Second chance for X Factor’s Emily, 17
FEW get a second shot at stardom but 17-year-old singer Emily Middlemas last night was on the road to becoming an X Factor winner.
Emily was back in the spotlight after first appearing on the ITV show two years ago at the tender age of 15.
Then Emily, from Glasgow, got all the way to the judges’ houses stage of the contest but missed out on a place in the live final. This time she is hoping to go all the way after winning praise from judges Simon Cowell, Louis Walsh and Nicole Scherzinger with her rendition of Stevie Wonder’s Master Blaster. She was voted to go to “boot camp”.
Fellow judge Sharon Osbourne, 63, who has also returned to the show, was not at the audition because of other work commitments. Another singer, Rebekah Ryan, 39, was also given a second chance last night.
Her performance of Hozier’s Take Me To Church did not go down well with Simon Cowell, who asked her to stop.
He then asked her to perform Sarah McLachlan’s Angel instead which won praise from Cowell, 56, who told her: “I felt every word of that... I like you.” He said he believed she deserved a “break” after years of trying to succeed in the business. The judges voted for her unanimously also to go to “boot camp”.
Rebekah was just 17 when MCA Records signed her but she was later dropped despite having had a Top 40 single.
Cowell was also struck by lookalike Eddie Lee, 51, who often gets mistaken for the TV judge. He asked Lee: “Is it wrong that I find you attractive?”
There were on average 800,000 fewer viewers – at 6.8 million – for Saturday’s launch show compared to last year.
This year’s launch also had a peak audience of 7.5 million, which was 400,000 less than the 7.9 million viewers that tuned into the start of last year’s series.