Alexandra Burke’s performance at the ‘Michael Jackson Forever Tribute Concert’ spurred questions regarding the release date of her new single, which was originally set to debut in September. Now, the singer has finally revealed the reason for the delay of the track’s premiere – her album has been delayed until 2012.

Ironically, Burke’s fellow ‘The X Factor (UK)’ alum, Leona Lewis, has also pushed the due date of her own ‘Glassheart’ album until March 26th 2012. Both singers have credited the shifts the urge to record new material for their respective projects.

Read what Burke had to say about the delay below:

“I’m actually pushing the album to next year. I’ve decided to. I know I had a big old rant on Twitter and was like, ‘I’m not pushing it to next year’, but I don’t want to rush.

“I actually want to have a couple of singles out before I release the album. I’m at the moment considering whether to bring the single out at the end of this year – so we will see what happens.

“I’m just putting my little thing on it. I’m executive producer of this album, so I don’t want it to go wrong,” she revealed, explaining: “I oversee absolutely everything. Nothing passes my ears. I hope you guys love it as much as I love creating it.”

On collaborations being featured on the record, Burke teased: “There will be surprises, but I can’t say what. Hopefully you guys will all be very intrigued.”

Read more on Digital Spy.

This situation could have been quite precarious if Burke had already released the project’s lead single. However, she wisely delayed the record so that she could get her material in order and hopefully avoid the sophomore slump that plagued Lewis with ‘Echo’.

However, releasing a new album in 2012 will be very risky for Burke, especially considering the extensive list of acts who are preparing debut new records in the same period. Moreover, there is still no word regarding her US debut, how it has been affected by this postponement or how her label intends to promote her in that territory. Indeed, at this stage, we are forced to play the waiting game.

Thoughts?