Songfacts®:

• Matthew "Matt" Cardle is an English singer from Little Maplestead, Essex, who was born in 1983. Matt was diagnosed with Wilms' tumour, which is a form of cancer, when he was a toddler and he only recovered once one of his kidneys was removed. After leaving school Cardle was employed in a wide range of jobs while pursuing a music career. He ended up fronting a rock band called Seven Summers who released a self-titled debut album in January 2010 and at the same time supporting himself by working as a painter/decorator. After applying to the seventh series of X Factor, Cardle made it through the bootcamp stages, and from week 2 of the live shows, he received the most votes every week. He eventually won the competition on December 12, 2010.
• A cover of "Many of Horror (When We Collide)" by Biffy Clyro, renamed to "When We Collide" was released as Cardle's debut single. The song was released immediately after winning the contest. Biffy Clyro's original version appeared on their 2009 album Only Revolutions and reached #20 when it was released as a single in the UK earlier in 2010. Said Cardle: "I know there are some Biffy fans who are like, 'What have you done to that song? But it's a great song – I hope I've done it justice."
• Biffy frontman Simon Neil has sought to distance himself from the X Factor's use of "Many of Horror." He told Kerrang!: "I think when you look at the classic songs they've used in the past, like Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah for example, it hasn't really affected my take on the song. I still think the Jeff Buckley version is the best.So I'm hoping it doesn't impact on the song too much. But it's very surreal and subversive to think about our music being used on primetime TV. I just hope no one is too pissed off about it."
• This topped the UK charts in the Christmas week selling 439,000 copies in the six days that it was on sale. Cardle was the fifth X Factor champ in seven seasons of the show to achieve a Xmas chart-topper.
• When Matt Cardle took on "Many of Horror," Biffy Clyro were as surprised as anyone. "We've got the worst name in history and were making weird music to purposely alienate people, Simon Neil told The Guardian, "and suddenly The X Factor came to us."
  
  Biffy agreed to let Cardle record their song, but only if the title was changed, so that Googling "Many of Horror" would still lead to their original version. Retitled "When We Collide," Neil praised Cardle for doing "a great job" and loves the fact it became a mainstream Christmas #1 – "it's one of the most iconoclastic things we've done."