Remember the moment Rylan Clarke was told that he’s through to the live shows on The X Factor and he broke down crying for a solid 20 minutes? Well, despite now being a hugely successful presenter, Rylan has never really been able to forget that emotional moment. In fact, it was the first thing that Jaime Laing asked Rylan about on his podcast Good Company earlier this week.
And it turns out that there was a lot more going on behind-the-scenes when it came to Rylan’s viral The X Factor moment at Judges’ Houses. Luckily for us he explained the whole situation to Jamie...
‘The night I flew to judge’s houses we were at Heathrow,’ he shared. ‘We were about to get on the plane and my phone just went bang bang and then fizzes and overheated and turned off and I was like, “What the fuck’s going on?”
‘And the producer grabbed my phone and went, “Your audition has just gone out. You’re on the show tonight. We didn’t want to tell you, but your audition is literally on air now.”
‘And then I was pushed onto the plane, door shut, gone. They kept my phone for the whole of judge’s houses.”
He continued, ‘So I flew to judge’s houses in Dubai, having no idea what people thought of me. They take all your stuff off you because they want you to just be in the moment. There’s nothing you can do.
‘Right so we’re in Dubai waiting for Nicole. She comes around on a boat like giving it and I’m like Oh it’s Nicole.
‘I’m so shook. And we also knew - because we overheard the production talking about it on the plane - that the guest star was Ne-Yo. So then Ne-Yo comes off the boat.’
After that then comes rehearsals and then of course, the performances. At the time, Rylan explained that he wasn’t expecting to get through to the lives shows (more on that later, don’t worry) and so just made sure to enjoy everything that was going on.
He said, ‘Look I’m pretty certain this is where my journey ends on X Factor so I’m just going to enjoy it.
‘And God bless Caroline Flack - one of my good mates. I love her to bits. She was obviously doing Extra Factor at the time, and the day of the performances we all go and perform one by one for Nicole and Ne-Yo.
Once I’ve done the performance I thought, “That’s it, I’m done now”. I know I’m going to be going home.
‘So that night we went back to my villa. So there was me, James [Arthur] and Jermaine [Jackson] in one villa and Jake [Quickenden] and the others in another. And in the Royal Villa where we were at this gorgeous hotel, you had your own pool. You had your own beach right out front, your own butler, it was beautiful. You asked for a vodka and coke and the butler would bring you a bottle of Absolut and a bottle of coke. Like it was massive. And we’re like just bring us the straw!
‘So we’re sort of thinking, “Fuck it. Let’s let our hair down”. Like we’ve got the results tomorrow at midday. We haven’t got to sing no more. Let’s just enjoy it. So Caroline come and joined in and we just had the best night ever.
‘At six in the morning another producer has woken up, heard that we’re still going and come to my villa and went you need to fucking go to bed. You’ve got to be up for the results in an hour
‘I go to bed, I have like 30 minutes sleep then I’m being dragged out of bed by another producer. it was like someone had stuffed cotton wool balls just down my throat. And then the hangover hits. So I can’t breathe, I’m dripping wet. My mouth is dry like the Sahara. Anxiety through the roof. The first person I see is Caroline, a friendly face and then I’m standing by the door ready to receive my fate.’
And now of course, the moment we’ve all be waiting for…
‘So I walk in go into the room,’ Rylan explains. ‘Nicole’s like, “Hey babe”. by this point the hangover is really kicking in so I can just feel myself getting emotional. I’m thinking, “Oh it’s the end of the journey, I’ve had a lovely time - t’s been so fun.”
‘She does the whole spiel. When she tells me it’s such a big risk that I have to take everyone thought my reaction was fake, but genuinely the cotton wool just expanded and I was like, “What?”
‘And then just the floodgates. I cried pure vodka into her lap. Honestly we could have opened a bar. It was awful. Like I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t breathe. This went on for 23 minutes. They timed it. A medic had to be called in because they thought I was going to pass out or have a seizure or something.’
And the rest they say is history. Thanks to Nicole Scherzinger, the X Factor producers, we were given one of the greatest moments in TV history.
Daisy Hall is a News and Entertainment writer on Grazia, specialising in TV and film meaning that you can count on Daisy for the latest (and best) recommendations.