Kenilworth girl group wows X Factor judges

Belle Harmonie, made up of long-time friends Rachel Fisher, Molly Homer, Ellie Jackson and Lauren McDonnell, progressed through producers’ auditions, judges’ auditions and ‘boot camp’ before making it to the ‘Six Chair Challenge.’

Only 15 acts in each category - groups, boys, girls and over-25s - make it to this stage of the competition.

And the band said they were ‘very proud’ of what they have achieved in the show so far.

Rachel described the long process the group had been through to reach where they are now.

She said: “We actually had to fly to Dublin for the judges’ auditions. It was a lot of fun, and we got four yes votes.

“After that we got a letter saying we’re invited to the X Factor HQ for boot camp.

“They didn’t air it but we had to complete a dance challenge - we only had two hours to practice it but we managed it.

“We spent eight hours in the waiting room before we found out we were through to the Six Chair Challenge.”

Belle Harmonie have been together for five years, and reached the final of the Open Mic UK singing competition in January.

But Ellie, the youngest member of the group at 17, said their experience on the X Factor has surpassed that achievement.

She said: “It’s the biggest thing that’s happened to us as a group.

“We’ve said for a couple of years that we wanted to do the X Factor, but we had to wait because of my age.

“The judges were all really lovely and Simon’s actually much more of a softie than he’s made out to be.

“We’ve definitely improved as group through the competition - we took on board the judges’ advice.

“They were saying because of our age we needed to be relatable to younger people and stick to our roots instead of trying to be more American, which is what some other groups were doing.”

This stage of the competition is particularly tough on every act that makes it through.

Every act in each category performs one after the other, and if that category’s judge likes the audition, they allow them to sit on one of the six chairs indicating they are through.

But the judge, which in Belle Harmonie’s case will be Louis Walsh, can change their mind if a better audition comes along. As their are six seats and 15 acts in each category, earlier acts are often replaced by later acts right at the very end.

The Six Chair Challenge will be shown on Saturday September 24 at 8pm and Sunday September 25 at 7pm on ITV.