Teenage singers Melanie McCabe, from Dublin and Tyrone singer Janet Devlin have received high praise from the judges after getting through to the next stage of The X Factor.
Devlin, from Gortin, Co Tyrone, who will be mentored in the girls category by Kelly Rowland, won over the judges and the audience at Wembley Arena with her take on Aerosmith’s I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing.
The panel put through 32 acts to the judges’ houses, but Walsh predicted big things for Devlin: “She’s the one to beat in this competition at the moment.”
According to PA, she also won praise from Gary Barlow who said: “Every time she sings, it’s like I’ve never heard that song before, and I like it better, I like it better than the original.”
The 18-year-old Dubliner, McCabe, who previously auditioned for the show back in 2008 and is also being mentored by Rowland, is also in the running for the top spot.
After she sang the judges sang her praises and Rowland raved: “I think she is phenomenal" before Barlow added: “She was note perfect!”
Barlow was given the boys to mentor, Tulisa Contostavlos will mentor the groups, while Walsh will look after the over-25s, including eccentric act Goldie Cheung and Kitty Brucknell who spent more than €2,300 on a costume for her version of Feeling Good.
