X FACTOR winner Matt Cardle says he is GLAD he has left his record label.

Excited ... Matt Cardle

X FACTOR winner Matt Cardle says he is GLAD he has left his record label.

He was dropped from Columbia Records last week after just one album.
But Matt said it had given him the freedom to do his own thing.
He said: “I think we were going in different ways. I feel super-excited to be finally in control, and fully in control of what I am doing musically and the direction I am going in.
“I don’t think you can expect anything in this industry. You have just got to do your best and I feel what I have done has worked well and it wasn’t right for the position we were both in.”
Matt won X Factor in 2010, beating Rebecca Ferguson and One Direction, who have gone on to storm the US.
Steve Brookstein won the first ever show in 2004 and was dropped just eight months later.
And the 2005 winner Shayne Ward was dropped last year, at the same time as 2009 winner Joe McElderry.