Steve Brookstein, the first ever X Factor winner, is making a musical comeback – exactly 20 years after his triumph.
The singer played to a packed crowd in Chiswick, west London, on Wednesday night, where he couldn’t resist performing on the now-defunct ITV talent show.
Steve, now 56 and unrecognizable from his days on the now defunct ITV talent show, told the audience during his performance: “It’s 20 years since I won that show, I call it that kind of show.”
But his venue for Wednesday night’s performance was in stark contrast to the Fountain studios in Wembley, North West London, where he was crowned the first X Factor king on December 11, 2004 after being mentored by Simon Cowell.
Instead of a glitzy theater watched by 10 million viewers, Steve played to 30 people at coffee shop Rhythm and Brews in the leafy London suburb of Chiswick.
Steve was invited by the owners after they read an article on MailOnline about a gig he did in Scotland in October.
X Factor’s first ever winner Steve Brookstein is making a musical comeback – exactly 20 years after his triumph
The singer played to a packed crowd in Chiswick, west London, on Wednesday night, where he couldn’t resist performing on the now-defunct ITV talent show.
“I’m only here because of the Ny Breaking,” he said.
Steve sang cover hits such as What’s Goin On? by Marvin Gaye? Mamas and Papas’ California Dreamin’ and Nightshift by the Commodores.
The anniversary was not lost on Steve, who traveled from Scotland, where he now lives with his wife Eileen.
And he’s now going to mark this by preparing to release a new album.
While he may not have been on the X Factor where he won the hearts of the British housewives, he kept smiling all night long.
Speaking about his role on the show for the first time last weekend, Steve opened up about how the program caused him deep torment.
He said: ‘The X Factor gave me everything I didn’t want: humiliation. It felt like an albatross around my neck.’
And revealing the depth of insults leveled at him by the judges, he told how Sharon Osbourne called him the c-word during rehearsals, while Louis Walsh even said he looked like serial killer Fred West on live television.
Steve, now 56 and unrecognizable from his days on the now defunct ITV talent show, told the audience during his performance: ‘It’s 20 years since I won that show, I call it that show’
His venue for Wednesday night’s performance was a stark contrast to the Fountain studios in Wembley, where he was crowned the first X Factor king in 2004 after being mentored by Simon Cowell.
‘It was quite shocking. There was so much hatred towards me.
‘The hardest part was when I was bullied online. People were sending me emails and links to websites and there were all these pictures of me and Fred West. It was all in the [online] chat rooms. And you’re not ready for that in real life. The worst thing you ever experienced was at school, and this was a national issue.
“I never wanted to kill myself, but I felt like if I didn’t have Eileen and the kids, I could.” Brookstein is unequivocal: the treatment he received in the program showed a callous disregard for him as a person.”
‘There was no duty of care [from the bosses]. “What they learned from series one was not how to look after the artists, but how to protect the business,” he said.