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STEVE BROOKSTEIN has admitted he is struggling to find songs for his debut album because he doesn't want to make the same mistake as Michelle McManus.
The 36-year-old X-Factor winner - - who beat G4to win the reality TV show at Christmas - claims Michelle's album was rush released with a batch of sub-standard songs after she took the Pop Idol crown.
Steve said: 'They rushed Michelle's album.There is a big pressure in the industry with all these established songwriters trying to get cuts on an album and people just saying, 'It's a great song. Let's put it on there'.
'Then they find out down the line that the album doesn't sell and they probably weren't great songs after all. Michelle was sold short. I've been offered songs which have been sitting on A&R men's desks for six months and if no-one else has picked them up I'm a little suspect about picking them up for myself.
'I don't think Michelle's album connected with the audience. Her first album was probably not good enough.She had a really nice voice and a lot of fans. It could also have been the packaging, but then again I'm 36and I don't have the right look to be a pop star.'
Steve, who topped the charts at Christmas with his debut single Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now), is so afraid of failure the completion of his own debut album has been delayed. He is suffering from writer's block and has only written two songs - leading Simon Cowell to suggest his latest protegŽ record some cover versions of songs he performed on X-Factor.
'My album is taking longer than I had hoped,' Steve said. 'It's weird because I have written for other artists for so many years and I am struggling now I am writing for myself.
'I feel I have to write this masterpiece, but I'm not getting my head around it.
'Simon has told me there are plenty of good songs that I could cover.
'I get on with Simon and he knows what the public want.'
Steve will be among the X-Factor acts performing at the SECC tomorrow night.
Daily Record
