Stop what you’re doing. Ben Haenow’s video for his X Factor winner’s single is out. As is tradition, the video charts the singer’s journey on the TV talent show. You’ll get to see down-to-earth Ben singing in his white van as he drives around Croydon. Slow mo’ shots of _The X Facto_r judges’ faces at his first audition, including a creepy Cowell smile. You’ll even have a chance to relive that questionable goatee Ben sported until* The X Factor* hair and make-up team got hold of him. And, of course, see the teary, glitter-spattered moment he won at Wembley.
It’s as if the song was chosen to fit such an emotional rollercoaster of a montage. Hang on a minute…
By Monday evening Ben had shifted 75,000 copies of Something I Need – that’s 23,000 more than Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson’s Uptown Funk. AfterFleur East already got Uptown Funk to the top of the iTunes chartafter performing it on* The X Factor* before the official release, we wonder if Mark Ronson is feeling a tad annoyed…
I really just feel in such a good place and so confident that I’m not worried at the moment.
But how does Ben see his career panning out. Could he succumb to The X Factor winner’s curse of Steve Brookstein and Matt Cardle and disappear into the pop world ether?
“I think both those guys – particularly Matt as well – he’s still working as he’s still out there because he went to a couple of events we were at during the competition,” Ben told the Daily Mirror. “And he’s on his fourth album I think now, so he is still definitely working.
“But I think it’s about what you put into it and as I say he’s still going and I would like to be releasing my fourth album at some point. That would be great.”
“I don’t feel people have said stuff about the curse of The X Factor and winning, but I really just feel in such a good place and so confident that I’m not worried at the moment.”