It’s been 18 months since the British public voted for Matt Terry as their ‘X Factor’ champion, but the singer has now revealed that he and his record label have parted ways.
While it’s customary for a winning ‘X Factor’ act to sign with Simon Cowell’s Syco record label, Matt broke from tradition and joined RCA, a label owned by Sony, whose roster also includes Zayn Malik, Miley Cyrus and former Fifth Harmony singer Normani Kordei.
At the time, this move was perceived by many as an attempt to avoid the bad luck a number of ‘X Factor’ acts have experienced with Syco, but over the weekend, Matt confirmed that he’s no longer signed to the label.
He told The Sun: “I’m not with Sony any more, as of four days ago.”
Matt spent a lot of his teenage years in Spain, with his first post-’X Factor’ release being the Enrique Iglesias collaboration ‘Subeme La Radio’, and he has suggested that’s where his career could be taking him next.
“I’m in talks with Sony Madrid,” he continued. “In the UK I’ve done my thing. The reaction to my songs has been crazy, they’ve had 60 million streams.”
Matt concluded: “You don’t even really need a label to sell. Fair enough, they plan everything for you, but I can still move forward . . . onwards and upwards.”
Immediately after winning ‘X Factor’, Matt released his original winner’s single, ‘When Christmas Comes Around’, penned by Ed Sheeran, which reached number three in the UK singles chart.
‘Subeme La Radio’ also peaked inside the UK top 10, but his follow-up solo single, ‘Sucker For You’, missed the top 40 completely.
At present, Little Mix, Louisa Johnson and last year’s champions Rak Su are the only ‘X Factor’ winners still signed to their original record labels.
Series nine champion James Arthur is also signed to Syco, having briefly parted ways with the label after his career hit a number of controversial bumps in the road following his ‘X Factor’ win.