Two of this year’s X Factor contestants have had their songs changed at the last minute ahead of the first live show.
Emily Middlemas and Freddy Parker discovered that they would have to change their performances late on Thursday night, less than two days before the broadcast which will see them take to the stage live for the first time.
Emily, 17, said she was having to stay up late to learn her new song, which she has not revealed.
She explained how she originally was going to sing Britney Spears’ Toxic, but that it was not quite right and dubbed it “dated”.
The singer told The Sun Online: “On Thursday they changed my song. It was Toxic by Britney Spears but they decided to drop it at the last minute.
“The song is dated and because this week is This Is Me [theme] and it just wasn’t right.”
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Emily, who is back in the competition after first giving The X Factor a shot two years ago, is being mentored by Simon Cowell in the Girls category.
Freddy, who is on Nicole Scherzinger’s Boys team, has also had to face tackling a whole new song before Saturday’s episode.
The 18-year-old said: “Mine changed on Thursday, late on Thursday night. I’m really scared about it but I’m happy because there were good reasons why it changed.
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“Nicole and I discussed it a lot because we felt like the song wasn’t expressing me. It’s nothing I’ve been doing up to this point.”
He explained he was happy with his originally song choice but that he is doing something “much more expressive” now.
The X Factor’s first live show of the series airs on Saturday night at 8pm on ITV.