X Factor Kicks Off

The show is back with a mix of the brave, beautiful and just plain awful…

09:32, Monday, 24 August 2009

The X Factor returned this weekend with hopefuls auditioning to try to impress Simon, Dannii, Louis and Cheryl.

On the first show there was the typical mix of cracking singers and nutters hoping to follow in the footsteps of Leona Lewis and Alexandra Burke.

See our X-Factor Winners' Gallery Here

Impressing the judges was 19 year old single mum Stacey Solomons who sang Louis Armstrong’s What A Wonderful World. Simon Cowell said the Essex girl was “really good.”

Bi-sexual hunk Danyl Johnson sang The Beatles' With A Little Help From My Friends with Cowell proclaiming it the “best first audition I’ve ever heard.”

One act who didn’t impress the judges were a female duo from Lithuania who sang, sorry screeched, Robbie Williams’ classic Angels.

This year the wannabes are forced to audition in front of an audience of up to 2,000 people.

The first episode on ITV1 was watched by 10 million people.