GIRL GROUP LITTLE MIX – who didn’t even exist as a band four months ago – have won this year’s series of The X Factor.

The group – created by mentor Tulisa Contostavlos from four unsuccessful solo entrants, and then from two failed other girl groups – are the first girl group to win the series, in its eight run on British TV, with 48 per cent of the public vote.

Though the group are one of the favourites to take this year’s Christmas number 1 slot in the UK, for the first time in years they are not ranked as the bookmakers’ top choice – with the Military Wives’ Choir ranked as odds-on by most bookies.

The group’s chances of reaching the top of the UK Christmas charts are also hit by the falling of the calendar – with Christmas Day falling on a Sunday, the same day as the chart is released.

Their winning single, Cannonball, is a cover of the Damien Rice song originally released on his 2002 album O, which has topped the Irish singles charts twice – once on its original release in 2002, and again in September of this year.

The show’s producers have also released the final results of each week’s public vote – and revealed that Tyrone teenager Janet Devlin topped the poll in each of the first four weeks of voting.

The Gortin singer was only knocked off the top of the public vote when Middlesbrough teenager Amelia Lily Oliver re-entered the show in Week 6 – and was fourth out of the five remaining entrants in Week 8 when she was ultimately voted off by the judges.

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