Former ‘X Factor’ winner Joe McElderry was forced to cancel a concert at the eleventh hour last week, after discovering threats had been made against his life.
Joe had been scheduled to perform at The Empire in County Durham on Friday night (27 April), and was about to take to the stage when he was informed that the venue had received a death threat against Joe six days prior.
He then made the quick decision to call off the sold-out show, later claiming he felt “mortified” to have cancelled at such short notice.
A representative for Joe told The Sun: “He was mortified to cancel. Had we known earlier we’d have had extra security and it would have gone ahead.”
The newspaper added extra security was hired for Joe’s show in Whitley Bay in North Tyneside the following night.
Joe is best known for winning ‘The X Factor’ in 2009, and releasing the winner’s single, ‘The Climb’.
Although the track missed out on the coveted Christmas number one, following a Facebook campaign to get Rage Against The Machine to the top of the charts, he did hit the top spot the following week.
He later released his debut album ‘Wide Awake’, and while he was eventually dropped by Simon Cowell’s Syco record label, Joe went on to drop a further four albums, and has more recently turned his hand to musical theatre, as the lead in ‘The Who’s Tommy’ and ‘Joseph And The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat’.
In addition to his ‘X Factor’ win, Joe also famously came out on top when he took part in both ‘Popstar To Operastar’ and ‘The Jump’.