Former X factor winner, Steve Brookstein, has offered some words of advice to this years winner Leon Jackson.

Steve was dropped by Simon Cowell’s record label after only 8 months, and his big recommendation is to keep Simon Cowell happy!

“[Leon] has got to be careful - he doesn’t want to fall out with Simon Cowell,” Brookstein told This Is Aberdeen. “They tried to get me to do a lot of cheesy things I wasn’t happy with when I was working for him and I said no. I was too long in the tooth for some things but maybe Leon should swallow his pride.”

Brookstein continued: “They tried to get me to do a competition to sing at someone’s workplace. But I said people should see me at a gig - I didn’t want to sing for Mavis at Asda. But I would probably tell Leon to get down to checkout five.”

But Steve thinks that Leon needs to ignore the hype and stay grounded in order to succeed.

“Leon will also get a lot of people telling him how great he is - I’d advise him just to keep grounded and keep working hard,” Brookstein said. “He has got a great tone to his voice and money can’t buy that. In a few years he will be a great singer if he doesn’t get carried away with the hype.”