The X Factor 2016 live acts: Saara Aalto

Hometown: Helsinki (yup, she’s Finnish)

Advertisement

Age: 29

Mentor: Saara joins team Osbourne in the Overs

Twitter: @saaraaalto

THANK YOU so much for your support, It means the most to me ?? @thexfactor #saaraaalto #nofear #love pic.twitter.com/YP0GENlRzk

— Saara Aalto (@saaraaalto) October 2, 2016

Saara's first audition

Saara blew away the judges with her heartfelt cover of Sia’s Chandelier. In particular, Nicole was very impressed, saying “my arse wants to clap for you”. Because that's a thing now.

More like this

X Factor journey

After her twerk-inducing first audition, Saara made it through boot camp with the Donna Summer anthem On The Radio.

However, the Six Chair Challenge wasn’t as successful for Saara. Her cover of Ed Sheeran’s I See Fire didn’t ignite Sharon’s musical passion – the judge cited a lack of connection with Saara’s singing and the Finnish singer looked finished for.

However, Saara was brought back to the competition after Nicole chose her as the wildcard contestant to join Sharon’s Judge’s House. From there she managed to get Sharon on side with an emotional rendition of Abba’s The Winner Takes it All. And despite Robbie Williams welling up with "bored" tears (we didn't understand what he was talking about, either), the performance was good enough to send Saara to the live shows.

Controversy

Soon after she appeared on the show, news emerged that Saara was already an accomplished artist. DUM DUM DUMM.

It turns out that she’s narrowly missed out on singing for Finland in the Eurovision song contest twice, plus she came second on her home country’s version of The Voice. She’s also released three listed albums and – brace yourself – she’s done voice work for Pokémon.

However, for many fans this will all mean nothing compared to her biggest work: playing Anna in the Finnish dub of Frozen.

Advertisement

And if that's got your interest then you need to watch her multi-lingual version of Let It Go that already has over 1.6 million views on Youtube.

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement