X Factor winner slates show

The winner of last year's hit music show X Factor has sensationally attacked the show, insisting it caused him more harm than good.

11:56 18 August 2005

The winner of last year's hit music show X Factor has sensationally attacked the show, insisting it caused him more harm than good.

Speaking ahead of Saturday's start to the second series, Steve Brookstein, 36, said the ITV1 show "is killing music" and that he personally was lied to and cheated by the shows maker, pop mogul Simon Cowell.

Former pub singer Brookstein also claims he never received the 1 million record deal he was promised and he has warned potential X Factor applicants against applying to go on the new series.

"The show gives you a platform but then pulls the rug from under your feet by making you sign to a certain record label and having no say in what happens next," Brookstein told the Daily Mail.

"It should be about music and talent but it's not.

"The X Factor is all one big theatre - it's turning music into the WWF. It's about killing music to make light entertainment. I've now got to break away from the X Factor, which is fundamentally cheese and regarded as so by anyone and everyone in the industry."

Turning his attention to Cowell, he added: "The X Factor damages your credibility - or perhaps I should say Simon Cowell does. I did my vocals for the album in two weeks. But it did not come out for six months and I suspect that was because after the show finished Simon spent a month on holiday in Barbados. Then he went to America and did Pop Idol.

"I was never was one of Simon's priorities. Simon Cowell is Simon's priority. All the show has done is restrict my trade."

Brookstein, who was dropped after just eight months by his record label Sony BMG, made his comments after hearing Cowell admit that last years runners-up, Louis Walsh's G4, were the real winners of the show.