When you collide with Matt Cardle, you know you’re in X Factor territory. Run for your life…!

Matthew Cardle (b.Southampton, 1983) started his career in the band Darwyn in 2005, but after limited success, he left and joined Seven Summers in 2009. Despite chart success in the first twelve months, Cardle left and auditioned for the 2010 series of X Factor, which he went through each heat, eventually reaching the final that year and winning the seventh series. His winning song, “When We Collide”, was a rework of Welsh band Biffy Clyro’s “Many Of Horror” and it went to number one in the UK for five weeks over Christmas and New Year 2011. Matt spent 2011 recording his debut album with the next single, “Run For Your Life”, coming out that Summer. The track made No.6 with the album, “Letters”, following that October. It would peak at No.2 and sell over 300,000 copies.

A third single, “Starlight”, at the end of 2011 failed to make an impact and Matt went into 2012 leaving Sony Records as he didn’t believe they were giving him “enough priority”. He soon signed with independent label So What Recordings and within a few months released the single “It’s Only Love”. His second album, “The Fire” came that October and made the UK top ten, but “It’s Only Love” and two other singles failed to chart. Matt was back with avengence in 2013 when he teamed up with Spice Girl Melanie C for “Loving You”, which put both back in the UK top twenty (No.14). Matt’s third album, “Porcelain” followed in October 2013 and charted at No.11, but by now, sales of singles were non-existant, while his last studio album, “Time To Be Alive” in 2018, made No.28 in the UK.

Matt has moved into the theatre since 2015, appearing on stage in a number of productions in London’s West End, most notably Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s Jesus Christ Superstar. He reunited with his Seven Summers bandmates in 2019 to play a number of live dates with the promise of new music, which has yet to materialise. Matt himself recorded and released the EP “Purple Crayon” in 2021 and later stated that he was writing a new solo studio album. Let’s see if either really do occur…

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