Shane Ward

Ward is in a relationship with long-term girlfriend, Faye. He has six siblings, including a twin sister named Emma. Prior to his participation in The X Factor, Ward was in a band called Destiny with two women named Tracy Murphy and Tracey Lyle. They performed at pubs, clubs and weddings. Ward also reached the final thirty of Popstars: The Rivals. During The X Factor competition, Ward was mentored by manager Louis Walsh. The Bookies' favourite to win the show, he defeated duo Journey South and singer Andy Abraham in the final, screened by ITV, by a margin of 1.2% of the vote, out of a reported 10.8 million phone votes cast by viewers. Ward became a controversial figure in the final weeks of the competition when it emerged that his father, Martin Ward, is serving an eight-year prison sentence for rape.[1][2] His first single, "That's My Goal", was released in the UK on Wednesday, December 21, 2005 and became the Christmas number one in 2005 And stayed there until June 2006. It sold 313,000 copies on its first day of sales (though technically it was not in one day because sales of downloads for this song were around 70,000 which had been on sale for four days before the physical release), making it the fourth fastest selling single of all time (behind Elton John's "Candle in the Wind", Will Young's "Anything Is Possible/Evergreen", and Gareth Gates' "Unchained Melody" which sold 685,000, 403,000 and 335,000 copies in their first days of sale respectively). "That's My Goal" went on to sell over one million copies. His second single "No Promises" (a cover of a Bryan Rice song) was released on 10 April 2006, and it reached number two in the UK Singles Chart. His album was released on Monday April 17, and it sold over 95,000 copies on the first two days of release. By the end of the week, the album sold 201,266 copies at number one. The album has sold 480,000 copies in total in the UK. Ward's third single "Stand by Me" failed to set the charts alight like the previous two, entering the UK top 20 at number fourteen. It fared slightly better in the Irish charts, reaching number nine. Sony BMG released Ward's debut album on 14 July 2006 in Taiwan and other Asian countries. He enjoyed major success there and in South Africa and he has had some success across Scandinavia. In August 2006, it was reported that Ward had developed vocal cord nodules — the same condition that stopped the singing career of Julie Andrews — and was to be flown out to Los Angeles in early September to a specialist surgeon. His manager, Louis Walsh, released a statement that he was confident Ward would be fine and would be back at work by the end of the month. In November 2006, he released his autobiography entitled My Story. He travelled to a few places around the country and did book signings, which thousands of people attended. Ward is a vocal spokesman for gay rights, and in 2007 he lent his support to the popular newspaper Gay News, which publicly acknowledged his financial and editorial support by listing him as one of its 'special friends'. Ward's second album, Breathless, is to be released on 26 November 2007. Prior to the release of the album, Ward went on tour across the UK and Ireland in early 2007, taking in eighteen concerts in twenty-eight days from late January to mid-February. The tour commenced in Dublin on 21 January and ended in Birmingham on 17 February 2007. Ward's fourth single was announced as "If That's OK with You", with a release date of 20 August 2007, but was delayed and became a double A-side single with "No U Hang Up". It was released on 24 September 2007, and charted at number two in the UK. "No U Hang Up" and "If That's OK with You" charted separately in Ireland, the former reaching number eleven and the latter entering at number one. The second single from the album is to be "Breathless" to be released on 19 November 2007. On November 10, 2007, Ward performed a world exclusive of "Breathless" on the live results show of the fourth series of The X Factor.