George Stephanopoulos

Sunday, September 19, 2010

It's third time lucky for Marlon, 27, as he re-auditions for X Factor and is finally sent through to bootcamp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omSq-JvyUZ8endofvid
[starttext]

By Georgina Littlejohn

Third time lucky: Marlon McKenzie from Manchester looks at the judges to see if he has made it through after his third X Factor audition

He'd tried and failed twice to make it past the audition stage of X Factor.

But it was third time lucky for Marlon McKenzie tonight as he was finally given the nod and sent through to the next round.

The 27-year-old from Manchester lost out at the boot camp stage on the ITV show in 2005 and 2008.

But tonight his perseverance paid off after wowing the judges with his performance of Bill Withers's Ain't No Sunshine and was given the chance to become a star.

Before going on stage to sing in front of Simon Cowell, guest judge Nicole Scherzinger and Louis Walsh, he said: 'I’ve rehearsed as much as I possibly can. I’ve just got to keep trying. I’ve got two children. If I give up on my dream what’s that teaching them?

'I’ve got to show them that you don’t give up. If you get knocked back, you get back up and keep trying for your dream. I want to prove to the judges I can do this. I want to show them I can go the whole way. I think this is definitely my year.'

Well done, Daddy! Marlon hugs his son and daughter after making it through to bootcamp

Thankfully for Marlon, his optimism and tenacity paid off as he took to the stage to sing.

After his performance, Simon said: 'I’ve got to be honest, when you said you were going to sing Ain’t No Sunshine, I thought oh god we’re going to hear that same old version we’ve heard thousands of times.

'The fact that you dame with your own version of it, that was different, it actually made the song sound incredibly current, made you relevant...I think you’ve got a great voice.'

Nicole added: 'I don’t know why it hasn’t happened yet but I believe everything happens for a reason and I believe you’re meant to be here and this is your time.'

Lookalike: Karl Brown, who Simon said looked like Nicole's boyfriend, F1 driver Lewis Hamilton, got through to bootcamp

Beautiful voice: 16-year-old Harry Styles was sent through despite Louis Walsh's concerns he was too young

And giving Marlon his third yes, Louis said: 'You’ve got lots of soul. I think you’ve got star quality.'

Also making their way to the next round was Lewis Hamilton lookalike Karl Brown, a 19-year-old electrician, who impressed the panel and was given three yeses after being told by Louis he had 'the potential to be a great singer', while Nicole told him he had to put the work into it.

Also through was 16-year-old Harry Stiles, who got three yeses but also made Simon and Louis bicker.

The teenager from Cheshire sang Stevie Wonder' Isn't She Lovely and was told by Nicole that for a 16-year-old he has a 'beautiful voice'.

She's got soul: Chrissie Pitt impressed with her rendition of Ain't No Mountain High Enough

Louis added: 'I agree with Nicole, however I think you’re so young, I don’t think you have enough experience or confidence yet.'

Simon chipped in: 'Someone in the audience just said rubbish and I totally agree with them. The show is designed to find someone like you, whether you’re 16, 17 it doesn’t matter. I think with a bit of vocal coaching you actually could be very good.'

Louis added: 'For all the right reasons I’m going to say no as I don’t think you’re ready', to which Simon retorted: 'I don’t actually think they (the audience) booed you loud enough there, Louis.'

His 21st job: Tobias Sumpton, who has been employed 20 times in his life, made it through

It was also a successful night for Chrissie Pitt, a 25-year-old trainee dental nurse who sang Ain't No Mountain High Enough which earned her three yeses.

Nicole told her: 'You've got soul and heart and I really wanna hear you sing some more.'

Tobias Sumpton, a 20-year-old shop manager from Hull - who said he'd had 20 jobs in his 20 years - was also sent through after he sang Elton John’s Your Song, despite concerns from Simon that he'd had so many jobs.

But Nicole said: 'I really like your voice a lot. You have a really unexpected fire behind your voice. You’ve had a lot of jobs but hopefully the train stops here.'

Big wheel keep on turning: Duo Diva Fever were sent through after performing Proud Mary....

.... which got Nicole up out of her seat to have a boogie

Duo Diva Fever - Joseph and Craig - were also sent through to bootcamp after they got Nicole up and out of her seat dancing to their performance of Tina and Ike Turner's Proud Mary.

They had first sung Let It Be by the Beatles but changed to a more upbeat tune after Simon said he thought they were going to sound 'more interesting than that'.

Craig replied: 'Do you want a bit more of a show? How does Proud by Tina Turner sound? I’m singing for my life now as I ain’t having a no!'

An unlikely contender for bootcamp came in the shape of sandwich shop worker Wojciech Piegat, who raised eyebrows with his pelvis thrust dancing, but got three yeses anyway.

Unlikely contender: Wojciech Piegat made it through despite his strange pelvic thrust dancing

But the night ended in disappointment for Damien Divine from Ireland, who sang Poker Face rather out of tune and was told by Simon that his performance was 'horrendous'.

And Richard Thomas, a 28-year-old club singer from Hull was left very disappointed after his performance of Higher and Higher by Jackie Wilson was deemed to be '20 years out of date'.

Next weekend, the bootcamp stage of the competition begins before the last few are chosen to be mentored by the judging panel.