JLS have admitted that losing The X Factor was the best thing that could have happened to them. 

Speaking to Live magazine over the weekend, December 10, the lads opened up about their time on the talent contest and explained that they were upset when music mogul Simon Cowell refused to sign them:

"When we didn’t win The X Factor we were totally gutted. We thought we were going to win. And in the hour after the result and the show ending, we got together, knocked on Simon’s dressing-room door and begged him to sign us."

"He wouldn’t because his policy was only to sign the winner. It was devastating. We had to pick ourselves up and look around the business and make our own deal with a record company. Looking back, it was the best thing that could have happened."

The guys all agreed that JLS is a "business" rather than just a boy band and they are all commited to putting as much time and effort into it as they physically can:

"Each one of us was hungry and focused to succeed. Yes, we wanted fame, yes we wanted money and success but we always knew it came at a price. I think if any of us didn’t know exactly what we were doing, we wouldn’t be sitting here."

"This isn’t a band, it’s a business. It’s our business and each of us works at it 24/7. That’s the deal. None of us is stupid, each of us knows it could all end tomorrow so we have to maximise what we have when we have it."

Watch their performance from this weekend's X Factor final, along with footage from their Eyes Wide Open DVD, below: