A singer has gone viral with a video revealing what goes on behind-the-scenes on talent shows like X-Factor.
Lottie Jade, who lives in South London, took to TikTok to discuss her experience auditioning for the show in 2016, aged 16.
The singer claims she was scouted by Sony who asked her to audition and provided her with four songs she should sing. She said show producers then advised her on what clothes she should wear for the TV portion of the audition process.
The singer, then just a teenager, chose to drop out of the process despite getting through the first round because it ‘wasn’t what she thought it was going to be’.
Many commenters admitted they were shocked, while others revealed they had similar experiences when auditioning for reality TV shows.
Lottie Jade (pictured), who lives in South London, has gone viral on TikTok after revealing her experience of auditioning for TV’s The X-Factor in 2016, aged 16
Lottie, who has almost 20,000 followers on TikTok, explained that she wanted to share her experience because she had seen a lot of people claiming Britain’s Got Talent is fake.
The singer claimed she was first scouted by Sony Music who were auditioning singers to join a girl group to sing on X-Factor. She was unsuccessful, but later received a second email from Sony inviting her to audition as a solo artist.
‘I basically already had a head start than a lot of other people,’ Lottie continued. ‘Sony had actually told me what songs to go and sing. I had four song choices.’
Before the auditions that are aired on TV, singers take part in several rounds off camera.
‘You audition for the producers and stuff like that not even the judges,’ Lottie said.
‘In the audition room, you actually see all the crazy people. You know when people go on there and you’re like “how did you even get on, you can’t sing”.
‘Those kinds of people are in this room with you. So everyone already kind of knows what’s going on.’
Lottie claimed she auditioned for the reality show after being scouted by Sony and was told what songs to sing
Before the auditions that are aired on TV, singers take part in several rounds off camera. Pictured, the judging panel on the show in 2010
The singer, who also posts her performances on Instagram, said she was also asked to share ‘something interesting’ about herself.
‘Obviously they want like a sob story or something that’s going to create a good storyline,’ she said.
‘I didn’t really have anything at the time because I was like 16. I think the most I could really say was that I went to the Brit School.’
In her first audition, she sang all four songs she had prepared and says producers then picked which song she would sing for her TV audition.
‘They then told me what they wanted me to wear,’ she continued.
‘I had gone to the audition in the clothes that I thought I would be wearing if I went on TV and they told me it wasn’t what they were looking for.
‘They gave me suggestions on what to wear for the audition.’
Lottie said she didn’t progress to the second stage of auditions after realising that the show didn’t work how she had expected
Lottie made it through the first round of auditions and was invited to return but decided to bow out of the process.
‘I would’ve had like three other rounds after that, but in the end I was like “no, this is long and not what I thought it was going to be”.
She added: ‘So basically what I’m trying to say is every single TV show that you see to do with music or to do with artists is all fake. Everything is already done, everybody already knows who’s going to win already. None of it is actually real.’
A flood of commenters claimed they also tried to appear on the X-Factor, with some willing to queue for up to 10 hours
Over 76,000 people have viewed Lottie’s video, with one writing: ‘Yep! your experience is similar to mine with X-Factor & being scouted. It’s insanely contrived lol.’
Another said: ‘I remember going for an audition also and the first stage was performing for some random people which I swear they must be normal volunteers.’
‘I auditioned for BGT twice and The Voice twice. Three of the four times they scouted me lol. It’s a ‘show’ for entertainment. It’s not about talent,’ a third commented.
A fourth added: ‘Girl I was on it 2018 & you’re right it’s fully scripted! Before we went on stage they told us to ‘act nervous and scared’ they would control everything.’