The career of Welsh musical theatre star Sophie Evans seems to have grown from strength to strength ever since her stint on BBC talent show Over the Rainbow in 2010. Things weren’t always destined to go that way, though, and an unsuccessful appearance on The X Factor almost put a pin in things before they’d even started.
Sophie, who was born in Tonypandy but lives in Cardiff, recalled her time on the former ITV mega show in an interview with the WalesOnline podcast In the Spotlight, remembering how TV’s ‘Mr Nasty’ Simon Cowell once gave her some odd feedback. “Being from the Valleys, there’s not a massive opportunity,” she said. “I was very lucky that I was in a theatre group when I was younger but Simon Cowell doesn’t walk through Treorchy. You have to go out and try to become something. In my head, I just thought, go out and try every opportunity. When [The X Factor] lowered the age to 14, I could finally go on there.
“I was never under any illusion that I could ever win it. I was just trying to get opportunities. When I went on there, I did get to boot camp and it was a really good experience. I remember Simon Cowell saying something along the lines of, ‘You don’t quite know who you really are yet’, and I just went, yeah you’re right, I’m 14 and I haven’t got a clue what I’m doing.” Listen to In the Spotlight with Sophie Evans below.
