Former X Factor finalist Marcus Collins has admitted that telling the talent show's viewers about his past wasn't an option because he didn't want to rely on a "sob story" to make it through. 

The talented singer, who announced his first single as a cover of 'Seven Nation Army' by the White Stripes, told Attitude magazine that contestants on the vocal talent contest often use their back story to win votes, but he wanted his ability to speak for itself:

"I knew if I said, 'I grew up in a council flat, just me and my mum, we had nothing, my mum's had cancer, I thought I was going to be orphaned and out and on my own', people would be like, 'So what? Sob story, he's just making it up'."

"I didn't want to do that. It had nothing to do with anything. Yeah, it just made me work harder, but so what? Everyone works hard. So I was very conscious not to do a big sob story."

Collins is set to release his debut album next week, on March 12, and he recently explained that he wanted to write about love but in a realistic way that portrayed the emotion fully.