Jesy Nelson recalls Gary Barlow left her feeling 'mortified' during X Factor audition
Former Little Mix singer Jesy Nelson was left "mortified" and "so embarrassed" when Gary Barlow criticised her audition on The X Factor.
Jesy Nelson was left "mortified" and "so embarrassed" when Gary Barlow criticised her The X Factor audition.
The 34-year-old singer has recalled the tough moment during the ITV show when she was auditioning as a 20-year-old solo artist.
Jesy, who was a barmaid at the time, sang Jazmine Sullivan's Bust Your Windows, but it didn't go down well with the Take That singer, who halted the audition before she had finished.
Gary then branded her attempt "generic", and said her rendition "lacked individuality".
Speaking on her upcoming Prime Video documentary, Jesy Nelson: Life After Little Mix, she says: "From that minute that he tore me to s*** I just wanted to walk off stage, I didn't care what anyone else had to say.
"I was just mortified and all I kept thinking was, I can't believe all my friends are going to see this, I'm so embarrassed."
X Factor judge Kelly Rowland said there was something "really special" about Jesy, and she could see her "being in a girl band".
Fellow judge Tulisa Contostavlos also admitted she was "pleasantly surprised" by Jesy's vocal, and panellist Louis Walsh said she had "definitely got potential".
But Jesy recalls Gary's comment being the only one that stuck in her head.
She adds: "The rest of the judges all said good comments, but the one bad comment, which just sums me up, is the one that got in my head.
"I remember coming off stage, and I was really crying, and they were literally shoving the camera in my face, saying 'Jesy, can you just say to the camera, Gary, I'm going to prove you wrong.' "
But Jesy has now claimed the judges were "sometimes told what to say", so she isn't sure if that was how Gary "truly felt" about her audition.
She told the Daily Mail: "X Factor is funny; you never knew what was real or not in terms of what you have to do for TV.
"They all had roles as judges and sometimes they were told what to say and sometimes they didn't.
"So, I don't know if that's how Gary truly felt about my performance, but I felt like it was.
"He definitely said those things with conviction."
