Alisha: It's not the end of the road
By Kevin Widdop
TANTRUM-throwing judge Sharon Osbourne’s
last act Alisha Bennett has spoken of her pain at being the latest
to receive the X Factor axe but insisted: “It’s not
the end of the road for me.”
The 23-year-old Wembley gym receptionist’s performance
of Candi Staton’s classic Young Hearts Run Free was heavily
criticised for the choreography of the performance.
Alisha had been backed by roller skaters first time round in
disco week, but were dropped for her sing-off with girl group
Hope.
Simon Cowell said the week was “a disaster” and ripped:
“It was a total mess, Alisha.”
Alisha said: “At the end of the day, Brian [Friedman] is
the choreographer and they give him the job to make us look good.
“And some people are going to like it and some people are
not going to like it and I didn’t have a say in what goes
on about the choreography.
“All I could do was focus on my music and my vocals, really.
“I wasn’t unpleased with it. But at the end of the
day, as I said before, my focus was on my performance, really.”
She was voted into the bottom two along with female fivesome
Hope, who sang Abba’s Gimme Gimme Gimme (A Man After Midnight).
The Sharon protégé described emotional scenes backstage
after she received the chop.
Alisha said: “Sharon gave me lots of hugs and she just
said to me, ‘It’s not the end for you.
“‘Maybe you’re just too cool for this competition,
the way you are and the artist that you are.’
“I spoke to her last night after the show, she just said
to me that she’s backing me, she wants me to be there next
week in my best frock.
“And she wants me to sit behind her and just be there still.
“I think Sharon is quite a real person, what you see is
what you get with her and she speaks her mind, and someone that
really inspires me.
“And to have someone like her as my mentor is great. Simon
doesn’t interact with his acts.
“She calls me up, sends me flowers. She really is a sweet
person.”
Now the Londoner is backing primary school teacher Beverley Trotman,
37, from Luton, Beds, to go on and win the show as she revealed:
‘She’s the realest person out there now.’
“She’s a normal person.
“I don’t think she’s here for the fame, she’s
just here because she loves to sing.
“She’s a big woman, she’s got kids, she’s
a teacher and she’s come here and done what she has to do.”
And Alisha has vowed to go and use the massive X Factor platform
to make it big in the music industry.
She said: “I don’t want to stop, I really want to
get somewhere with this. Be it singing, presenting, face modelling,
whatever.
“I just want to put myself out there. I want to get something
substantial, I want to live my dreams because as I said before
I have always loved singing."
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