Ed Sheeran has written this year’s winner’s single for ‘The X Factor’.
Bosses of the ITV singing show were left red-faces last year when Louisa Johnson’s debut track ‘Forever Young’ – a cover of the Bob Dylan classic – ranked just 12th place in the UK music charts, but it seems they have learnt their lesson and have reached out to the 25-year-old songwriter to guarantee they end up with a Christmas number one.
A source told The Sun newspaper: "Everything Ed does turns to gold. To have him write the winner’s song is huge and amazing news for this year’s winner.
"All the remaining contestants have heard the track and it works for the majority. They can’t believe potentially their first ever single will be written by Ed."
Although the acts are excited about the single, producers have already decided that Ed’s track won’t be used if boy band 5 After Midnight or Honey G win the show.
The insider explained: "The only chance his song won’t get used is if 5AM or Honey G pull off a shock win. Then bosses might need to consider another one of their options."
Ed announced almost a year ago that he was taking time off from his music to focus on his friends and family after a few busy years in the limelight.
But that hasn’t stopped him taking pen to paper as, not only has he written the winner’s single for the singing competition, he’s penned a number of hits for Justin Bieber and Robbie Williams in his downtime.
Meanwhile, a few months ago, Louisa – who won the programme last year – blamed Simon Cowell for her flop in the charts as she knew at the time the song wasn’t right.
She said: "I didn’t really gel with it [the single] that much, everyone knows it wasn’t the best song. I didn’t really like it, but it was one of those things."