X Factor 2015: Anton's 'bizarre' reinvention fails to impress judges

Anton Stephans, an early favourite for this year's X Factor competition, suffered some scathing criticism for his performance on the second week of live shows on Saturday night.

Anton’s bizarre routine – during which he sang a mash-up of Meghan Trainor’s All About That Bass and Bang Bang by Ariana Grande, Jessie J and Nicki Minaj from a golden throne, flanked by two dancers dressed as glitter-encrusted loudspeakers – bemused the judges, who stopped bickering to agree that this reinvention hadn’t worked.

Nick Grimshaw summed up the mood on the panel when he said: “That was like watching a really bad musical. That was completely wrong. It was bad.”

By contrast, Che Chesterman battled a throat infection to earn a standing ovation from the judges with his balladeering take on the Supremes’ You Can’t Hurry Love.

Rita Ora appeared to be on the brink of tears when she told Che: “I can’t tell you how relieved I am that you exist. You absolutely smashed it. I wanted to cry. It was stunning.”

The other three judges echoed the sentiment, with Cheryl Fernandez-Versini deeming the performance “effortless”, Grimshaw calling it “so, so perfect”, and Cowell declaring that Che had “turned this competition upside down”.

Mason Noise received a slightly more lukewarm reception for his trap-infused take on Womack & Womack’s Teardrops.

While Ora thought that Mason hadn’t “challenged [himself] enough this week”, and that “it didn’t go anywhere”, Cowell praised him, saying: “Tonight, you had the confidence. There’s no-one like you in the competition.”

Earlier, Filipino quartet 4th Impact had opened the show with another mash-up, this time of Shirley Ellis’ The Clapping Song and Sound of the Underground, their mentor Fernandez-Versini’s debut single with her former group Girls Aloud.