Rebecca Ferguson dazzled last night as she opened her first ever headline tour in Manchester.

The Scouse songbird saw her album Heaven go platinum in December after less than two weeks on sale, becoming the fastest-selling debut by a female artist in 2011. It returned to the Top 10 this week, and has yet to exit the Top 40.

The star also revealed yesterday that she nearly missed her X Factor audition back in 2010, saying: "I’d been sitting in studios and sending off demos for years and I was just losing the will to keep doing it. So I said to myself I was going to give myself one last chance and then I’d have to go and do a "mum career"!

"I got the e-mail from The X Factor asking me to audition and I must admit, I’d forgotten that I’d applied because I’d arranged something else that day. I decided to go but it was more by chance than I care to think about now!"

See photos of Rebecca on tour below.

Rebecca takes fans to Heaven: