X Factor runner-up Jahmene Douglas may have scored a number one with his debut album, but he’s much more excited about its follow-up.

“I didn’t want to do a covers album in the first place,” he admits of the chart-topper Love Never Fails. “In X Factor you have to make compromises. I put my heart into the album, but now I’m making the album I want to make.”

Douglas is now collaborating with the likes of songwriting legend Diane Warren, who penned Aerosmith’s Don’t Want To Miss A Thing and Cher’s If I Could Turn Back Time, as well as hits for Celine Dion, Meat Loaf and Michael Bolton.

His covers album featured guest appearances from Nicole Scherzinger and Stevie Wonder, but he says this new album will be a completely solo affair.

“I need to do this by myself,” he says. “I should have saved Stevie for the second album though!”

He admits when it comes to listening to music he tends to look backwards rather than at today’s scene.

“Today there are less melodies and more beats,” he says. “I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, but I like to listen to Motown, soul, gospel and jazz. I need to educate people – a lot don’t know who Aretha Franklin is!”

He describes his touchstones as Billie Holliday, Diana Ross, Luther Vandross, Whitney Houston and Bob Marley.

“They’re people who know their craft and how to place their interpretation on a song,” he says.

“I won’t make another covers album any time soon. It’s a much more fulfilling experience when you write your own stuff. It’s important when you’re making an album to be inspired by what you’re doing. It’s nice to be connected to something because it’s 100 per cent me rather than copying someone else’s song.”

Douglas’s Hove appearance is supported by the Teenstar singing competition – the sister event to Open Mic, a talent search the X Factor runner-up applied to several times.

“I didn’t get very far with Open Mic,” he admits. “I entered a few times. It can take a year or a day to turn your life around. My audition for The X Factor changed my life.”

The grand plan

In the 2012 X Factor competition Douglas came second to James Arthur – but he admits for his manager this was part of the grand plan.

“My manager was keen I got into second place – and I was second all the way through with the voting,” he laughs. “For me second place was better than first place. If you’re in first place you have to sign to Syco, which is good for pop and mainstream acts. I’m now on RCA – home to Sade, Alicia Keys and Aretha Franklin.”

Douglas’s experiences on Simon Cowell’s ITV talent show was a stark contrast to the dark world he had just left. Douglas was both a victim of, and witness to, horrible acts of violence perpetrated by his father on his family at their Birmingham home.

“It was nerve-wracking because I went from Witness Protection to being in front of cameras and having my private life exposed,” he says.

“I probably shouldn’t have been doing it, but if I didn’t I wouldn’t have been chasing my dreams. I would have been a prisoner in my own home, letting my father live his life. I thought I should go out and take control of my life.”

He is using his fame to help others, becoming the first youth ambassador for UK charity Women’s Aid.

“If you can see how somebody else got through it is relatable,” he says.

“I’m very private. I’m not a celebrity – I’m a singer. I’m not somebody who wants stories in the newspaper.

“I’ve had a lot of people say thank you for carrying on with what I’m doing.

“It’s quite shocking how hard it is to raise awareness and funding for something which happens to one in four women in the UK – with two women dying every week. It’s crazy.”

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