Ahead of his return to ‘The X Factor’, judge Louis Walsh has criticised the choice of Rita Ora for the talent’s disastrous series last year, saying the 25 year old pop star “didn’t know a thing” about talent and that she turned it into a “fashion show”.
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Speaking to Best Magazine, he said: “Sharon and I are old, but that means we’re far more experienced, unlike the young whippersnappers on last year’s panel who didn’t know a thing about talent”.
The Mayo man did not hold back when it came to his thoughts on Rita Ora: “Sharon and I pushed for Nicole, we didn’t want Rita Ora”.
Yup, Simon Cowell, Sharon Osbourne, Nicole Scherzinger and Louis Walsh (AND DERMOT O’LEARY!) will be gracing our screens once more.
Louis has now branded Nick and Rita inexperienced “lightweights” who didn’t have the “right credentials” to judge the talent. “The panel didn’t have the right credentials – they were lightweight”.
He was on the phone to a listener playing a game centred around quotes said by Kanye West (which sounds rilly fun!), and one of them used was actually from Rita: “Your voice is really well baked, like a really good cooked ham”. Most announced their resignation, but we had a sneaking feeling there was more to the story…
He then joked: “It’s nonsense quotes like that that got us all fired, Rita!”
Reflecting on 2015’s line up reveal, Simon admitted: “I mean the minute we announced it, it was like f***, this doesn’t feel great, let’s see how it goes”.
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Meanwhile, Louis – who spent 11 years on the panel before he was replaced last year – is adamant he’s back with fire in his belly this time around and is convinced viewers already love him.
