Soul siren Stacey Solomon made seasoned judge Simon Cowell melt with her sultry performance of Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World” on The X Factor UK. The 19-year-old student gave a goofy interview before the performance, responding to Cowell’s questions like a giggly schoolgirl, but judges couldn’t believe their ears when she started singing.
Judges Dannii Minogue, Cheryl Cole and Louis Walsh all expressed amazement at the power of the teen’s voice. Minogue said “it was a real surprise, but it was so cute, your personality and your voice. And you didn’t falter anywhere in it”. The singer then picked up four yes votes from the judges. You can watch the video below.
Stacey was born on 4 October 1989 and hails from East London town Dagenham. She went quite far in season six of The X Factor under the tutelage of Australian pop star Dannii Minogue. You can see Minogue’s knowledge of how to put on a show rubbed off on young Stacey in her later performances, where she brought a lot more confidence and attitude to the stage.
A good example of this is Stacey’s raunchy performance of Dusty Springfield’s “Son of a Preacher Man”, done in a skin tight black leather outfit. The starlet sings the song in a bold soul style, dropping the old time feel of the original song for a contemporary sound, as you can hear in the video below.
Stacey progressed through nine rounds of The X Factor during the season, performing a range of pop, soul and jazz tunes. She was eventually eliminated in the final, being surpassed only by runner up Olly Murs and series winner Joe McElderry.
The pop singer is now aged 33 and is a mother of five. In between raising kids, she’s found the time to advance her music career and also continue building her reputation as a television personality. After The X Factor, she won the tenth series of I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! the following year. By 2016 she had breached out with appearances in I’m a Celebrity: Extra Camp and as a panelist on the talk show Loose Women.
Together with the other finalists for the sixth series of The X Factor, Stacey enjoyed a number one hit in the UK and Ireland with a cover of Michael Jackson’s “You Are Not Alone”. The song went Gold in the UK and was organized as a charity drive for Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.
Stacey followed it up with her debut solo single “Driving Home for Christmas” in 2011, which was a top 30 hit in the UK. In 2015 she released her first album Shy and the pop release debuted at #45 on the UK Albums Chart. In more recent years she’s given birth in 2019, 2021 and 2022, which as you can imagine has kept her pretty busy.
Stacey and her husband Joe Swash, who is an English television personality, were blessed with the trio of kids after they met during the filming of I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! and subsequently began dating in 2016.