X Factor’s Gary Barker reveals all on his unusual audition for Simon Cowell

Gary Barker has spoken out about his rather unusual X Factor audition at the weekend.

Speaking to cameras before his audition on Sunday night Gary revealed he was put forward for the show by his fiancée.

In the audition room, Gary burst into song with a cover of Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars’ Uptown Funk but was quickly stopped by Simon Cowell.

“That’s not what we’re looking for,” said Simon. “What we’re looking for is someone with an incredible voice.

“Where we’re trying to move things along this year is to try and find more originality…”

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Gary offered to sing another song, Sam Cooke’s Change Is Gonna Come.

“It really shows my voice off,” he said.

Simon replied: “All the bad habits you’ve got, you’ve got to throw out the window, that’s the challenge.”

After his impressive second performance, which has been viewers more than 300,000 times in less than 24 hours, Gary got four yeses to make it through to bootcamp.

Reflecting on the audition this week, Gary told ITV’s Lorraine: “I have never been so nervous to sing in front of anybody in my life it’s the most nerve racking thing I’ve ever done but when he turned round and said that’s not what we are looking for I was like *gasp*.”

Now with Simon’s backing as well as his fiancée’s, Gary is determined to go far in the competition.

He said: “She thinks I can do well so that’s given me more motivation to push myself to be more than a pub and hotel singer.

“I’ve got nothing to lose. I’ve just got to go in there and be myself, and just go for it.”

We’ll next see Gary at the bootcamp stages later this year.

For now, The X Factor 2017 auditions continue Saturday and Sunday night on ITV.