As the winner of The X Factor, Burke released her debut single, "Hallelujah", that became the current European record holder for single sales over a period of 24 hours, selling 105,000 copies in one day. It was also the top-selling song of the year in the UK, and became the 2008 UK Christmas number one single. By January 2009, UK sales of Burke's version had passed one million copies, a first for a British female soloist.
Her debut album, Overcome, was released in October 2009 and entered the UK Albums Chart at number one. The album's lead single "Bad Boys" was released a week ahead of the album and debuted at number one, selling over 780,000 in the UK and becoming her second consecutive number-one single and first Brit-nominated single. She has since followed "Bad Boys" with singles that have consecutively reached the top ten in the UK Singles Chart. Then in 2010, one of her most recent singles, "Start Without You", became her third solo UK number one hit (in addition to two number one singles as a featured artist in charity singles, "Hero" and "Everybody Hurts").
To date, Burke has achieved four Number ones across UK and Ireland: "Hallelujah", "Bad Boys", "All Night Long" and "Start Without You". Burke has been nominated three times for a Brit Award for Best British Single as a solo artist, with "Hallelujah" in 2009, "Bad Boys" in 2010, and "All Night Long" in 2011. As of December 2011, Burke has sold over 4 million records in the UK with combined sales of her singles and her album Overcome.
After the All Night Long Tour, Burke made history after she was the first ever X Factor contestant to have a judging panel role when she became a judge during the auditions of So You Think You Can Dance. She later went on to make further history as she became the first and only X Factor contestant to return to The X Factor as a judge.
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