Back in 2011, then-16-year-old Janet Devlin peered out at the judges from underneath a mass of hair, looking utterly terrified.
Her voice trembling, she explained she was from a small town in Northern Ireland where she spends a lot of time alone, writing songs, and that she felt like she must be dreaming.
But as soon as she broke into her beautiful, soft rendition of Elton John 's Your Song, she had the audience on her side and the judges captivated.
Janet received a standing ovation, and an impressed Gary Barlow told her: "All the time we are watching these artists we are trying to find people who will sell records, sell albums around the world.
"And you are one of those people."
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But Janet's X Factor journey was not the glitz and glamour you might expect.
Thrust onto a world stage, Janet said the immense pressure made her feel suicidal.
She wrote in her memoir, My Confessional: "During my time on the show the dark clouds came back in full force.
"If I wasn’t rehearsing a performance or surrounded by other contestants at the X Factor house, I would be contemplating suicide, though I could never bring myself to think that word."
When she confided in a crew member, who assured her she wasn't alone and took her to a psychological assessment and to see a therapist.
But other than that, Janet felt totally abandoned and would cry alone in the bathroom.
"No one around me even cared enough to ask if I was all right. So long as I was ready for the performance, that’s all that mattered," she wrote.
An X Factor spokesperson told The Mirror: "The duty of care to our contestants and those auditioning for the show is of the utmost importance to us.
"We take welfare of our contestants very seriously and have measures in place to ensure that they are supported at every stage of the process."
X Factor sources also highlighted that a psychologist is available at all times should contestants wish at any stage to speak to anyone independently, and that if show staff were to be alerted to any medical issue, they would act immediately.
Flanked by tough competition, Janet would come in fifth in the series which was won by Little Mix.
She attended the X Factor tour and attempted to throw herself into her songwriting, but the medication she was taking affected her ability to write, she said, and so she used alcohol as a replacement.
Speaking on her YouTube channel, Janet explained she was desperately lonely and it made her "go off the rails" after she finished the ITV show.
She moved to Sheffield on her own and would drink before work and sleep with a gin bottle under her pillow.
"I hated myself so much, I despised who I was," she said.
"Every action I made, I would over-analyse to the point of having panic attacks. I was buying big bottles of gin, drinking them at night time, topping them up in the morning.
"I was a mess. Booze gave me so much, it was this magical juice that allowed me to come out of my shell."
Speaking on Loose Women in 2020, Janet said "failed suicide attempts" made her finally realise she needed help.
"My poor mum was always just waiting on that phone call to find out when I finally was gone," she said.
"I love her to pieces and I'm so glad every day that I'm not causing her the same pain."
Now sober, Janet attends Alcoholics Anonymous which she says helped her "become a person" again.
She also said on TikTok that she went to rehab when she was 24 and has since been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and as bipolar.
"There are so many great things that have happened since I got sober, I never would have seen that, I never would have been able to live my life [without being] sober," she said.
"My life would have ended in the darkness and the pain, and the hurt of being an alcoholic, when there's so much more to life than that.
"But when you're in it that's all the world is to you, its dark and it's hard and it's impossible, but the pain isn't comfortable its familiar, and it's so easy to sit in that familiarity, but I promise it gets so much better if you work towards it."
Having ditched the fire-red hair she adopted on The X Factor for a pastel orange and peach dip dye shade, Janet, now 27, is now covered in arty tattoos and has honed her quirky style.
But she received abuse in the street from strangers who believed she wasn't being herself any more.
In 2012, Janet said: "People can be quite harsh. [They'll say] 'I liked you before the show, I liked your first audition but I felt this happened.
"But I'm just like, 'You're judging me on three minutes of TV and you’re saying that what you think I did wasn't me.' It's just odd."
She said she was being chased by record labels but was still under contract with The X Factor - but that's all changed now and she's released two studio albums as well as amassing an online following on Instagram and TikTok.
The star posts hilarious and relatable videos of her day to day life and dealing with her mental health, as well as showcasing her new music.
"This has been no easy task, I've had to work really hard, loving myself, being sober and trying not to take life for granted," she said.
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