X Factor judge Simon Cowell is set for another serving of “panda pie” when he comes face-to-face with a contestant who has sung for him before on the US version of the ITV singing competition.
Saturday’s episode of the show will see auditions from older singers hoping to book their place in the next round. Among them will be American barista Panda Ross from Dallas, Texas.
Ross tried out for the first three series of the US X Factor. She reached the boot camp stage of the competition but was hampered by ill health. She was rushed to hospital after being struck with pneumonia following an audition in front of a panel that included singer Demi Lovato.
Sexy that’s all I can say pic.twitter.com/23fJjko9jo
— Panda Ross (@RealPandaRoss) September 17, 2018
The singer has affection for Cowell, referring to him as her “boo”. She will perform late soul singer Aretha Franklin’s (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman for the music mogul and his fellow judges Robbie Williams, Ayda Field and Louis Tomlinson.
Ross will say: “Simon’s gotten a little bit older but he’s still sexy. In America people love me. I just hope my craziness will be received well by the British people. I’m going to give them a piece of panda pie!”
Also hoping to progress will be 30-year-old cleaner Louise Setar, who turned her back on a record deal she signed aged 18 to get married and have a family.
The mother-of-two will perform an original song based on a conversation she had with her now ex-husband called A Moment Of Your Time. She will say: “I just want to show my children you can still achieve dreams, no matter what your circumstances are.”
The judges will also hear an acoustic version of the Village People’s disco anthem YMCA by a student busker who pushes her pet cats in a pram and a sultry cover of the White Stripes’s Seven Nation Army by a bearded drag queen from Australia.
– The X Factor continues on ITV at 8.35pm tonight.