X Factor winner Sam Bailey will kick off her first UK solo tour with an 'up-close-and-personal’ concert in Kent.

The mum-of-two, currently at No1 in the UK album chart with The Power of Love, will play Margate's Winter Gardens on Monday, January 26.

The tickets, which are expected to sell out in hours, go on sale tomorrow morning.

Immediately after winning the show in December, Sam went straight to the top of the charts with a cover of Demi Lovato’s Skyscraper - the first X Factor winner in three years to claim the coveted Christmas No1 spot.

As well as Skyscraper, The Power of Love also features a duet with Nicole Scherzinger, And I Am Telling You, plus her next single, Compass, written for Sam by Grammy-winning songwriter Diane Warren.

Sam was born in Bexley and went to North West Kent College. A former prison officer, she has performed regularly since she was 15 and recently supported Beyonce on one of the dates of her UK tour.

Last month, the 36-year-old announced she was pregnant but was quick to laugh off the idea that she might name her new child Simon, after the X Factor supremo Simon Cowell, or Sharon, after her mentor Osbourne.

“I want a surprise," she said. "I’ve got a boy and a girl so this is just an extra blessing and it definitely won’t be a Sharon or Simon.”

HOW TO GET TICKETS

Tickets for the Margate gig go on sale from 8am tomorrow at www.gigantic.com as well as the Winter Gardens box office, www.margatewintergardens.co.uk or telephone 01843 292795. Sam's tour starts in her home city of Leicester on January 29 and finishes at the Eventim Apollo, London, on February 18.

More details on all Sam's tour dates at www.sam-bailey.com

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