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By NICOLE LAMPERT
Rising star: Joe says he found himself after winning the X factor
Only ten months have passed since we left Joe McElderry celebrating his win on X Factor. The angel-faced crooner of ballads, with his sensible clothes and pitch-perfect vocals, was always the safe - if rather dull - choice.
By the time the show had finished, the cynics were already writing Joe off. Without the sex appeal of JLS, or the personality of Alexandra Burke, it seemed he might be more of a Leon Jackson (the winner who produced one album before being dropped) than a Leona Lewis (who conquered the world).
Since then, Jedward - the most talked-about stars of last year's X Factor - have been raking it in, and the show's runner up, Olly Murs, has had a number one single.
And Joe? Well, in the ensuing time, he has not only come out as gay but has also decided that, no, ballads are not actually his thing.
In a dramatic reinvention, Joe is now quite the disco diva with his Scissor Sisters-style single, Ambitions. He is even dancing in the video.
The week we meet, he has been spotted at a number of fashion shows, sharing a glass of champers with Naomi Campbell at one - 'she was so nice,' he squeals.
He is now dressed in skinny jeans, heavy boots and a sharp military-style jacket - an outfit that would have had the previous Joe running away in embarrassment.
And the campness, which made many question his sexuality on X Factor, appears to have been taken up a notch.
'I feel more sure of meself since I came out,' he says, in his still-heavy Geordie accent. 'But it's a combination of things. I've grown up as a person, and I've lived away from home, so I'm more independent.
'With that comes a kind of inner confidence. I'm a bit more excited about taking risks.'
The main risk is alienating his fans - the ones who voted for him in their millions - by bringing out an album which is totally different from the image he had on the show.
Joe admits he has already had messages from some of them asking where the ballads are.
'There are still some on the album,' he insists. 'There's something for everyone.'
He is surprised at the change in direction. 'When I came off the show, ballads were all I'd ever sung,' he says. But all the while when he was on the X Factor, his inner diva was desperate to come out.
Joe with mentor Cheryl Cole'I would ask for up-tempo songs - I really wanted to dance - but the producers always said it never fitted with the themes and my performance style,' he says. 'I did dancing at college, and I love dancing anywhere.'
So did it annoy him that everyone else got to have fun on stage, while he was stuck with ballads?
His answer is typically uncontroversial.
'I thought that might be what suited us,' he says, with a grin. 'Maybe I was wrong, but it didn't do us any harm. I won the show!'
Nothing appears to take that famous dimpled smile (almost a match for his mentor Cheryl Cole) off his face.
It is part of his charm, but he uses it to deflect hard questions and mask his emotions. It would be lovely to know what is really behind it.
The smile is firmly fixed as he insists he is thrilled by Jedward's success - 'They are such lovely boys' - and Olly's number one: 'It was always the plan, and happens every year with the runner-up, but I was so proud of him.'
Of the campaign to stop him getting the Christmas number one, he laughs: 'I enjoyed the chart battle, and if this single gets to number one, it will mean so much.'
Joe: 'I feel more sure of meself since I came out'Even the decision that he was gay and wanted to come out was apparently painless, easy and incredibly quick. This is the story.
As a boy, Joe had girlfriends and one school romance which lasted nearly four years. After his first X Factor audition, Joe kissed a boy but remained a virgin.
When he won the show, he insisted: 'I'm single and I'm straight.'
Just a few months later, a post on his Twitter said: 'It's been difficult living a lie for so many years.'
Later it was deleted and Joe wrote:
'Guys, my Twitter has been hacked!' But it got Joe thinking. And he decided he was gay.
'When I left the X Factor, I was 18,' he says. 'I didn't know who I was. I assumed I was straight.
'But then I had a bit of time off and the Twitter thing happened.
'It stuck in my mind, because I was thinking that I really wasn't bothered by it - and if I was straight I probably would have been. It made us think.
'I had a good month to find myself. Once I realised, I thought: "Right, okay, I will talk about it."'
As for his feelings towards his former girlfriends, he says blithely: 'I was younger then; it is not something you really think about.'
A few days later, he told his mother of his newly-decided sexuality during a train journey. She was fine about it, and his dad was not surprised. Just a week later, he told the nation. That is modern celebrity for you.
Joe still talks to Cheryl twice a week and says 'she is more of a friend than a mentor''It wasn't ideal that I had to come out in the national papers, but once I had realised who I was, I wanted to be honest,' he says. 'Once it's out there, it's out there. Now I can get on with the rest of my life.'
He will not reveal whether he is still a virgin, but he insists he is single.
'It's not been a big deal but the support I got was overwhelming,' he says. 'Most people wrote to say how they were happy that I'd found myself. It was really humbling.'
After X Factor, the clean-living singer was called 'the new Cliff Richard' - and it is easy to see why.
It's not just the virginity, lack of scandal and rock 'n' roll living: it's more his obviously huge ambition. 'I don't mind the comparison - I'd love to have a career like him,' he says.
Raised in a small flat in Tyneside by his mother and grandmother, he was portrayed on X Factor as the innocent teen who'd been plucked from obscurity - but in fact he was a stageschool kid at the Newcastle College Performance Academy before auditioning for the show.
This Sunday, the new-look, new Joe is back on the show, which goes live tomorrow. For Joe, it could be a terrifying prospect. Leon Jackson, who won only three years ago, is widely believed to have mucked up his postwin career by a shaky return performance on the show.
Shortly after, Leon was dropped by Simon Cowell's label, Syco.
Joe's single 'Ambitions' is out on October 10He may be nervous about going down the Leon Jackson and Steve Brookstein route to anonymity ( Brookstein, the show's first winner, was also swiftly dropped) - but Joe is hiding it behind that grin.
And he's left nothing to chance. His X Factor appearance on Sunday will be an extravaganza: the set and costumes have cost more than £50,000.
To prepare for the show, he has also been running five miles a day.
'I'm not going to lie, I will be c******g myself,' he giggles. 'But it will be good fun. It's an honour they've asked us to go back for the first week. Everybody gets nervous; you've got to turn it into the performance.
'I am so passionate about the album that I am going to make sure it is not a failure. A lot depends on the individual. I'm not saying that Leon or Steve didn't work hard, but everyone else has been a success.
'I've met Leona, Alexandra and JLS - nd they are all determined, hard-working people. I think, as long as I push meself and challenge meself, I should be OK.'
As for now, he is enjoying watching the latest X Factor controversies from the sidelines. He says he struggles to see why people made a big deal about the auto-tuning - and admits he has used it on his album.
'It is used on every album in the charts now because it makes the sound more crisp,' he says. 'I can understand why it was used on the show, because in big arenas the sound can get lost.
'Sometimes, the audience is so loud you can't even hear yourself and will go out of tune.'
He also believes that the show's bosses were right not to throw out prostitute Chloe Mafia: 'I understand what people are saying, as it's a family show.
'But then she's not going to be doing anything like that on TV, is she?
Joe will appear on X Factor on ITV1 this Sunday at 8pm'She is singing - nothing else, nothing more - so why not give her a chance?' And when it comes to Simon Cowell , he mounts a passionate defence - the most animated I have seen him - against the allegation that his boss is more interested in money than music.
'I have never met anyone so interested in music in my life,' insists Joe. 'He has such an ear for it. When he hears a song he likes, his face lights up. He is so interested; music excites him.'
And with that, he's off in his brand new clobber.
His video has just been posted online and the Tweets are coming in thick and fast.
He can't stop grinning.
Joe's single, Ambitions, is out on October 10; his album, Wide Awake, is out on October 25. He will appear on X Factor on ITV1 this Sunday at 8pm.
source :dailymail [endtext]
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