Leon Jackson is one of the 'forgotten' winners of The X Factor who has seemingly vanished into thin air.
The Scottish singer was just 18-years-old when he somewhat controversially won the competition back in 2007 - where his career rose then dramatically fell.
Leon beat heavy favourite Rhydian Roberts in a tense final, which was described by Ladbrokes as "the biggest shock in the history of reality TV betting", after performing a duet with Kylie Minogue.
Some viewers claimed it was a 'fix' as they complained the phone lines were down when they tried to vote for Rhydian and broadcasting watchdog Ofcom received more than 1,000 complaints from angry potential voters.
However, Ofcom decided that Leon still would have won even if all those people had managed to get through and he won a £1 million recording contract with Simon Cowell's company Syco.
Leon admitted it "didn't feel real" after being crowned champion, while mentor Dannii Minogue said she "couldn't wait to see" what he would do with his recording career.
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His winner's single, an arrangement of Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston's duet When You Believe, was Christmas number one that year, reportedly selling 40 copies a minute in Woolworths at its peak.
After selling 400,000 copies of his debut single, his second song Don't Call This Love reached number three in the UK charts and his first album, Right Now, made it to number four.
However, he was dropped from Syco after his debut album reportedly sold just 130,000 copies, with a spokesperson for the Sony division saying that they "wished him well."
"I had a great year and learned so much recording and releasing my album," said Leon. "Every artist knows these things can go either way. I'm really looking forward to my tour and doing more writing."
After being unceremoniously dropped he was voted the second biggest reality TV flop in a national survey - only losing out to first ever winner Steve Brookstein.
The following year, Leon spoke out about his exit from Syco and revealed he was "crushed" after finding out he was getting the boot inn a newspaper.
Slamming the Cowell pop machine, which he said placed him under "a lot of stress and strain", Leon claimed he was given the boot because his album Right Now didn't reach the No.1 spot.
"It was higher than Oasis and only behind Kings Of Leon, Kaiser Chiefs and AC/DC," said Leon as he defended his music in September 2010.
"It sold 150,000 copies and went gold but to Sony it wasn’t good enough. You receive an advance and it's up to you how far you make it go," he told Reveal magazine.
Confessing Cowell's rejection left him devastated, he added: "It was a crushing moment especially when, to my eyes, I hadn't done anything wrong."
Leon also vowed he would never perform his No1 hit When You Believe again and was no longer in contact with Simon or Dannii.
"There was a false perception that I was this guy in a shiny suit singing jazz like Michael Buble," he told The Daily Record in 2010.
"Yet when I first started singing, I appreciated people like Gavin De-Graw and Paolo Nutini or Buble's more contemporary songs such as Home or Lost.
"My number one song, When You Believe, was never me and I didn't feel comfortable with it in the first place. I was singing songs that weren't really me and doing things I had to do. I was not comfortable and it was not appealing to people my age."
After travelling to LA to come up with new tracks, Leon went on a summer your in 2010 and even taught himself to play the guitar and piano.
Shortly after his acoustic tour, Leon explained that he needed to fall back in love with music.
On his website, he said: "I've needed time to consolidate and make sense of everything I've experienced. I needed to fall in love with music again, this process has been slow and wrenching at times but I’m now feeling liberated and fulfilled for the first time with my work.
"Music is a conversation between the singer and the listener, and to that end the fans are the foundation of everything I do."
Since 2016, Leon has been living in LA and committed a lot of time to charitable causes, including raising money for the Glasgow Children's Hospital and the Children's Hospice Association Scotland.
According to his own website: “As far as team Leon is concerned music is about life not the other way round. It’s a privilege to be able use your gifting to bring joy to people, travelling and paying the bills is a bonus."
Now aged 33, Leon stunned fans a few years ago by unveiling his dramatic new look - showing off his killer six pack on Instagram.
The singer was seen boasting some seriously impressive muscles having undergone a pretty hot transformation since taking the crown on X Factor.
He has kept a relatively low profile in recent years, last posting on his Instagram page back in 2019.
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