Former X Factor contestant Danny Dearden has died at the age of 34.
Music manager Denise Beighton posted a tribute to Dearden on social media, announcing the news.
‘Heartbroken to wake up to the news that you’re gone. I have no words right now. Rest easy beautiful boy,’ she said while sharing pictures of Dearden.
A cause of death has not been disclosed.
While Dearden did not make it past the judge’s houses stage of the singing show in 2014 with Mel B, he carved out a successful career as a vocalist and songwriter in the years that followed.
His biggest hit was as a featured artist in Michael Calfan’s Could Be You, which has almost 14,000,000 Spotify streams.
Other notable songs include Different Kind of Love, Come Down, and his other collaboration with Calfan, It’s Wrong.
In May last year, Dearden announced he’d been off the scene due to ‘three rounds of Covid’ which resulted in nine seizures and a ‘major stroke’.
‘I will be back to record and also some brand new original music for you all!’ he said, adding: ‘Big shout to my family and friends and most especially my amazing managers Denise and Simon for sticking by me.’
In December 2023, he thanked the NHS in a worrying post, describing his year as a ‘rocky one’.
‘At one point I was told I probably wouldn’t be here today,’ he said in an Instagram post, thanking his support network for helping him through his health struggles.
Rochdale-born Dearden was 23 when he appeared on the X Factor and earned a standing ovation at his arena audition, for his rendition of If You Love Me by Brownstone.
His mentor Mel B decided she would take Dearden through the judges’ houses stage alongside Jake Quickenden, Paul Akister, Jack Walton, Andrea Faustini and Jordan Morris.
The 11th series was won by Ben Haenow, with Fleur East finishing in second place.
Dearden previously said he’d found his singing voice during a drunken karaoke evening.
‘I know I sang pretty average in the first audition, I know I didn’t sing well. I thought, “I’ve got to up my game here,”‘ he said.
‘It was only when I started doing karaoke with the lads that I realised I could sing. I was about 18. It was a bit weird, I didn’t take it seriously at first, it was just getting drunk with the lads now and again and then it became every weekend.
‘They starting saying, “Ah, you should sing, you should do something with it.”‘
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