Smallscreen Features

Recap: X Factor Week 3, Let Storm be Storm!

By Ian Cullen Sep 5, 2010, 17:29 GMT

Natalie Imbruglia - Hollywood, CA. USA © Albert L. Ortega / PR Photos

Last night saw the third week of auditions for X Factor, and kicking things off for the show were French duet Double Trouble, who are the Gallic answer to last years mediocre but likable twin act, John and Edward.

Suffice to say Simon Cowell wasn’t impressed, and was voted down by Cheryl Cole and Louise Walsh.

The second act to perform was American performer Storm Lee (born in Scotland), who had traveled all the way from Los Angeles to audition for the show. Simon had issues with his legal name Storm, which he adopted at age 16, and pushed for his real name "Lee" saying it was pretentious and didn’t work.

After somewhat of an iffy audition where he had to change his song midway through because Simon didn’t like the first song choice. An emotional Lee regrouped, and stormed through with a U2 song and votes of confidence from all three judges.

Joining the judges in Birmingham was actress turned singer Natalie Imbruglia, who shot to fame in the UK with her role in Neighbors and much like Kylie Minogue, found some success as a singer.

The first act to perform in the Birmingham leg was Liam Payne, who’d previously made it through to Simon Cowell's Barbados house during the 2008 series only to be told that he wasn’t ready.

Liam who is now 16, sang a very mature interpretation of Cry Me A River for the judges and flew through to the Boot Camp Stage, and is the third returning act in recent weeks to do that.

Whether both or at least one of the three manages to match the success of 2008 winner Alexandra Burke, who also returned after failing to get through in an earlier competition remains to be seen.

Suffice to say all four judges passed him through.

I’d say the stand out audition of the night came from 16-year-old Cher Lloyd who was extremely nervous, but gave thrilling performance of the song Turn My Swag On, and displayed her own unique style that none of the judges could say no too, and earned her a standing ovation from the audience.

The worst audition of the evening came from a two girl act called Ablisa who not only pissed off the audience with their bad attitude, but also managed to tick off the judges, got into a fisticuffs with each other, and generally did everything wrong.

In fact about the worst part of the audition was when Abby and Lisa got into a fight when one of the two asked well known singer Natalie Imbruglia, “Who are you?” Not the thing to do, but funny as hell to watch. Oh dear me!

Storm Lee Audition