A singer who won a talent show in Brean, near Burnham-On-Sea, last year has this week made it through to the second stage of ITV1’s talent show The X Factor.
Burnham-On-Sea.com reported last October how Marisa Billitteri, pictured, had wowed the judges at Brean Leisure Park with her voice when she was crowned the winner of the regional ‘Search For A Star 2007’ competition.
Since then, she has formed the group ‘Girlband’ with several other singers to take part in ITV1’s primetime talent series.
The band is made up of 20-year-old Marisa, sisters Tita and Pheobe Lau, aged 20 and 18, and Layla Manoochehri, 22, from Birmingham.
The girls were one of the many thousands of acts auditioning in front of music moguls Simon Cowell and Louis Walsh, and popstars Cheryl Cole and Dannii Minogue, in Birmingham.
They sang ‘Stop!’ by Sam Brown and were seen on ITV1 in last week’s show – see video coverage below.
The band were given two “yes” votes from Simon and Cheryl but a “No” from Louis and therefore proceeded through to the next round.
The group was criticised by Simon Cowell for wearing too much make-up and looking “over-dressed”, although Cheryl Cole leapt to Girlband’s defence.
Girlband will now go on to stage two, where they will compete against hundreds of other acts that have been put through from auditions all over the country.
They will undergo a further selection procedure for the chance to go to the judges’ houses in smaller groups for stage three. Stage four will be the live shows finals.
Pictured is Marisa in action at Brean in October 2007 and, beneath, online video of the group on ITV1’s The X Factor
