Jay James wowed the judges and viewers during his first audition and has been labelled a favourite of his Simon Cowell’s.
Despite impressing in his first two auditions and at Bootcamp, Jay was a bit of a train wreck during judges’ houses but Simon decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and put him through to the live shows.
Jay has lots of experience performing after touring with Rebecca Ferguson in support of his debut album Play It By Heart which was released by Decca under the name Jay James Picton.
Jay considers The X Factor to be his last chance. “It is. I’ve dedicated my last few years to this and I’ve worked hard. I’ve not achieved what I want to achieve yet. If I don’t do that now, I kind of need to move on and be a provider for my family. And get a day job.”
How is he dealing with all the female attention? “It’s not something me and my wife have really thought about, but she’s my world and she knows she’s my absolute world.”
How does Jay feel about being called an emotional singer? “I couldn’t ever sing karaoke. I’m not a person who sings just for the sake of singing. I want to sing and mean every word I’m singing. So I do sometimes come across as very emotional but I do always try and bring it back before it goes too far. I don’t think you should ever sing just to sell records, though. It’s about expressing myself.”
The X Factor 2014 live shows kick off at 7.30pm Saturday on ITV. Watch Jay’s judges’ houses performance below:
