X Factor pulls in global wannabes

Acts from as far afield as South Africa, Italy, Poland and Hong Kong all try to impress judges Simon Cowell, Louis Walsh, Mel B and Cheryl Fernandez-Versini tonight.

But one X Factor act lost in translation is French teenager Oceane Guyot whose version of Mariah Carey’s Emotions does not impress Simon.

Oceane Guyot fails to impress Simon (ITV/Tom Dymond/PA)

He tells the 19-year-old Parisian: “It was like you had swallowed a load of people and they were all screaming. It was unbelievable”.

Simon has previously defended the international appeal of his shows. After Hungarian shadow troupe Attraction won Britain’s Got Talent, he said: “I like it because it makes it more of a competition, the Brits versus the rest of the world.”

A man with international appeal (Daniel Leal-Olivas/PA)

An act from closer to home, husband and wife Ashley Slater, 53, and Kitten Quinn, 28, from Brighton, end up confusing Walsh who tells them: “I thought it was father and daughter” only to be told by Quinn: “No, he’s not my father, he’s my world”.