Diva with the download factor nets an instant hit.

Byline: SINEAD MCINTYRE

THE debut single of X Factor winner Leona Lewis has become the fastest selling download ever, with more than 200,000 copies bought over the Internet in under 48 hours.

The 21-year-old former receptionist became the first woman to win the ITV singing contest when she beat rival Ray Quinn, securing a [pounds sterling]1million record deal.

She is on track for a Christmas No 1 with her first release, A Moment Like This.

The CD single goes on sale in the shops on Wednesday.

But it was available for downloading on the Internet from midnight on Saturday.

By last night it had become the fastest-selling download ever with more than 200,000 expected to have been sold by this morning.

The single is also expected to be the fastest selling Christmas No 1.

That record currently belongs to That's My Goal by last year's X Factor winner Shayne Ward, which sold 732,000 copies in three days.

However, shops have already preordered 750,000 copies of Miss Lewis's single.

Bookmakers William Hill have stopped taking bets on the track being the Christmas No 1 because it believes it is a 'dead cert'.

A total of 12.6million viewers tuned in on Saturday to watch Miss Lewis became the first black winner of a British reality show.

Eight million voted, with Miss Lewis taking 60 per cent of the poll.

She gave four impressive performances, including a duet with Take That. Her 18-year- old rival sang with Westlife. Judges Simon Cowell, Louis Walsh and Sharon Osbourne had said it would be a 'travesty' if she did not win.

Speaking afterwards, Miss Lewis said: 'It's unbelievable. I feel like my dream has come true, the dream I've been dreaming since a little girl has come true'.

Of her rival, she said: 'Ray was amazing and I was honoured to be sharing a stage with him because he was fantastic.

'The only time I'd thought I'd won was when they told me I'd won.' Despite coming second, all may not be lost for Ray, who grew up in Knowsley, Merseyside, and starred in the soap Brookside. Cowell, who was mentoring both singers, hinted that he too would receive a record deal when he said he was planning to have a 'chat' with the teenager.

Miss Lewis grew up in Stoke Newington, North London, the only daughter of Joe, a youth offending officer for Islington council, and Marie, a 42-year-old social worker.

As a youngster she spent hours listening to her father's record collection and set her heart on being a singer, writing her first song at 12.

Her parents scrimped and saved to send her to the [pounds sterling]2,500a-term Sylvia Young Theatre School and also built a recording studio at home.

Although her first single is already on sale, Cowell said he would not be rushing Miss Lewis back into the recording studio.

'Leona has an opportunity, I think, to become a major, major worldwide star,' he said. 'We're not going to make an album quickly. We're going to make the best possible album.

'It's obviously in Leona's interests to make an album she's comfortable with and try and make everyone who voted for her proud that we've found a British girl who's up there with the Marias and Whitneys'.

s.mcintyre@dailymail.co.uk