Rebecca Ferguson is an English singer-songwriter who was born Rebecca Caroline Ferguson on July 21, 1986 in Liverpool, England. She is best associated with The X Factor's 2010 season, on which she was one of the finalists. As a child, she always wanted to be a pop star. However, she became a teenage mother, which led to her setting aside her dreams. Yet, she still had time for school and went to Hugh Bird College, Bootle. She is also a qualified legal secretary.

Ferguson unsuccessfully auditioned for The X Factor and P.Diddy’s Starmaker in New York. During the 2010-2011 X Factor seventh series in the UK, her initial audition piece was A Change Is Gonna Come. She sang Like A Star during the bootcamp audition, where she received positive comments from Simon Cowell and Nicole Scherzinger. At the judges’ house, she sang Fireflies which got her to the live shows.

Rebecca Ferguson sang Teardrops in the first live show, Feeling Good in the second, Why Don’t You Do Right? in the third, and Wicked Game in the fourth. She received a standing ovation from Cowell and Cheryl Cole in the fifth live show with her performance of Make You Feel My Love. She received another standing ovation from Cole and Dannii after she sang Candle In The Wind during the next episode. She performed a duet with Christina Aquilera in the final, performing Aguilera’s hit single Beautiful. Her winning song was a cover of Duffy’s Distant Dreamer and she finished as the runner-up to Matt Cardle. She became the first female runner-up on the show.