X Factor's Louisa Johnson Says Simon Cowell Should Shake Up 'Winner's Single' Release

Reigning ‘X Factor’ winner Louisa Johnson has admitted she thinks it’s time for the show to shake up the way that the show’s champions release their “winner’s singles”.

Typically, an ‘X Factor’ winner will rush-release their first single, which has been a cover in most cases (only Shayne Ward was lucky enough to release an original track as his winner’s single way back in 2005), in time to try and compete in the battle for the Christmas number one spot.

However, with just weeks to go until the 13th ‘X Factor’ winner is crowned, Louisa - who holds the distinction of having the lowest-charting winner’s single in the show’s history - says it’s time for Simon Cowell to try something new, to try and appeal to younger viewers.

She tells Digital Spy: “You are just given the song and there is no choice but to just do it.”

Louisa then suggests an “original song” could be a good idea, but quickly adds: “Then again, there isn’t a lot of time in that week where you could possibly do it. I know how hard it was for me.

“I do feel like they need to refresh it a bit and make it more young. There are a lot of young people who buy music from ‘The X Factor’.”

After triumphing over Reggie ‘N’ Bollie and Ché Chesterman in last year’s final, Louisa released ‘Forever Young’ as her debut single, a cover of the 1973 Bob Dylan track, which hit the number nine spot upon its release in December 2015.

Since then, she’s debuted ‘Tears’, a collaboration with Clean Bandit, which reached number five in the UK singles chart earlier this year.