2014 X Factor: Here’s What We Learned When We Met The Judges And Finalists

This weekend, Fleur East, Ben Haenow and Andrea Faustini will battle it out for the X Factor crown. It's been a tense year filled with plenty of tears, drama and our favourite-ever line from a judge ('What am I chopped liver?! - kudos to Mel B for that gem.)

Ahead of Saturday's nail-biting final at Wembley,* Grazia Daily* chatted to three nervous finalists and judges Simon Cowell, Louis Walsh and Cheryl Cole. We missed the booming tones of Mel - who excused herself because she was feeling poorly.

Simon is sitting pretty - with two acts in the final he seems confident one of his will win. (Fun fact: Simon has only won twice on the UK version of the show in 2004 with Steve Brookstein (LOL) and in 2006 with Leona Lewis)

And while the Syco boss wouldn't be drawn on who he wants to win come Saturday he does seem to back Fleur, steeping her performance last week with high praise. He told us: 'It was one of the best talent performances I've ever seen in 12 years.' Cheryl also backs Fleur but Louis hopes that Ben will bag that all important X Factor crown.

Simon told the hopeful trio that Saturday night's performance could be live-changing and gave them some advice. He said: 'If you've got a song you believe in, turn it in a moment which can literally change your life.'

Fleur told us that she's trying to ignore criticism and focus on herself when she's up on the stage. She said: 'I've got to let myself go and not care what people think.'

Meanwhile Andrea revealed that he regards his greatest achievement as 'learning how to do the washing machine.'

Now there's only three left in the X Factor house, Andrea describes the atmosphere in the house as 'very strange as there's not a moment where we're all in at the same time'. But he added it had one perk: 'It's usually empty apart from me and the chef which is the dream!

Back to Saturday and Simon promises the evening will be bigger and better than 'ever before' and set to perform on the stage is one of X Factor's greatest success stories, One Direction. Simon reveals that even today, he can't re-watch the moment when the chart-topping group came third. He said: 'I was so arrogant I thought they were going to win.'

And while many runners-up, including the likes of Olly Murs, Ella Hendeson and JLS have found success following the show, Simon was quick to slam that runners-up did better than the winners. He said: 'In any competition, if you don't want to win, that tells me you haven't got that killer instinct to do well in the real world. If you're happy to come 4th or 10th and end up in a jungle like Jake Quickenden then that says a lot. We want people on this show who want to be recording artists.'

Is it just us or is Simon sounding a bit like Louis these days?

Words by Layla Haidrani