Hallelujah: Alan Franks on the song's spiritual significance

Alexandra Burke, a 20-year-old North Londoner, is almost certain to take the coveted Christmas No 1 slot with her debut single after being crowned winner of The X Factor.

Burke, who had been hotly tipped to take The X Factor title, took 58 per cent of the eight million votes cast by viewers of the ITV show on Saturday, and is odds-on to top the Christmas charts with her cover of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah.

So certain is Burke’s ascendance that bookmakers have started taking bets on which act will land the No 2 spot in the charts. Hallelujah has already sold 500,000 copies on preorder. It went on sale digitally at midnight on Saturday, and will be in the shops on Wednesday.

Yesterday the viewers’ favourite performed her debut track for a prerecorded Christmas special of the BBC show Top of the Pops.

“When they said the winner gets to perform on a one-off Top of the Pops, that’s what kicked me up the bum and made me think, ‘You’d better win, girl’,” said Burke, who has been awarded a record deal worth £1 million by Simon Cowell’s Syco label.

Industry insiders expect the company to market Burke in a similar vein to Rihanna, the Barbadian Grammy-winning R&B singer, in an attempt to keep her distinct from Leona Lewis, the 2006 X Factor winner. Lewis, with her cover of the Snow Patrol song, Run, is one of a tiny number of acts who have a chance of challenging Burke for the Christmas No 1.

Burke will be up against a ragbag of novelty Christmas hits, including one from Sir Terry Wogan and Aled Jones, who perform a version of the Bing Crosby and David Bowie hit, Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth, in aid of Children in Need. The record reached No 3 yesterday.

A strong challenge will also come from Peter Kay, who is releasing a second single, Xmas Song, by his spoof reality-show winner, Geraldine Mc-Queen, co-written by Gary Barlow, of Take That. A rank outsider comes in the form of another Hallelujah, the 1994 version by the late Jeff Buckley, which climbed to No 30.

The impact of new chart rules to include download sales has also meant that some old Christmas favourites have reentered the charts. Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas is You is at No 12, ahead of Fairytale of New York, by The Pogues and Kirsty Mac-Coll, at No 13.

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