The X Factor is a UK-based reality TV show that has judges issuing scathing remarks in the hopes of inspiring new talent to greatness. Much like other reality TV shows where men and women, boys and girls, throw themselves at the mercy of an unforgiving judging panel for the faint hope of fame and fortune, the X Factor has had its fair share of hits, misses and a whole lot of drama.
When it launched in 2004, the show featured Louis Walsh, Sharon Osbourne and the always testy and outspoken Simon Cowell as judges. Cowell is also the show’s creator.
Winners of The X Factor get a million dollar recording contract, however the prize package can be misleading. The majority of the winnings are allocated to recording and marketing costs, with only a portion of the proceeds going to the winner in cash.
That doesn’t seem to bother the hundreds of hopefuls that turn out to croon for the crowd – whether or not they can actually sing. While The X Factor has undoubtedly uncovered some of the greatest hidden talents in the UK, for every success, like Leona Lewis, there are scores of contestants that fail to hit the note. Today we’ll take a look at 15 of the contestants that thought, hoped and prayed they could sing. Some made the cut against impossible odds, but others crashed and burned so hard, they are still making headlines today. Our list proves that chasing the dream can lead to burnout, especially when you are judged by Simon Cowell.
15 Zoe Alexander
Cute, peppy Zoe Alexander, a Pink tribute artist, wanted to go from “Zoe Alexander as Pink to losing the Zoe Alexander part.” Her perky persona seemed on point right up until she started to sing. The Pink wannabee had the judges saying So What to her audacious audition, but the fun really started after the judges collectively agreed that she had blown it big time – even after she got a second chance to perform another song. Zoe got defensive. She loudly blamed the judges for telling her to sing a Pink song when she wanted to sing something else. Then she threw the microphone, which prompted her dad, who was backstage, to try and take control of his daughter. After being brought back on stage by her father, she swore at the judges and stormed off, assaulting a camera man and pushing around stage equipment. In the end, Zoe was less like Pink and more like a toddler having a meltdown.
14 Ant & Seb
They said the X Factor has never had anything like them before, and they were right. Seb compared their amazing vocals to the wildly successful Diddy and Usher (even though their look was more 80s Degrassi High than hot Hollywood). The comparisons kept coming. Ant was said to croon like Rick Astley. Would the judges give them up? Would Ant and Seb let them down? Already on shaky ground with the judges, things fell apart as soon as these not-at-all-like Diddy/Usher/Astley boys opened their mouths. The judges struggled not to laugh outright as they fumbled awkwardly through “sexy” lyrics, but one by one, each judge broke down and laughed outright. They honestly thought Ant and Seb were a joke and were shocked when they realized the brothers were serious. When the tears and begging started, it got awkward for everyone and security had to hustle the broken bros off the stage.
13 Abby & Lisa AKA Ablisa
“We’re loud and bubbly,” said Abby and Lisa, whose act they self-dubbed Ablisa. Immediately star struck by the judges, the girls started bubbling about the panel’s looks and ages. It wasn’t the best start. When asked why they wanted to do the show, they babbled, “I don’t know…it’s just like…I don’t know….” The crowd started to boo, which prompted a yell of “shut up!” from the stage. Then things really went downhill. The girls stormed off the stage, took a breath and came back with an apology. Three seconds into their song, they were booed again – the girls couldn’t carry a tune. At. All. The judges didn’t even laugh. They just had looks of pity of sadness for this bumbling duo that wanted so badly to be famous. “You have the worst attitude of any of the contestants I’ve ever met!” said Cowell. Lisa got rude with the judges and crowd. Abby punched Lisa in the face and just like that, their career – and friendship – was over.
12 Shirlena Johnson
Thirty-year-old Shirlena, a volunteer coordinator and single parent that brought her three-year-old daughter to the audition, claimed she had been trained to sing opera and that she had been singing since she was 18. Her audience was usually she and her daughter, she explained, which is why she never got the feedback she so desperately should have had before she hit the stage. Her interpretation of Mercy portrayed hints of what her vocal range could do, but in trying to make the song her own, along with what looked like dance moves thrown off by nervousness, the crowd – and the judges – were confused and amused instead of awed and inspired. “It was like a sort of musical exorcism, wasn’t it?” quipped Cowell before he called her “fantastically nuts.” Even though her vocal and dancing were off, her personality won the day. Shirlena got two yesses and a big boost of confidence.
11 Ariel Burdett
With a name like Ariel, it should be a given that you can sing, but as Ms. Burdett was soon to learn, sharing a name with a musical Disney princess doesn’t mean your prince will come. She started off on the wrong foot by snapping that she wasn’t a number, ripping off her audition tag and throwing it at the judges. Her attitude was as nasty as the dreadlocks she thought looked good in her blond hair. After a lot of eye rolling and putting hands on her hips when asked to stand on the X and answer questions, she launched into a mess of vocals that had the judges’ mouths dropping in disbelief. Cowell called it a nightmare. “You get to understand that every line was a different style,” Ariel snapped, her voice shaking with emotion. Her style, but most of all her attitude, proved that the only X she deserved was the one that crossed her name off the audition list.
10 Evil Rachel rated her singing skills as a solid 10
Swaggering into the room in high heels, tight jeans and a barely-there tank top, Rachel responded to the question of “What do you do?” by responding “Nothing. I’m lazy.” She rated herself a solid 10, with the ability to sing Prince, Gwen Stefani, Kylie and more, all the while looking smug and a little perturbed not to be offered a contract just for showing up. She thought the boom mike was her personal microphone, asked for it to be lowered for her (nope) and reached for it as she sang. Only, it wasn’t really singing. It was more like some kind of weird noise. “That was good, wasn’t it?” she smiled for the first time since entering the room. Simon Cowell said she was everything he didn’t want: lazy, deluded and untalented. It’s kind of hard to follow her response after that since her lengthy reply is mostly bleeped out by censors.
9 JStar Valentine sadly doesn't shine bright like a star
Saying the “star” part of his name was because he had a star quality that would impress the judges, part-time model JStar Valentine was not lacking in confidence. Training his big, brown eyes on the camera, he promised to “leave a big footprint in that room” during his audition. Then came those fateful words that almost never work out when the contestant utters them: “I’m going to do my version of….” In this case, it was his version of Halleluiah by Alexandra Burke. Well, it’s a good thing he’s pretty because that singing voice will get him nowhere. JStar didn’t shine. In fact, his vocals had more like a black hole than a star quality. Sharon Osborne said, “You sang that song like a ghost” and JStar faded away from the music scene and back to where he shone best, working tight jeans and a killer cheekbones. And the world heaved a collective sigh of relief.
8 Mad Donna wants to be Madonna
Donna had a dream to be as big as Madonna, but good old Madge is famous for a reason. The number one reason Madonna is famous is because she can sing and dance and has been perfecting that art for decades. Donna….not so much. Her look said less pop star and more respectable secretary and when she tried to belt out Like a Prayer, the judges were quickly praying her audition would end. Flat vocals, off-key, tone-deaf with dance moves that consisted of stepping side to side in loafers meant Donna was no comparison for the queen of pop who boasts 13 studio albums, four live albums, five compilation albums and 21 box sets – so far. Never one to beat around the bush, Cowell dashed her dreams by saying “Seriously? Come off it! What was that?!” Judge Paula laughed so hard, she had to leave the table and a crushed Mad Donna left the stage after begging for another chance.
7 Debbie Stevens: This gets awkward real quick
Debbie Stevens started out by calling herself “amazing” and saying she knew she had the X-Factor. She just knew it. She was wrong. Her voice was actually okay, and certainly not nearly as bad as some of the other contestants, but the judges thought her mediocre voice wasn’t strong enough to compensate for her lack of star power and personality. Upon hearing that, Debbie pulled a Jekyll and Hyde. She pointed fingers. She said she wanted to slap one of the judges. She said even people that didn’t like her said she had an amazing voice (one thinks they would have been scared not to say so)! After being escorted out by Sharon, Debbie stripped off her jacket and stormed back in with the intent to throw water at her least favorite judge, Louis Walsh, but he beat her to the punch and doused her first. Debbie slammed her glass down, breaking it on the judging table and stormed off.
6 Onka: “What the hell was that?”
Onka, who claimed to sing and dance in the style of Michael Jackson, wanted the judges to see him the way the rest of the world did. He got his wish. The judges saw exactly what Onka could do, and it turned out not to be much. Nasally and lacking the king of pop’s signature outfits and looks, Onka drew the judges’ mirth from the first note of his song. He struggled to hit high notes (and failed to reach them). He went completely off-key. He tried to replicate the choir in What About Us by himself. It was a specular hot mess on every front. He hurled himself backward into what he thought was a solid wall (it wasn’t) and he ended his song by dropping dramatically to his knees. Simon said what was on all of the judges’ minds when he gasped, “What the hell was that?” in reference to every part of Onka’s audition.
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4 Brenda Morris will never be forgotten
These days, women of a certain age don’t want to be forgotten or left out, and they are taking steps to make sure the world remembers their talent and value. Just look at 90+ Betty White who is long past typical Hollywood staying power, but is schooling the world in how hard older women can rock! Brenda Morris, a 67-year-old with a big personality and even bigger high-heeled boots was not about to fade quietly into the night either. The only problem was that she couldn’t sing or dance. Brenda didn’t fall out of her high heels, but neither did she impress the judges. Just seconds into her rendition of So What by Pink, Simon called for the music to be halted and she got three quick “no” votes. Brenda may not have the X-Factor, but she’s got gumption and for a 67-year-old woman in spiked heels, that counts for something.
3 Chloe Victoria: Would be a nightmare to work with
The first thing everyone noticed about Chloe Victoria was her eyelashes. Ripped jeans and a barely-there top completed the ensemble. On-stage she said her hobby was “too much partying” and that she wasn’t working, but would be okay when she made it as a pop star. Cue the audience laughter. She demonstrated that she had amazing lung capacity and good pipes with an acapella song, but Simon immediately shut her down and demanded a different song, muttering under his breath that Chloe would be a “nightmare to work with.” Rattled, Chloe tried to sing something by Shakira, but her nerves and her voice were off. She begged for a second chance and launched into another song. Simon shut her down again and she fell apart, begging and pleading. Despite the antics, she got two yesses and squeaked through – barely. The confused audience booed her and she said backstage that she had embarrassed herself and ruined her chances despite getting through.
2 George Gerasimou: Told Simon to shut up
George Gerasimou first auditioned for the X-Factor in 2009 as part of a group called Triple Trouble. The audition tanked and his temper took over. He told Simon to shut up and he slammed the mic to the ground. In 2011, he was back saying he had matured and wanted to clear his name. In pursuit of redemption, George tried hard, but he failed miserably. The judges stopped his audition and provided scathing feedback. George lost his temper – again. “Now it’s time for my opinion,” he quipped and proceeded to open his mouth and lose any chance he would ever have of making it in the industry. The final straw was when he called judge Tulisa the B word. Later, George would claim the audition was edited to make him look bad, but it was clear that he didn’t need any help to sink his career to the depths of no return.
1 Lorraine and her mother-in-law, Edna
Lorraine’s mother-in-law, Edna, accompanied her to the audition and was even allowed into the judging room. Edna was sweet, introduced herself to the judges, and smiled broadly as Lorraine started to sing. Simple Simon laughed outright at Lorraine, stopped her audition and issued her an outright “no.” Lorraine was downcast but took it well, but Edna -- not so much. She marched up to Simon and chastised him in the only way a woman in her 80s could. She told him firmly but respectfully that laughing at her daughter-in-law (who actually wasn’t that bad of a singer) was rude and ignorant. Shocked, Simon said sorry and left the room humiliated and embarrassed, finally getting a glimpse of what he put countless contestants through with his sharp tongue and barbed insults. Edna then looked into the camera and said, “I don’t know why girls scream over him. He’s not even good-looking!”
