Zoe Alexander said she was originally manipulated by ‘The X Factor’ production staff into singing a Pink song. She kept insisting that the staff brought up the suggestion and thanks to a Tiktok video explaining the same, the perils of appearing on reality TV shows have been magnified. In this article, we explain what really happened and why the Pink tribute artist who was done with the tribute was forced to sing a Pink song despite never wanting to. She also had to sit alone from 6:00 am in a waiting room without any intimation or updates according to her interview with Insider magazine. 

Zoe Alexander: Viral X Factor Audition Was Planned and Manipulated! 

In 2012, Zoe Alexander went viral after singing on ITV’s “The X Factor.”

This young woman who looks a lot like Pink sang in front of the four judges: Gary Barlow, Nicole Scherzinger, Tulisa, Gary Barlow and Louis Walsh. 

Zoe Alexander declared that she was tired of singing Pink and wanted to ” finally be Zoe “. 

Unfortunately, during the audition, she chose to sing So What … by Pink. Her performance hardly convinces Gary Barlow who offers her a second chance and Zoe then launches into the title Next To Me by Emeli Sandé. Her performance gets four “no’s” and advice from Louis Walsh: ” Take the time to find your voice, your identity. ” 

That’s when Zoe Alexander goes wild as she did not take the feedback well. 

Her disastrous audition would become a viral 7-minute originally posted on The X Factor’s YouTube page with the title “P!nk Impersonator has HUGE TEMPER TANTRUM!”

In 2020, Zoe Alexander wanted to set the record straight about the show’s manipulation. 

Zoe Alexander said she was originally manipulated by ‘The X Factor’ production staff into singing a Pink song. 

The young singer accuses the show of having asked her to sing Pink: “I didn’t want to sing a Pink song! I wanted to be me! ” 

Zoe then leaves the stage, throwing down her microphone, after hearing 4 judges get surprised when she said she never wanted to sing a Pink song. 

The young woman throws her microphone on stage and leaves, furious.

We could have stopped there, if Zoe Alexander’s father hadn’t decided to get involved. Rather than bringing his daughter to her senses, he decides to accompany her on stage to defend her. Zoe then begins to swear at the jury. Nicole Scherzinger cannot believe it. Back backstage, Zoe Alexander tackles part of the set, hits a cameraman and a female member of the production. She is eventually taken to the police station where she receives a warning for her “overflow”.

This audition was filmed on June 25, 2012 in Cardiff.  

Zoe Alexander has since told the Sunday Mirror that she has lost sleep and all confidence. 

“The judges totally ridiculed me, making me look like a fool. Even though this audition was in June, I’m still having a hard time getting used to what happened. I used to trust people. Now I don’t trust anyone anymore. I can hardly sleep, I have become a wreck. “

The X Factor production in turn said, ” We don’t give contestants any guidance as to which songs to perform. They make their own decisions. “

Her explanation was shared in a YouTube video, later posted by a  TikTok user who helped garner over 25 million views.

Alexander decided it was time to explain her story through a YouTube video posted in July — eight years after her audition was broadcast.

According to her interview with Insider, she said the issues began when she was emailing “The X Factor” team about her upcoming audition. 

They scanned through her first two lists of five songs and encouraged her to perform a Pink song despite telling them that she wanted to stop being a Pink double to form her own identity as an artist. 

Alexander said they rejected her and she said she was plainly told she would not get an audition otherwise. So, she showed up at the studio armed with the backing track for Pink’s “So What” and prayed for the best to get her feet into the water. 

“It took me many years to come to terms with their dishonest portrayal of me and their intentionally induced public perception,” she stated to Insider.

The dishonest portrayal by X Factor’s staff.

What she meant by dishonest portrayal was the judges stopping her from singing and instead of asking her to go and “find herself as an artist” and she didn’t get through to the next round.

This of course led to her breakdown because she saw the whole thing play out during the email stage. 

The second dishonest portrayal was when she pleads “You told me to sing a Pink song,”  to the production staff, but that is not apparent in the broadcast footage.

The third intentionally dishonest portrayal was when the Pink-look alike singer was also told to arrive at the studio at 6 a.m. She woke up very early and reached only to find nobody there. 

The poor contestant was not told anything but continued in the waiting room for hours, which she believes was intentional mistreatment in an effort to make her feel “as uncomfortable, uneasy, and scared as possible.”

Looking back, Alexander said to Insider magazine that the show’s staff had “bad intentions from the start.”

Since she was “given an opportunity to perform a second song”, the whole team behind this saga walked away without any detriment. 

Alexander’s story uncovers the perils of appearing on reality TV.

A 19-year-old TikTok user picked up on Alexander’s side of the story and posted it. The video went viral again after Devon Rae ( the Tiktok user) told her story of being “the most manipulated contestant in ‘X Factor’ history.” 

She also spoke to Insider magazine about the over-the-top auditions: “Everyone my age spent hours in elementary, middle, and high school watching crazy ‘American Idol’ and ‘X-Factor’ contestants,” she said, adding that “everyone remembers the ‘crazy Pink girl.'”

The astute 19 year old stated that the guilt and delayed realization that everything may not be as it seems on TV is probably what made her TikTok go viral.

“To discover that an iconic moment from our childhoods was a complete lie and that we all fell right into their trap, sparks a very strong reaction from people,” she said. “I think it also made a light bulb go off in people’s heads of just how manipulative ‘reality’ shows are.”

You’d be happy to know that currently, the singer who has very long hair and a podcast is now committed to spreading awareness of what can happen behind-the-scenes of reality TV shows. Zoe Alexander still sings but wouldn’t recommend heading for talent show auditions  such as “The X Factor” unless “there are serious investigations of the treatment of human beings.”

“I think that people on reality TV are not always seen as real people and I think my revealing the truth is going some way to change that culture,” she said. “It is psychologically damaging for the people involved, and that goes further than just ‘The X Factor.’ Reality TV as a whole needs to be investigated.”