Sam lashes out at X Factor hours before final

Sam Bailey says pub singers could "p**s over half" of the 'X Factor' contestants.

The hopeful - who will compete with Nicholas McDonald in the live final tonight - has lashed out against her rivals and the show as a whole after she was snubbed at her first audition six years ago.

She told the Sunday People newspaper: "I didn't have a lot of belief in the show then because the people I thought were relatively good never made it.

"I know so many people singing in pubs and clubs that will literally p**s over half the people who have been in this show and it really got my back up."

The 36-year-old prison officer also insisted not mentioning her father's battle with cancer when she auditioned in 2007 meant she was rejected because she didn't appear to have a "sob story".

She added: "At the time my dad had about a month to live. I didn't want to mention it because I didn't want it to be about him dying.

"I sang in a little room for about 30 seconds and I got told to go home and come back next year. I never did because I lost all belief in the programme.

"I bet if I had mentioned back then that my dad was poorly I probably would have got through. I would have been in the final - I probably would have won it! That's how I perceived it to be - about a sob story."