James Arthur hopes his cameo in one of Brazil’s biggest soap operas will help him to grow his audience in the country.
The singer flew out to South America earlier this month to film a small part in telenovela O Tempo nao Para.
It is one of the most watched programmes of its kind and is believed to have 50 million viewers.
His song Naked was used in a romantic scene an episode, prompting show bosses to ask him to be on the programme.
Obrigado Brasil 🇧🇷 pic.twitter.com/i0HUUvDD4N
— James Arthur 🦉 (@JamesArthur23) October 9, 2018
Arthur, who won The X Factor in 2012, told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “Randomly I was featured in Brazil’s biggest soap opera, watched by 50 million people.”
Asked how his Portuguese is, Arthur said: “I’ve got obrigado, it’s all I’ve got. It means thank you – I just said that all the time.”
He said of his unlikely success in the country: “The producers were nice enough to feature my song Naked in the season finale.
“They played the entire song, it was this romantic scene, and it just blew up in Brazil and was number one on the iTunes chart.
“They said, please come over and be in the show.”
“I’m hoping to (be massive in Brazil) when it airs, they’ll put the music to a face when it airs and I’ll see what happens.”
Arthur, 30, said he is not retiring despite recently tweeting he would call time on his music career after his next album.
He said: “I was having a bad day I think … I mean, there are certain aspects of the business that I don’t enjoy.
“Just like, the business, the politics, those kind of things.
'I was just having a bad day, I think' says musician @JamesArthur23, putting to bed rumours he's retiring following a tweet from his personal account.The former X Factor contestant says he just wants to make music and dodge 'the politics' that surrounds the industry. pic.twitter.com/7o1mLifCrU
— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) October 25, 2018
“I’m just good at the music, I’m not particularly good at this kind of thing (being interviewed). I just like making music and performing for my fans and stuff.
“You have days where you just don’t want to do the other stuff, you just want to do the music.
“I’m still in love with all of that, I still love performing, I still love connecting with the fans.
“That’s my purpose – it is to make music for people like myself who’ve been through lots of rubbish – ups and downs.”
He joked if his new single Empty Space does not perform well he might “give acting a little bash”.