During the 2015 season of “The X Factor UK,” Josh Daniel sang his heart out, doing what few have done before: bringing Simon Cowell to tears.
Josh was the final contestant at the end of a lengthy day of tryouts. As they chatted, Josh realized that most act, at the end of the day, either well or horribly. He told the judges he was singing a copy of Labrinth’s “Jealous” for a pal.
“I lost my best friend a couple of years ago,” Josh said. “And I kind of interpret the lyrics in a completely different way…the lyrics kind of say, I’m jealous that you’re happy without me. And I kind of see it in the sense that, I’m jealous that he’s happy in Heaven, that he’s moved onto a better place, and that I can’t still be with him.”
Simon Cowell later described his emotional reaction. “You can’t censor stuff like that,” he explained. “In the end, I just kind of said to them, ‘I’m OK with it,’ but I don’t want to endorse anything; I’ll let you decide what is OK and what isn’t.”
Simon’s emotional reaction came from the recent loss of his mother, Julie Brett, 89, who passed from a stroke. There were few dry eyes that night after Josh’s performance touched so many hearts, and it still brings a tear to the eye even today.
