This Morning host Dermot O’Leary had an X Factor reunion today when Simon Cowell and former contestant Lucy Spraggan appeared on the show to discuss their new partnership.
Although before viewers got to hear more of this, they were reminded of Simon’s first TV appearance being a judge on This Morning - before The X Factor - when the daytime show was looking for new music talent in 1999!
After watching the clip, Simon, with his head in hands, laughed, “Oh no… [Alison: ‘Was that a bit embarrassing?’] Just a bit! I’ve gone very red.”
Explaining more of his partnership with 2012 contestant Lucy, Simon said, “I have my own publishing company where I sign writers and about two years ago we met up and I said apart from being a great artist she is a brilliant songwriter, so I said I wanted to publish her songs…”
Smiling Lucy said, “And I said, ‘oh go on then!’”
Simon continued, “Great songs are like great paintings, but then Lucy played me this demo called Balance and I always remember where I am when I hear a great song for the first time and it's the best feeling in the world… and I’m obsessed with this song by the way!
"And now in my life you have to do something you’re passionate about, and this is something I’m super super passionate about. The song is so relevant to what is going around in the world right now, it’s a great message.”
Lucy admitted how it was born following a session from her therapist. She confessed, “I was in a session with my therapist and I’ve gone through life thinking I need to do everything on my own and I need to be super independent and she just said ‘why? Why don’t you ask for help sometimes?’ and it made a lot of sense, and I left the session and wrote this song.”
On people asking if The X Factor will return, Simon said, “One hundred thousand new songs are uploaded everyday at the moment…
“...What would you do differently today? There’s a lot I’ve learnt to be honest with you. I think it started to become a bit of a machine. You put a record out that year and you move on, and that’s not the way to do it. And when you throw someone into the limelight, it’s hard, you know? So look, to be continued…”
Following Alison’s excitement and comments on how Dermot was always the best host for that show, Dermot followed up the compliment by suggesting Alison for a potential BGT host alongside Simon!
Simon laughed, “I do love Alison, you know that!”
To see the full interview visit itv.com/watch/this-morning
This Morning airs weekdays from 10am on ITV1 & ITVX