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James Andrew Arthur (born 2 March 1988)is a British singer and musician who won the ninth series of The X Factor in 2012. His debut single, "Impossible", was released after the final and debuted at number one on the UK Singles Chart in its first week of release. It has since gone on to sell over 1.25 million copies in the UK and 2.5 million copies worldwide He released his self-titled debut album in November 2013. It debuted at number two on the UK Albums Chart.

James Atrhur

Arthur originally auditioned for The X Factor in Newcastle. He performed an acoustic rendition of judge Tulisa Contostavlos's Young before explaining his past, including a short spell in respite foster care and time spent in flats and bedsits after break-ups within his family. He also revealed his father and mother had hardly spoken to each other for over 20 years, and this was a reunion of sorts for them to attend his audition. He sang A Million Love Songs at bootcamp and was chosen as one of six contestants in the Boys category to advance to judges' houses. From this point onward, Arthur was mentored by Nicole Scherzinger. After his judges' houses performance of I Can't Make You Love Me, he was picked as one of 12 contestants to advance to the live shows, and one of three in the Boys category.After his second live performance, Arthur suffered from an anxiety attack backstage. Whilst being treated at the studio, paramedics determined he did not need to go to hospital, and he was ordered back to his hotel to rest. He later returned for the results show the following night. After his performance of !@#$%^&*'s Sexy and I Know It on the third live show on 20 October, Arthur was accused of plagiarism. His rendition was very similar to the rendition by YouTube star only1Noah, who uploaded it on 9 May 2012 and has earned over 17 million views from it. However, Arthur later tweeted:"Btw doesn't everyone know I was putting a spin on Noah's version It had 13.something million hits! Was I supposed to state the obvious In week 7, after performing Can't Take My Eyes Off You Arthur was controversially in the bottom two. He sang Fallin' for survival against fellow favourite Ella Henderson, with the judges going to deadlock after their vote was evenly split 2–2 (mentor Scherzinger and Gary Barlow voting to keep him, while Contostavlos and Louis Walsh voted in favour of Henderson). Arthur was then saved by the public vote. On 8 December, he made it through to the second night of the live finals. Arthur won The X Factor on 9 December 2012, with 53.7% of the final vote, against Jahméne Douglas who received 38.9%.

Following his victory, Arthur's winner's song, a cover of Shontelle's "Impossible", was released as a charity single for Together for Short Lives.35] It became the fastest-selling The X Factor winner's single so far, reaching 255,000 downloads within 48 hours and over 490,000 by the end of the week.The single topped the UK Singles Chart in its first week of release.After 11 days, it was the seventh biggest-selling debut single from any contestant from The X Factor, with sales of 622,000. In its second week the single dropped to number two, but reclaimed the number one spot in its third week, and stayed at the top for a further week.After three weeks, it was the fifth best-selling single of 2012 with 897,000 copies sold. After four weeks it had sold 971,000 copies. As of 11 January 2013, the single has sold more than 1 million copies. The song also peaked at number one in Ireland, two in Australia, New Zealand and Switzerland, and eight in Slovakia. As of August 2013, the single has sold 1.2 million copies, 30,000 fewer than Alexandra Burke's version of "Hallelujah".