Shayne Ward

Shayne Thomas Ward (born 16 October 1984) is an English singer.

He rose to fame as the winner of the second series of The X Factor.

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

He attended St. Peter’s RC High School in Manchester.

It sold 313,000 copies on its first day of sales, making it the third-fastest-selling single of all time in the UK, behind Elton John's "Candle in the Wind 1997" and Will Young's "Evergreen", which sold 685,000 and 400,000 copies in their first days of sale, respectively.

Ward was the first X Factor winner to release an original song as his winner's single.

His prize, as winner, was a recording contract with Simon Cowell's Syco record label, which is co-owned by Sony Music.

In 2002, he reached the final thirty of Popstars: The Rivals.

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.

His debut single, "That's My Goal", was released in the United Kingdom on 21 December 2005 and reached number one on the UK Singles Chart and was that year's Christmas number one.

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

He impressed all three judges and passed through to the next round.

His category, 16 to 24-year-olds, was then mentored by Walsh, and Ward was chosen to be among Walsh's top four contestants and perform on the live shows.

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.

He had not fallen into the bottom two throughout the entire competition, and won by a margin of 1.2% of the vote, out of a reported 10.8 million phone votes cast by viewers.

Immediately after the competition, his X Factor mentor Walsh became his manager under a joint venture with Global Publishing and Walsh Global Management.

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.

After selling 742,000 copies in the first week, including 313,000 on its first day, it became the Christmas number one single of 2005, held the top spot for four weeks and stayed in the top 75 until June 2006, a 21-week run.

It became, at that time the fourth-fastest-selling UK single of all time, beaten only by Elton John's "Candle in the Wind", Will Young's "Anything Is Possible/Evergreen", and Gareth Gates' "Unchained Melody" which sold 685,000, 403,000 and 335,000 copies in their first days of sale, respectively.

To date, "That's My Goal" has sold over 1.3 million copies in the UK.

Ward also won an Ivor Novello Award for being the Best Selling Single.

His eponymous debut album was released in April 2006.

It debuted at number one on both the Irish and UK Albums Charts, going 4× Platinum in Ireland and Platinum in the UK.

It spawned two hit singles: "No Promises" and "Stand by Me".

Ward's second single, "No Promises", a cover of a Bryan Rice song was released on 10 April 2006, and peaked at number two (behind "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley) in the UK Singles Chart.

Shayne Ward, his self-titled debut album was released on 17 April 2006.

It sold 201,266 copies in the first week and entered the albums chart at number one.

To date, the album has sold 520,000 copies in the UK and a further 2,000,000 worldwide, reaching number one in eight other countries.

The album was certified platinum.

Ward's third single was "Stand by Me".

It was confirmed in Gary Barlow's autobiography My Take, that in 2006, fellow Take That member, Jason Orange threatened to quit the band, and Ward was seriously considered as his replacement.

Orange, however, later changed his mind and a replacement was not required.

The follow-up album, Breathless, featuring the top 10 hits "If That's OK with You" and "No U Hang Up", was released in November 2007 and topped the Irish charts, where it went 5× Platinum.

In November 2010, after a three-year hiatus, Ward released his third album, Obsession.

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.

In 2011, Ward was dropped by Syco.

In 2015, he released a new album Closer as an independent artist, funded through PledgeMusic.

In 2015, he began appearing as Aidan Connor in TV's Coronation Street as a regular character.

He made his last appearance in August 2018.

He made a voiceover appearance on 22 October 2021.