Three former X Factor UK stars recently participated in a roundtable discussion on the We Need to Talk podcast, during which they revealed the negative side of the talent show. Two of the contestants shared that they were manipulated by the show into removing their original music from the internet.
X Factor Stars Were Manipulated to Remove Music
While talking to podcast host Paul C. Brunson, former X Factor contestant Lucy Spraggan shared how her original music blew up online after she auditioned for Series 9 of the show in 2012. The show’s response to this success, however, was troublesome.
The morning after her audition aired, Spraggan said she got calls about her independently released album climbing the charts. She then received a call from a lawyer telling her to take her album down. At this point, Spraggan had not even signed a contract with the show.
The lawyer apparently told Spraggan that removing the music was in her “best interest.” She added that they gave her an ultimatum: “Effectively, you have to take this down, or you can’t go any further.”
“If I knew then what I know now, I’d have said, ‘Okay, goodbye.’ Because all I needed was this, and my product, which I had ready to go,” Spraggan said, referring to the exposure from her audition. “And I think they saw that, too, and they went, ‘Oh, no. This doesn’t work.'”
Spraggan said her “one regret” in life is removing her album at the show’s request. She added that this was the start of “the absolute Stockholm syndrome” she experienced on The X Factor. After removing the album, she said she received a call from the distributor telling her she could have been a millionaire from the sales by the end of the week.
Myles Stephenson from Series 14’s winning group Rak-Su also participated in the roundtable. He shared that the group faced “the same scenario as Lucy” when it came to owning their original music. After their audition, their song “I’m Feeling You” hit No. 1 on Spotify’s global playlist.
Stephenson said they ended up taking the song down and re-recording it at the Sony office. During the live shows, they were asked by the show to sing “I’m Feeling You” again, which led to chart success that was connected to the show.
Spraggan chimed in to share that another issue for her came about when someone else re-recorded her music and profited from it. When she alerted X Factor about this, the show apparently told the press that she was “having a go at people doing covers of my music.”
Spraggan ended up leaving the show later in the season, ostensibly due to illness. It was revealed years later that she had been raped by a porter at a hotel. The singer opened up about the experience in her 2023 memoir Process.
What do you think about these former X Factor contestants’ claims about how the show treated them when they were competing? Let us know in the comments below.
Words by:
Jill O'Rourke Jill O’Rourke is a contributor at Talent Recap, writing news stories and recaps for shows like ‘AGT,’ ‘The Voice,’ and ‘American Idol.’ She graduated from the University of Georgia with a degree in English and Film Studies, and has been writing about pop culture since 2012, with previous bylines at Crushable and A Plus. Jill spends her free time binge-watching sitcoms and daydreaming about life as a hobbit
