After a storming night on Saturday, Olly was first through to the final two closely joined by Joe, but it was the end of the road for Olly’s close friend and fellow contestant, Stacey Solomon.

Onto Sunday night’s Grand Final Showdown, the night opened with the X Factor 12 performing Take That’s ‘Never Forget’.  Then it was finally time for Olly and Joe to flex their vocals in a head to head battle for the title with two performances lined up:

ROUND 1 – THE FINALISTS CHOICE

Choosing their favourite songs from the X Factor finals, Olly was up singing ‘Twist and Shout’ from Movie Week while Joe chose ‘Don’t Stop Believing’ from Rock Week.  As the crowd chanted Olly’s name, Louis said, “Olly you always, always, always entertain us … you’re bubbly, you love music, you’re sexy and Olly, you’re a born, born showman”.  Simon rounded off by saying, “What people love about you is the fact that you are fearless, you always put on a great show, that was fantastic!”.

ROUND 2 – THE X FACTOR WINNER’S SINGLE – ‘THE CLIMB’

Following the formulaic approach with previous years winner songs, this year’s X Factor 2009 Winner’s Single was a cover of the Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana movie smash hit ‘The Climb’.  Both contestants put on a great performance with completely differing styles …

GUEST PERFORMANCES

The rest of the show was filled with a number of guest celebrity appearances.  First up it was the previous X Factor winner Alexandra Burke and runners up JLS performing a medley of ‘Bad Boys’ and ‘Everybody in Love’, followed by Leona Lewis with her cover of the Oasis track ‘Stop Crying Your Heart Out’.  The rest of the guest performances came from George Michael with his latest Christmas single ‘December Song’, and then Paul McCartney rounding things off nicely with ‘Drive My Car’ and ‘Live and Let Die’.

OLLY GRACIOUS IN DEFEAT

As the lights dimmed and silence crept across the studio, Dermot finally announced to that Joe had won the X Factor.  Olly, a gent to the end, told Dermot that he was massively proud and that “Joe’s been phenomenal every week … he deserves every minute of it”.

The X Factor 2009 Winner’s Single will be released on Wednesday 16th December, but fans can get The Climb on MP3 download until the CD release later this week.  The single will also feature two bonus tracks – ‘Somebody to Love’ and ‘Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me’.

All that remains to be said is what a brilliant series it has been, and there’s absolutely no doubt when we say “Watch This Space” – Olly will be back!!!

The Great Ormond Street Chief Executive Officer, Dr Jane Collins said: “We really hope that the public will buy this recording so we can raise as much money as possible to allow us to continue to help sick children from across the UK get better.”

For more behind the scenes footage of visit the Great Ormond Street Charity - X Factor Charity Single.