Simon Cowell ‘regrets X Factor winner’s song’ after Louisa Johnson fails to storm the charts

Johnson's cover of Bob Dylan's Forever Young became the lowest chart entry in X Factor history
Regrets: X Factor head judge Simon Cowell
David Fisher/Rex Shutterstock
Emma Powell22 December 2015
The Weekender

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Simon Cowell regrets his decision to use Bob Dylan’s song Forever Young as the winner’s single for this year’s X Factor, according to reports.

Cowell, 55, and his label Syco feel an “up-tempo” song would have been more appropriate.

A source told The Sun: "It’s an embarrassing result for Syco. Even though Louisa had two fewer days of sales, they expected the single to fare much better.

"On reflection, they feel picking a more up-tempo, anthemic song would have been a better idea. But they are fully behind Louisa and insist the poor chart position was down to the song, not the performer."

Johnson, 17, beat Reggie and Bollie to be crowned X Factor champion 2015, but her cover of Dylan’s 1974 hit became the lowest chart entry in the show’s 11-year history, reaching number nine.

Johnson’s poor chart position follows falling ratings for the ITV talent show, which only managed to pull in 8.4 million viewers for the final compared to Strictly Come Dancing’s 11 million.

Only Steve Brookstein and Joe McElderry previously failed to claim the top spot in their first week.

Johnson has climbed to number six but would have to shift a staggering amount of singles to challenge Justin Bieber for this year's Christmas number one.

According to the Official Chart Company, Bieber’s Love Yourself has a lead of 3000 combined sales in the midweek charts. He faces competition from The NHS choir's Coldplay and Simon and Garfunkel mash-up, A Bridge Over You.

Christmas number one is announced on December 25.

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