Impressing Simon Cowell is no easy feat. Getting four yeses at a The X Factor audition is an even harder feat, yet one star from the UAE managed to achieve the seemingly impossible.
Filipino singer Ivy Grace Paredes, 33, wowed the judges – Simon Cowell, Nicole Scherzinger, Louis Walsh and Sharon Osbourne – with a rendition of Whitney Houston’s All The Man That I Need.
While Cowell isn’t usually enthused when contestants take on big Whitney hits – it’s hard to beat a great – he, along with his fellow judges, was super-impressed with Paredes.
“Oh my god, what just happened there…,” exclaimed Cowell. “It was more than amazing. I thought the first half you were good and then the second half it was like you were possessed… One of the best we had.”
“She just sang out faces off,” said Nicole Scherzinger.
Walsh called her a little “diva”, while Osbourne said: “You did yourself proud.”
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While on the show, Paredes reveals she is from Malaybalay, Bukidnon in southern Philippines, according to Gulf News she is a Dubai expat having moved to the UAE in 2009.
Paredes, who decided to audition at The X Factor UK after being inspired by fellow Filipino band 4th Impact, who got through to the live shows last year, the artist is already popular at the Regent Palace Hotel and the Comedy Junction Bar in Al Mamzar, where she sings.
We got goosebumps watching 4th Impact at their audition at the judges houses:
4th Impact have gone on to achieve great success, touring around the world and it’s hopeful that Paredes will replicate that success.
Pardes has already won the UAE’s Global Pinoy Singing Idol, a competition organised by the Filipino radio station DZMM, and we are sure she is also going to win the hearts of the UAE nation as her journey on the TV entertainment show continues.
We’re rooting for you Paredes. Good luck!
