Matt Cardle claims he is still feeling numb after being named winner of The X Factor 2010.
The 27-year-old painter and decorator from Colchester, Essex is delighted with his triumph, but claims it hasn't really sunk in yet.
He said: "It was so shocking that it made me numb straight away and I have not really got the feeling back yet. I am still in a bit of a spin about the whole thing.
"I said to someone earlier 'it will probably sink in next Christmas when I watch somebody else win and I say oh, I did that last year'. It is just crazy.
"Last night was an absolute blur."
And Matt even revealed he was convinced Rebecca Ferguson would pip him to the post.
He said: "When One Direction went I was completely convinced that Rebecca had it, so I was trying to celebrate for her across the stage. I was trying to catch her eye and go 'You've won you've got it, you've got it."
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"But she was like head down. And so I was like head down, and then Dermot said me and it was like when you get some big news in your life, something of that gravitas - your whole world goes 'dong' and your hearing's all suppressed. There's a kind of whining in your ears."
Paying tribute to his fellow finalists, he said: "She (Rebecca) is literally one of the sweetest girls you could ever ask to meet in your life. She is amazing. One Direction, I feel for them, they worked so hard, so hard for the entire show, they both deserve everything."
Matt had made some critical comments about fellow contestant Wagner and allegedly made remarks against 17-year-old Cher Lloyd.
He said: "I was a bit more vocal maybe than I should have been about my thoughts as to certain contestants.
"I think he was slightly misunderstood, Wagner, people were voting him in, he was not voting himself in, at the end of the day.
"As far as Cher is concerned, she was just amazing, for her age, she was just incredible."
Matt cringed as he admitted he "felt so bad" about accidentally clipping his mentor Dannii Minogue's chin in the excitement of The X Factor final.
He said: "I feel really terrible. I have just tweeted an apology to her about that.
"She's been amazing I can't thank her enough she's going to get a great Christmas present from me when I get a chance to get out to the shop.
"I was just so happy to do it for her. To justify her faith that she had in me in Queensland when she sent us through to the live shows. She took a risk on all of us really. She chose us three and I was so happy for her.
"And she's been so good with all the boys, better than anyone."
Matt said he couldn't believe how much his life had changed in a year, but insisted he was the same person.
He said: "It's just the start, there's no guarantees. It's going to be a long hard slog but I'm heading in the right direction.
"You see it happen to other people and when you want something that bad it's hard to imagine getting it. It really is hard when it's that much of a dream. I'm still the same guy who walked in that first audition, kind of not knowing what to expect. Just without the hat and a bit more make up. And less sweaty!
"That first audition was way back in March, April. A whole year really. When I started concentrating on X Factor it was boiling hot and now it's finished it's Christmas. It's nuts.
"I said this to myself and to a few of my friends. You can't go onto something like this being someone else. You can fake it in reality down the pub but as soon you're on camera in front of that many millions of people you're exposed and I'm 27 I'm never going to change. If I went in when I was 16 or 17 then maybe I'd develop my personality a little bit because of what was happening to me at the time, but being 27 I can't change.
"I take my hat off to the guys in One Direction and Cher and Aiden they're all so young as well and they've deal with it so amazingly."
He revealed he was happy to share his victory with his father, who was shown crying on the final show, and to make him proud.
Matt said: "He's great. He wanted me to do this just as much as I have if not more, sometimes. It frustrated me sometimes - he'd get wound up when I wasn't getting anywhere and I was like 'Dad do you not think I want to do it just as much as you?' But I'm not letting it get to me the way he is. So it's just the ultimate gift back to him."
The modest contestant shrugged off revelations that he topped the public vote every week, except for the first week, when he was second, and joked it might have made him relax more.
Matt said: "That's just absolutely amazing.
"People were saying to me quite a lot that I was the favourite and things like that. And I wasn't believing it. You can't believe the hype, just keep your head down and do your best.
"If I'd known that I don't know if I would have gone out and relaxed a bit more or if I would have put more pressure on myself.
"I was really just treating each, especially the final, just like another week in the show. Go on, have your little chats beforehand and afterwards and do your song and the best that you can do."
Matt managed to win the singing contest despite battling a throat infection.
He said: "I know and it wasn't an ideal situation, but it happens.
"It was so frustrating and Dannii said to me before I went on you can't change it now.
"And when I was doing the Take That song I wasn't thinking about it because it wasn't my song and she said 'you relaxed then and your voice came back'."
He added: "I didn't perform once how I think I could have done. That never happened.
"I really enjoyed some of the overall performances but looking back vocally I just want perfection and if you constantly strive for perfection you'll never achieve it, but you'll improve. I'm a firm believer of that. But it just means that you come off stage kicking yourself."
Matt did have his lucky red bag to help him through though.
He revealed: "I'm so superstitious and I put any kind of rubbish that I get, old sweet wrappers, cigarette wrappers, anything like that, in my bag, my lucky red bag.
"If I get through a round, then I don't take it out, so my bag is literally bursting with rubbish. I've got OCD."
And while he was never in the bottom two, Matt admitted he would have enjoyed singing his 'save me' song.
He said: "If I had to, we originally had Thank you by Alanis Morissette. I just love that song, and it got changed to The Carpenters.
"I enjoyed singing the song and I said a couple of times I was like I'd actually really like to sing it, but if I do sing it it means I'm in the bottom two, so I'm glad I didn't."
Matt is really proud of his winner's song When We Collide.
He said: "I know it's a cover and what not. I think it was quite an underrated song, I think it was absolutely beautifully written and it's a great track.
"And I hope people don't hate on it because it's affiliated with X Factor. I want people to just see the song for what it is. I know it's not the original. It's almost the original. I haven't done much with it."
Asked if he thought he was going to get the Christmas number one, he said: "I really hope so, I really, really hope so.
"I just hope people take to it in the right way and take it in the right way."
Matt confessed the highlight of his whole time on X Factor was his steamy duet with Rihanna.
He said: "She came out of those blue doors and turned it on. The girl is just amazing."
He said he will be working non stop now, but he wouldn't have it any other way.
Matt said: "I think I'm pretty full on straight up to Christmas, but I get Christmas Day and otherwise I'd just be sat at home. This is what I wanted.
Matt previously fronted his own guitar band Seven Summers and he suggested today that he would be more comfortable in a bigger line-up than as a solo star.
"I would love to front a band, the camaraderie you have in a band, especially if you go on the road, you want to share those experiences that you have on stage with someone.
"When you come off stage you're buzzing, (it would be great to have) someone there to buzz with you and bounce around with. But this is all stuff to think about. I'm still in the bubble."
