X Factor 2015 winner Louisa Johnson's journey through the competition
A winning combination of beauty, talent and all-round adorableness – only made all the more impressive by the fact that she’s just 17 – Louisa Johnson was always going to be a serious X Factor contender on this year’s show.
The Essex girl has been singing since the age of 7, although at the time of her audition she was following a different path – as a full-time student at college. She continued to attend classes as her X Factor journey progressed, admitting: ‘Its weird still being at college, even the teachers are talking about me, everyone been so nice.’
She earned a standing ovation from all four of this year’s judges with her oh-so-big performance of Michael Jackson’s Who’s Loving You at her X Factor audition back in August – where she revealed that former X Factor winner-turned-global superstar Leona Lewis is her inspiration.
Controversy followed shortly afterwards after it emerged that Louisa was already a semi-professional singer and had even recorded a music video – but it didn’t stop her storming through the show’s gruelling rounds.
Two more stonking performances – Sam Smith’s Lay Me Down at Bootcamp and Aretha Franklin’s Respect at Judges’ Houses – saw her sail through to the live shows, where she went on to wow week after week.
Her general amazingness even saw Louisa catch the eye of two rather well-known faces – One Direction stars Louis Tomlinson and Niall Horan. Lucky girl!
The first week of live shows saw her deliver a bar-setting performance of The Beach Boys song God Only Knows, with Simon Cowell proclaiming: ‘If that’s where it’s going to start, God only knows where it’s going to end.’
And, as we all now know, it ended at the final! Although it wasn’t all smooth sailing to get there – the teen sensation hit by illness confessed to not being well during the quarter finals the week girlband 4th Impact were sent home, and there were even fears she might miss the grand final as a mystery illness forced her to cancel a performance in Liverpool.
But none of these struggles stopped the young star storming her way through the final to be crowned a very worthy winner.
The post The X Factor 2015: Louisa Johnson’s journey to winning the show appeared first on Now magazine.