Drama ensued on Saturday’s episode of The X Factor when a particularly desperate hopeful broke into another act’s audition to sing for the judges.
Kirsty Murphy, a 21-year-old dance teacher, barged in on a girl group after fearing she would not get her chance on the final day of auditions but judge Simon Cowell admitted he liked the fact she had “balls” for pulling the stunt.
She attempted to win over Simon and his fellow judges Nicole Scherzinger, Louis Walsh and Sharon Osbourne with a rendition of Alicia Keys’s If I Ain’t Got You.
Sharon was unsure over her vocal talents and told Kirsty she has “really bad pitching problems”.
She is given yeses from Louis and Nicole, but Sharon sticks to her guns and declines to vote in her favour.
Simon has the deciding vote and sends her through to the next stage of the competition, telling her: “For sheer determination, I’m going to give you your third yes.”
Other acts hoping to woo the panel as auditions come to a close were a TV actor, a woman with a penchant for cockatoos and a former Mobo award nominee who lost out to Adele.
Will Rush, 21, previously appeared on BBC drama series Waterloo Road but now has a desire to work in the music industry.
He got out his guitar to perform a pared-back version of Zara Larsson’s Lush Life for his attempt to prove he has the X Factor.
Simon warned him “there are a lot of people playing guitars like you and it’s not entertaining unless it’s a killer song”, but sent him through to Bootcamp along with the other judges.
There was much laughter when Cori Burns, 63, rolled into the studio on her scooter adorned with cockatoos after admitting her goal in life is to have a number one album of her own songs.
She failed to secure four votes after singing her version of Bryan Adams’ Run To You, but Nicole did offer a yes vote for her cockatoo.
The judges were impressed with Mike Hough, a 25-year-old singer from Essex who has previously scored a minor success after being nominated in 2011 in the R&B/Soul category.
He did his best to get to the next stage of the singing competition by showing off a unique version of Alanis Morissette’s 1990s hit Ironic and it went down well in the audition room.
Nicole told him: “You’re my favourite of the day.”
Simon added: “I like the fact you did something unusual with the track. It was a great audition.”
Other wannabes giving it a final shot before Bootcamp included a four-piece girl group called 4 of Diamonds, an American musician whom Nicole declared a wish to “hit in the face” over his audition and a teenager whose parents have re-mortgaged their house twice to fund her dream of being famous.
Former X Factor contestant Samantha Atkinson, a pub landlady, manages to secure another spot at Bootcamp after failing last year with her rendition of Adele’s When We Were Young.
Window fabricator Garry Greig is another popular entrant in the competition as he stuns the judges with his take on Stevie Wonder’s Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours, and he is given a unanimous pass to Bootcamp.
The Bootcamp stage of The X Factor commences on Sunday night’s episode and will see more than 120 singers put through their paces over one of the toughest weekends of their life in order to progress.
The episode ends with Simon warning the gathered contestants: “These people are not your friends; they are your rivals.”
The X Factor is on at 7.30pm on Sunday night on ITV.
