Joe McElderry is the winner of the sixth series of X-Factor and Cheryl Cole’s second champion. Joe McElderry’s first song in the final, the theme being songs the contestants sang in their audition, was Luther Vandross’s “Dance With My Father,” the song he sung in his audition for the show. His second song of the night, was a duet with George Michael of “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me,” which was a duet with Elton John. His third song was “Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word”, which he had sung at the judges houses stage and the eighth live show. During his performances, Dannii Minogue dubbed McElderry a “brilliant performer”, and Simon Cowell said that he is “really special”. McElderry secured his place in Sunday night’s final after winning the public vote alongside Olly Murs. Stacey Solomon narrowly missed out in a place despite giving her most confident performances of the whole series. They both performed the winner’s song “The Climb” by Miley Cyrus in Sunday night’s final. This probably means that this will be his first single. McElderry was backed by Louis Walsh to win the competition.