When Adele launched her comeback single Hello just over a month ago, it became an immediate record-breaking worldwide smash – however, one X Factor hopeful still managed to make a serious error in the song’s opening verse.
Che Chesterman stumbled through a wobbly rendition of the song, appearing to forget both the melody and lyrics on Saturday’s X Factor live show.
Having had Hello chosen for him by X Factor viewers in a Twitter vote, Che improvised and mumbled through the first verse before regaining his composure at the chorus.
Judge Cheryl Fernandez-Versini was sympathetic to his plight, however.
“This happens to the best of people. Stuff happens, okay. You didn’t quit, you still stood there and performed”, she said.
Rita Ora also sympathised, telling the audience to give Che a hand for attempting to take on “an untouchable record”.
Simon Cowell was less charitable. “It was a killer song, it should’ve been a great performance - it wasn’t.”
Cowell then went on to critique Che’s style: “You look like you’ve just come from work, turned up at the X Factor, sang a song. Your overall star power has just gone back a little bit.”
However, Che’s second performance, of Try A Little Tenderness by Otis Redding, was much better-received.
Cheryl told the 19-year-old: “That was like night and day. Fantastic. Absolutely smashed that vocal to pieces.”
Cowell called it “a knockout blow”, and said that Che had “proved a point” with his performance.
Filipino quartet Fourth Impact also impressed, following their rendition of the Jackson Five’s I’ll Be There –which Cowell ranked as their best performance thus far – with a mash-up of Iggy Azaelia and Charli XCX’s Fancy and Gwen Stefani’s Rich Girl.
Louisa Johnson continued to lead the pack, though. Despite battling against a sore throat, and Cowell’s suggestions that her version of Love Yourself by Justin Bieber was badly paced, Nick Grimshaw called her performance “super cool”.
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She followed that with a performance of Labrinth’s Jealous which Cowell said put her in “a completely different league”.
Cheryl concurred: “That was even better than the first one, and I loved that. That just skyrocketed for me.”
The X Factor continues on Sunday evening.
ITV, 8pm