Two Turkish singers are through to the Judges’ Houses on ITV’s The X Factor. Havva Rebke and Ebru Gürsoy are through to competition’s penultimate round, where the final 12 acts will be selected to go head-to-head in the live shows.
Ali Babutsa’s daughter, 21-year-old Havva made it through to the final six in the Girls category on the 4 October show. Mentored by pop star Rita Ora, Havva is in arguably the toughest group with many talented young female singers. While her vocals are not the strongest, Havva’s unique London sound and bubbly, infectious personality again proved a hit with the judges and audience.
Radio 1 presenter Nick Grimshaw told the young Turkish Cypriot singer: “We see quite a lot on this show, someone who can sing but what we don’t see all the time is a star, and you Havva are a star”.
Havva performed towards the end of the Six-Chair Challenge, by which point all six chairs were already full of acts seemingly headed into the next round. Havva Rebke did a funky cover of a classic Backstreet R&B track No Diggity with Nick Grimshaw, Simon Cowell and Cheryl Fernandez-Versini urging Rita to give her a chair. Havva was duly swapped in, taking the seat of Charli Beard.
The cruel chair-swapping drama continued last night, when Ebru had to impress her mentor Simon Cowell to become one of his final six acts in the Over 25s. She was the final singer of the night, singing Beyoncé’s If I Were A Boy. Having sung her heart out, the tears streamed down Ebru’s face as the judges complimented her voice.
He’d been in a mean mood all night, but mentor Simon Cowell was kinder with his comments to Ebru. He didn’t like her singing in the first part of her performance, putting it down to her nerves, but added, “There’s something about you which is kind of raw and I love that.”
With the audience screaming “swap, swap, chair, chair” Simon told Ebru, “I’m actually going to give you a chair,” and then ditched Zen Blythe.
With the dreaded Six-Chair Challenge over, The X Factor continues this Saturday and Sunday on ITV with the glamorous setting of Judges’ Houses. Havva heads to LA to Rita Ora’s home, while Ebru joins Simon Cowell in the South of France. Both singers will compete against five others in their group for a chance to be in their mentor’s final three and compete in the live finals of the prime time show.
T-VINE wishes Havva and Ebru every success.
