Castlemaine Singer Wows on X-Factor

Castlemaine’s Alice Bottomley is through to the next round of X-Factor Australia after a successful audition.

Bottomley works full time during the day and also owns her own catering company.

But her musical talents run in the family and it showed Sunday when she sang One Night Only by Jennifer Hudson.

The song, which featured in movie-musical Dreamgirls, got a standing ovation from the crowd.

The judges had nothing but good things to say about Bottomley’s rendition.

“Man, that’s from the soul. I want you to do that again,” RedFoo said.

Natalie Bassingthwaighte and Dannii Minogue both fell in love with the singer.

“You’re naughty, you’re cool, you’re sexy, you’re fine and you sing damn good,” Dannii said.

Ronan Keating rounded out the positive comments by praising Bottomley’s voice for soul.

“For you to come out here and sing with such heart and soul, you’re an inspiration to so many people,” he said.

“Alice thank you for being here, great job.”

The 23-year-old said she was terrified to walk out on stage in front of the judges and huge audience.

“The whole day I was fine, which was odd because I’d normally be freaking out,” she said.

“As soon as they gave me a microphone and I walked onto the stage, I freaked.”

Bottomley now goes on to X-Factor boot camp.

“Dreamgirls is one of my ultimate film choices,” Bottomley said.

“It’s all about soul and gospel music and that song is one of my favourites, I know it inside and out.

“I knew I was extremely nervous and under pressure but I was comfortable with the song choice.

“When I sang I had a little hiccup and lost it for a minute but I was able to bring it back.

“Once I finished I was sure I wasn’t getting through.”

Bottomley has a lot of stage experience and is regularly involved in musical theatre.

“In musical theatre you have character to hide behind, so it’s easier to walk out onto stage,” she said.

“The reaction is to the character, which is massively different. It wouldn’t matter if there was two or 5000 people in the audience I would have felt the same way.”