Megan McKenna denies having unfair advantage on The X Factor: Celebrity – despite having topped iTunes charts
The former TOWIE star has already established herself as a singer, but now she wants to hit the big time
The X Factor: Celebrity is back for its second round of auditions this week, after managing to win back fans with its hilarious opening episode.
This time, it’s the turn of Ricki Lake, Olivia Olson and Megan McKenna among others to impress Simon Cowell, Nicole Scherzinger and Louis Walsh for that shot at a record contract.
McKenna is no novice when it comes to singing having previously been a member of girl band Harmony on 2009’s Britain’s Got Talent (even making it to the live semi-finals), and making it to the six-chair challenge on The X Factor, before really pushing her efforts to become a professional singer with her own spin-off show on ITVBe in 2017.
There’s Something About Megan saw the star travel to Nashville to pursue a career in country music – and release her very first EP later that year.
Her singles High Heeled Shoes and Far Cry from Love both topped the iTunes chart in the UK just 24 hours they were released, knocking Taylor Swift off the top spot – and even led to a small tour, culminating in her supporting Michael Buble at the British Summer Time festival last year.
But despite an impressive list of achievements, McKenna told RadioTimes.com and other journalists that she didn’t think her experiences gave her an unfair advantage on the show.
“Obviously I sing, and I’ve been recording in the past but it’s never been on the scale of what this could be,” she said. “This is for a major record label.
“In the past I’ve had a very small independent label help me do an album and I’m so grateful for that but as anybody knows in the music industry, that is down there.
“I’m just the same as everybody else. This is my dream and I’m just hoping that this show can just be the start really as I want to do this full-time.”
She added that Cowell did not mention they had previously crossed paths when she auditioned.
“I don’t know if he remembers me or not I was so young, I was 16, in a girl band, but I’ve grown up a lot,” Megan added. “Obviously me coming on this show, showcasing me as a solo artist, it’s completely different.
“I feel like I’ve got a lot of pressure because I’ve been really trying to crack the music industry for a long time now and I think coming off of reality shows, people have a perception of me and it’s really difficult to be taken seriously.
"So I feel like coming on this show, people can see how much this means to me and they will take my music seriously. That’s why I wanted to do it.”
The X Factor: Celebrity is on ITV, Saturday at 8.30pm
