Ben Haenow

Ben Haenow was born in 1985 in Croydon, England.He has a brother named Alex. Haenow's parents split when he was four years old, forcing his mother to work three jobs. When Haenow was 14 years old, he suffered depression and drank a bottle of vodka a day until he was "sick and paralytic". He has sung in bands since he was 15 and formed the rock and roll band the Lost Audio with his brother in 2006. Before auditioning for The X Factor, Haenow was employed as a van driver.

X Factor
In June 2014, Haenow auditioned for the eleventh series of The X Factor. He sang Bill Withers' "Ain't No Sunshine" in his room audition, he received four "yeses" and progressed through to the arena auditions. He sang "Wild Horses" at the arena and progressed to Bootcamp. Haenow was placed in the "Over 25s" category at "bootcamp" and was mentored by Simon Cowell. He successfully made it through to the "Judges' houses" and was later chosen by Cowell for the live shows, along with Jay James and eventual runner-up Fleur East.

Along with East, he was never in the bottom two and eventually made it to the live final. Haenow was announced as the winner on 14 December 2014. When the voting statistics were announced, Haenow was revealed to have received the most public votes from week four to ten.