I mean her career has been on a downward spiral ever since her debut single reached number one in the Uk. and her debut album reached number 3 and sold over a quarter of million copies.
Since then she has struggled to reach anywhere near those chart highs. Anyone any ideas why ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelle_McManus

I know. I mean, every X Factor winner goes on to have a successful music career, don't they? Steve Brookstein, Matt Cardle, Shayne Ward, Leon Jackson, Joe McEldery, Sam Bailey, James Arthur, the list goes on, all topping the charts on a regular basis. Whatever happened to poor Michelle?

She's now a pointless multi media micro celebrity here in Glasgow.

She served me this morning in Tesco. She was lovely.

I've been wondering that myself [well regarding the music front, we all know she presents The Hour now on STV]. I remember back in 2007 there was all this talk about a new single called 'Just For You' coming out and a dance/pop album getting released [she talks about it here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnsEG1oaXeQ]. But 8 years on, we've never been told what happened and im quite curious as to what stopped it from being released. Seeing as she now does presenting and hasn't vanished into thin air, im quite surprised no-one has actually asked her what happened

Matt Cardle has had one million seller number 1 single, another top ten and a top 20 as an independent artist, as well as a number 2, number 8 and number 11 album and 4 sell out tours. He is currently recording his fourth album and will be touring again. He doesn't regret entering X Factor, and often says how grateful he is for the platform it provided. People get quite sneery about what happens to the winners post show, but there are many artists who have fared a lot worse. He is still earning a livng in music, which is all he ever wanted. And he is signed to BMG Chrysalis, probably with their rights model deal, which suits someone like him more than the 360 degree deal many have with other labels.

She won via the sympathy vote and just wasn't remotely talented or interesting enough to sustain a music career. She was bloody awful, imho.

I personally didn't like her music much, but my mum has her album as she really liked All This Time. I don't think she's listened to it since. I'm pretty sure I saw the album in my local Poundland in recent times

I thought all along that Pop Idol 2 was a massive set up for Michelle McManus.

Does anyone remember the televoting scandal that made the news a couple of years ago? I reckon Pop Idol 2 was the worst offender there. I mean, the overall talent was crap compared to series 1 but the final was just the most average of average finals I've ever witnessed. Someone was taking the piss big time.

Whatever became of Chris Hyde (the geek with the voice)?

The Hour was cancelled a few years ago now. I used to quite like it aswell.

aw right I didn't know that. it still gets shown during Nightshift on STV so just presumed it was still on. I never actually watched it

She was harpooned off the coast of Japan.

Like all these talentless no-marks who rise to fame off the back of a TV talent show she'll have the staying power of a snowflake in the Sahara.

She finally realised the world had already suffered enough of her music so went into incognito.

One of the conspiracy theories that floated around was the reason Simon Cowell supported her so much on the show was he knew she'd flop and it would kill off Idol in the UK. If you watch Michelle's performances back, she really wasn't that great a vocalist.

I knew that in 2003 that she wasn't very good. When you consider there were two "big" girls in the competition how come one got voted out early whilst the other made it to the final. Maybe it really was down to the Scottish vote but there were so many things about the whole series that didn't seem right to me.

Eg; before Dec revealed the winner there was a shot of Mark and Michelle, and the camera curiously starts to zoom in on Michelle. I don't think Kate Thornton liked her either after watching one instance on Pop Idol Extra on ITV2. Kate said something catty like "she wants to win God dammit" and Michelle's face was priceless.

The last I saw she was on 'You are what you eat' and lost quite a lot of weight

Shes making music with Rik Waller, they have formed a band called, large and larger and their first single is coming out in June called ' i want to eat you more'

Ha! Ha! ..