Start Without You and All Night Long which achieved platinum status.
Her debut album Overcome, which featured the four huge hits above was a bestseller in 2009. Other tracks from the album that became top 20 hits were The Silence and Broken Heels. Alexandra said that she cried during the recording of the songs on the album because she felt an attachment to the material. She said: “[It is] very me… it’s very much my personality. It’s deep. I only ever sing songs I believe in”. Three years later she released the single Elephant which reached number three in the UK, followed by Let It Go, both being tracks from her second album Heartbreak On Hold.
The album, which was released after the highly successful All Night Long tour, was followed by three EP releases. These were Christmas Gift in 2012, #NewRules in 2013 and Renegade in 2015, the last two being self-released. Burke was also involved in the soundtrack album to The Bodyguard, the musical, in which she played Rachel Marron in between 2014 and 2016. Her stage acumen continued as she took a role as Deloris Van Cartier in Sister Act The Musical in 2016. Alexandra Burke has music in her blood, with her mother being Melissa Bell, the lead vocalist in the chart-topping band of the late 1980s Soul II Soul, who had a smash hits with Back to Life and Keep On Movin’. She began singing as a five-year-old and first sang on stage with her mother when she was just 9 years old. There was little doubt about her future as one of the world’s renowned acoustic singers. In 2017 she was a contestant on Strictly Come Dancing where she made the final before bowing out to Joe Mcfadden.
In 2018 her third record, The Truth Is was released and she is due to perform as Svetlana in a West End revival of Chess in the spring.
