[Arneldo]

X FACTOR winner Leona Lewis is believed to have smashed a world record last night when her debut single was downloaded a whopping 50,000 times in just 30 minutes.

The 21-year-old from Hackney is releasing Kelly Clarkson hit A Moment Like This, and with over a million pre-ordered copies, it looks a dead cert to take the Christmas number one spot.

The choice of song has been controversial for judge Simon Cowell; the music mogul was accused of picking a track better suited to a female finalist.

However, last night Simon hit back at his critics insisting fellow finalist Ray was as comfortable with the song choice as Leona.

He said: “You know we get submitted new songs from the point we come on air, and this year, the new songs that were submitted just weren’t up to scratch.

“We’d never released a Kelly Clarkson record in the UK and we made a decision that that should be the song. It seemed a shame to waste it.

"We approached the final four contestants, the only one who had a problem with it was Ben, but after recording it he was happy with it. Ray was as happy as Leona to sing that song.”

He added: “I think this is a world record: we have had, in 30 minutes, 50,000 downloads.”

Despite being the runner up, Simon last night insisted the UK hasn’t heard the last of Ray Quinn, revealing the Liverpool lad would get some kind of deal.

Simon said: “I’m going to have a quiet chat with Ray on my own in a minute. We won’t let Ray down.

“Put it this way - he’ll be smiling.”

The Sun