He may well go down in X Factor history as the act who reduced Simon Cowell to tears – but hopeful Josh Daniel almost opted for a different song altogether at his audition.
Speaking to the Mirror Josh’s friend Kerrianne Covell – who reached the judges’ houses stage of the ITV series in 2014 – revealed that he’d actually had his eye on another track, but chose to sing Labrinth’s Jealous after performing it for her and friend Liv Quantrill.
‘Josh was going to sing Kiss Me Quick by Nathan Sykes,’ Kerrianne recalled.
‘We were in the dance studio and Liv said ‘I don’t think that’s the song. What are your other song choices?’
‘I think Jealous was like his fourth choice. He didn’t want to sound too much like Labrinth.’
However, the pair managed to change his mind after being blown away by a performance which saw him kneeling on the floor to sing.
‘I said There’s no question about it. If you can touch the hearts of people like you just with did us, just kneeling on the floor, it’s got to be that one”,’ Kerrianne explained.
‘That was a couple of days before his audition and he rang to ask if he could change his song.’
Josh revealed on Sunday night’s show that he was dedicating the song to his friend Tom Woolley, who died in 2013 aged just 18.
Viewers saw Simon – whose mother Julie Brett died shortly before auditions began – becoming visibly upset as the performance went on, later being driven away in a golf cart as Cheryl F-V and Nick Grimshaw were left wondering what to do.
