Melanie moves closer to X Factor live final dream

DUBLINER Melanie McCabe feels like she won the All–Ireland after moving closer to being in the live finals of the X Factor.

The 18-year-old was one of the eight girls to make it through boot camp and to be selected to go to the judges’ houses — in her case judge Kelly Rowland in Florida.

“I was so, so nervous. I would have been gutted not to make it any further,” she said after last night’s show.

It was her second time being in boot camp — in 2008 she was sent home by Cheryl Cole who felt the then 14-year-old wasn’t ready.

“The tears ran down my face as my name was called out,” she said.

The judge who broke the news to her that she had made it through was our own Louis Walsh. A show insider said: “They didn’t call out her name until the last place remained. Then Louis said the final place went to Melanie.”

“I was very emotional because you put so much emotion into what you are doing and this means so much to me,” Melanie said.

Boot camp was the toughest yet on the hit show. The contestants were brought in coachloads to and from central London for a week and most managed no more than three or four hours sleep a night.

“They had to be up at 6am to be ready in time to get the coach. They were working until late each night and by the time they got home it could be close to midnight,” the insider said.

Melanie’s mother Clare, her step-father Gerry and sister Hazel, 25, were on edge as they waited to hear if she had beaten off competition in the strongest category this year to get through to the next stage.

“I got a call to say she was through to the judges’ houses. I was in work and when they phoned me there was a camera crew with me. We weren’t with her and for us the over-riding emotion was one of pure relief for her,” her mum said.

“We knew how much it meant to her to be there and she would have been gutted not to get to the next stage,” she added.

Hazel is living in Sydney, but got up at 5 o’clock in the morning to watch her little sister’s progress on the Internet.

Next week the final 32 will be put through their paces as they face another selection process.