Somefinn good
Cowell: It’s great a foreign act like Saara can triumph
SIMON Cowell has backed having a foreign winner on The X Factor for the first time.
Finn Saara Aalto is the bookies’ favourite, ahead of Matt Terry, and Cowell, 57, said: “I don’t mind at all. People from different countries have won Britain’s Got Talent, it doesn’t make any difference.
“It shows what we are like as a show and what the audience is like – welcoming. I like that.”
Saara, 29, who is mentored by Sharon Osbourne, has said: “The competition is about singing and good performers. It doesn’t matter where I come from.”
She said in Finland – population 5.5 JUST like this leopard, you too would look less than happy at being disturbed in your favourite spot.
The big cat stared into the lens as Brendon Cremer made the most of a full moon on a night safari.
The photographer also captured a pair of water buffalo taking a drink and a lone elephant against a starry backdrop on moonlit nights in South Africa, Namibia and Botswana.
These were shots in the dark that certainly paid off. million – there was “nothing there”, adding: “I had to get out.”
X Factor bosses are monitoring reports that fans in her homeland have been getting round the rules and voting for Saara on the show’s app – which only UK voters are supposed to use.
An X Factor spokesman said: “Our investigations show there is no evidence the result is being affected but we are continuing to monitor the situation.”
The third act going into the final is boy band 5 After Midnight after Emily Middlemas was voted off on Sunday evening. The 18-year-old lost in a sing-off against Matt Terry, the first time either act had been in the bottom two.
She said: “I’m so proud of myself to get to the semi-final, this year has been amazing and I’m just so lucky to be part of it.”
In the sing-off she went barefoot to sing Wings by Birdy and Terry, 23, performed Hurt by Christina Aguilera.
Host Dermot O’leary revealed more than two million votes were cast this week, the biggest total of the series.