Andy Williams was the fourth singer to leave X Factor this year. He was eliminated after singing a version of Snow Patrol’s Chasing Cars in a head to head with Beverley Trotman.

We caught up with Andy earlier this evening for a short interview about his evicition, his plans for the future, and who he thinks will win X Factor.

How are you feeling since your exit from X Factor on Saturday?

It’s a bit weird trying to come back down to normal life after X Factor, but each day’s getting a little better. I’m trying to pick myself up now and be a bit positive about things.

You’ll be on the X Factor tour though?

Yeah, I’ll still be on the tour. I’ll be trying to keep my profile up and work as hard as I can to prepare for the tour and to keep my face out there.

Not just your torso?

(Laughs) Not just my torso, no…

So what’s next, have you had any approaches for your post-X Factor career?

There’s been a mixture of different ideas with regard to music, with regard to modelling and makes of clothes and stuff. It’s been a good mixture so far, so I’m feeling more positive than I did on Saturday night.

How did the pressure of the show get to you?

It’s high pressure, it’s tough. I knew when  I sang the first song that I started off key, but I tried to pull it back. I know it wasn’t the greatest of song choices to show my voice off, but you’ve got to work with what you’ve been given.

Watching your audition clips, you came across much better at audition than you did during the live shows.

Yeah, I know. To be honest, I thought I even looked better at the first auditions and obviously I was singing what I wanted. I think I suffered a bit through song choices.

Do you think a lot of contestants have suffered through song choice?

Yeah, definitely. It’s hard to sing a song if your voice isn’t entirely suited to it.

On the sing-off, both you and Beverley really raised your game at the end. Were you fighting to stay in?

Well, to be honest, I was singing the best I could. It was kind of out of frustration and giving it everything, saying goodbye. I kind of knew I was done because of the situation I was in. For one, Beverley was a very good singer and along with that, Dannii Minogue still had three acts left.

The last line of the song was kind of like a goodbye line for me. It was quite heartbreaking really.

If you could have chosen your own songs, what would you have chosen?

I’d have liked to sing George Michael’s I Can’t Make You Love Me at some point. Songs like Bridge Over Troubled Water, just classic ballads to show people that I could sing.

Is that your style of music? Is that what you listen to?

Yeah, ballads. I love Luthor Vandross, Billy Joel, loads of different mixtures really.

As a contestant, how much control do you have over your performance?

You get some. It’s tough, because obviously you’ve got a mentor and you have to do what they think is best for you. You have control, but you always respect the advice of people who’ve been in the industry way longer than you.

Did you have much experience singing before X Factor?

Well, I entered the competition when I was about 19, but I didn’t get anywhere, but then I worked up to it for this season. Apart from that, I’ve only really sang at karaoke a couple of times in my life and that’s it.

I suppose you’ll be in and out of the X Factor studio until the end of the series?

I hope so, although I’ve got gigs lined up now and most of them are on Saturdays and Sundays so it makes it difficult to come down. It’s looking positive now.

Aren’t you restricted in what you can do until a few months after X Factor finishes?

No, that really only applies to recordings. Everything else is fair game. Gigs, personal appearances and modelling work will all be fine. I’m just trying to make the right choices.

I’ll be on the tour too and that’ll give me the opportunity to show people what I’m made of.

What are your predictions for the final?

I’d like to see Team Minogue at the top, you know, Rhydian and Leon. I’ve got a feeling that it could be Rhydian, Leon and Same Difference in the final three. Hope might be as well.

I mean Niki and Beverley are amazing singers, but I don’t know if they’ll make the final. I think the others have the X Factor, and the support from home. Rhydian will have all of Wales and Leon will have all of Scotland voting.

Rhydian’s got a good chance of winning it.

Were you surprised by Same Difference? I mean, when they went in, we all assumed they were a novelty act, but they’re coming back stronger each week.

They’re good singers. They’ve definitely got something, I mean the likeability factor, they entertain so well. I think more than anyone they’ve got a good market for their music. They’re the most individual.

[We had a brief discussion about Niki going on tour with Sonia back in the 90's, but to my dismay, Andy doesn't know who Sonia is. Don't worry folks I gave him a full history of Sonia, from Bread to Re-Born In The USA. Kids today...]

What about Rhydian? What’s he like in real life?

Nice guy, really. I can’t say much about him. He’s a lot shyer when you first meet him, but you can tell when he speaks in the show that he’s a really decent bloke, he’s a gentleman.

I know at the start he thought he was being edited unfairly.

Yeah, it didn’t go well for him, did it? We all knew though that he was going to shine through eventually no matter what they did. You warm to him very quickly.

Final question: If you had to do it all again, what would you do differently?

I suppose be more careful with song choices and just go for it more and have more of a drive.

Alright Andy, thanks for taking the time out to talk to us at Unreality TV, and best of luck for the future.

Thanks mate.

[We're not sure whether Andy will inherit his X Factor MySpace page or if updates will be done through his original page. However, we will keep you posted on ways to keep up with Andy's career if you're a fan.]

Andy Williams has been sent home from the X factor competition after giving his best performance to date.

Andy was given the song, Chasing Cars tonight and his original performance was dull, boring and contained a few too many eyebrow arches and smooches to camera. We put Andy at the bottom of our weekly chart once again and were rooting for the judges to send him away.

However, as Andy realised that this was his last chance, he seemed to fight for his chance to stay. He performed the second time with emotion and for the first time I felt that we got a glimpse of who he really is. Too little, too late though, three out of four judges sent him home and so the man with the gorgeous torso has left the building.

Rumour has it that X Factor finalist Rhydian Roberts, has hit the gym in a big way this week after fellow competitor Andy Williams won Heat’s Torso Of The Week Award.

The ever competitive Rhydian is guzzling apples and hitting the gym in the hope that he will be the next X Factor boy to win the award.

X factor finalist Andy Williams has admitted that he may consider quitting music altogether if he is voted off the X Factor early in the series.

“I’ve always had a bit of a problem with nerves, and I haven’t conquered it yet,” he said.

“I’ll just have to pretend I’m somewhere else rather than singing live – like singing in the shower!”

Andy confessed he might return to his job as an asbestos remover if he didn’t do well in the finals.

“I’d try to keep focused on my music, but it would be really hard,” he said. “So I’m hoping I don’t get voted out.”

“I’ll just have to try and keep my mind off the fact that I’m performing for 10 million people – it’s not much pressure really!”

Have a gander at this video of X Factor finalist, Andy Williams, rehearsing for one of the final X Factor bootcamp auditions. I actually don’t like his voice in this clip……he must have made more of an effort on the actual audition.

Anybody who has seen Andy Williams on the X Factor show, will know he has confidence issues. In his first audition Simon branded his singing style “nervous” and “unnatural”. But luckily for him Dannii Minogue saw past his nerves and believed he had enough talent to go through to the live shows.

Andy has spoken to Wales On Sunday and revealed that his lack of confidence is actually due to the ridiculing and bullying he faced while at school.

Andy, who was turned down for The X Factor when he was 19, said: “The first few years of school were tough because I was bullied. I think that’s what has come across on the shows because it’s clear that I’ve got issues with my confidence.

“At school it was on-going and it takes its toll on you over time. I still have problems when I’m being judged or trying to show that I’m talented. I just don’t believe I can win at anything ever.”

But Andy hopes that his time on the X Factor will help him to rebuild his self confidence, and thinks that Dannii has already put him on the right road.

Andy said: “Dannii built up my confidence. She said when I’m on the live stage I’ve got to get my head in gear because otherwise it could let me down.”

Watch Andy Williams’ first audition on this series of The X Factor. Tonight we saw him him get through to the live shows, do you think he deserves to be there?

SPOILER ALERT! If you don’t want to know what happens ns in tomorrow nights show, stop reading now!

First up win tomorrow nights X Factor show, we are in Ibiza with Dannii are the 14 – 24s boys, Rhydian Roberts, Andy Williams, Luke Bayer, Charlie Finn, Dominic Harris and Leon Jackson.

Dannii has hand picked a song for each of the boys and along with music writer and producer Terry Roland, who has worked with Girl’s Aloud, Westlife and our very own Dannii Minogue, they will have the hard task of picking just three from the six boys to go through to the live shows. Jubilant with the category she was given at Bootcamp Dannii is confident she has a potential winner within the six, “I know what I’m looking for” says Dannii, “But I don’t know which one will pull it out of the bag today. It’s completely open at this stage.”

First up to perform, singing Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word by Elton John, is 21 yr old Andy Williams from Newport. Andy’s dream of being a singer is a world away from his normal 9 – 5 job as an asbestos remover, “I have to suit up each day and put my mask on, everything has to be really air tight because of the obvious dangers of working with asbestos. I don’t think you could get much further away from what I am doing now, to sing for a living would be a million in one chance, like winning the lottery”. This has been a long term ambition for Andy and he has spent the last three years getting in shape for this moment, but will his nerves hold out? After his performance Dannii spots his weakness and comments to Terry that she “worries about his nerves”, but for a tearful Andy he’s done all he can and now he just has to wait for the others to perform.

Someone who should be feeling confident is 15 year old Dominic Smith who sailed through his first audition winning huge praise from Simon Cowell. “Months ago I was just dreaming of performing on the show, and now here I am in Ibiza about to perform in front of Dannii Minogue, it’s mad and like a dream come true.” Dominic’s family have been there to support him all the way and for Dominic, “they are the ones who inspire me to do this and I think this is what I was born to do”. Singing I’ll Be There by the Jackson 5, Dominic is hoping that he has done enough to bring his dream alive and to return home with good news for his family.

For all the boys being in a luxury villa in Ibiza is giving them a glimpse of what life could be like for them in the future, but for 18 yr old Leon Jackson, it really is a million miles away form the life he is used too. “Back home I live on a normal council estate and it is extremely different to this lifestyle. It’s always just been me and my Mum and she’s had to make so many sacrifices all her life to make sure there is food on the table and make sure she was doing all she could to bring up her son well.”

It’s been an emotional journey for Leon as he realises that achieving his dream could change his life completely for him, and his Mum. “I would love to just reward her for all her hard work over the years, and by doing well in this competition I’m a step closer to achieving that goal”.

Singing Chasing Cars by Snow patrol, Leon fluffs up on his first couple of lines, but will his nerves hold out to give a strong enough performance to impress Dannii and Terry?

It’s a nerve racking time for all the boys as they realise that messing up the song could cost them their dream. Worried more than most is the normally, very confident, 19 year old barman Charlie. Charlie messed his words up at Bootcamp and he knows that today he needs to put in a performance of a life time if he has any chance of staying in the competition, “The only person that is stopping me from doing what I want to do is myself. I don’t want to dream anymore I want to live it now, I want to chase it, I want to be somebody.”

After singing Take That’s Patience Dannii and Terry look quite impressed with his vocal performance, but as Dannii explains “there’s a few question marks there, but there’s something”.

Next up is the overtly confident 24 year old Rhydian Roberts, who sees The X Factor as a stepping stone to bigger things, “I feel like I am on this planet to perform” explains Rhydian. ”Performing in front of millions of people is the best thing someone like me could hope to do. Wouldn’t it be amazing to use my god given talent to sing around the world, have number one albums and singles. On the back of that be knighted and meet the Queen, these are the kind of dreams I’m filled with”. However there is one person standing between Rhydian and his dream and that’s Dannii, who certainly didn’t take to Rhydian in his first audition. “The fact that Dannii said no to me in the first round is playing on my mind and worrying me because she’s my mentor. But the fortune favours the brave, these things are possible. It is there on the plate and I just need to step up to that plate and take it”.

Singing Queen’s Somebody to Love Terry asks Dannii if she thinks whether he comes across as “slightly pompous…!” But Dannii does argue that if anyone could deliver on the live shows then it’s Rhydian. But Rhydian is not happy with his performance, “I really needed to nail it and I didn’t. I’m really upset now because I think I’m going home”.

Last to sing for the boys is the youngest male contestant, 15 year old Luke Bayer, who to date, has had an emotional journey and at times he’s felt the pressure all too much, “I know I am a really emotional person but that’s just because it means so much to me and if I was to have a no I’d feel like I’d let everyone down. I am hoping Dannii sees potential in me today and she can give me a chance, because I know I am quite young but I want to prove I can do it”.

After singing Mandy by Barry Manilow Luke runs off in tears declaring to Dermot that his performance was “awful” has he blown his chance and will there be even more tears to come?

With all the performances over it’s time for Dannii and Terry to decide which of the three to take through to the live shows but with Dannii unable to make a decision between two of the boys she chooses to sleep on it, giving the boys an agonising over night wait.

History:

* Andy lives at home with his Mum and Dad and elder brother, Lee, 25. For the last four years Andy and his brother have been running their own asbestos removal company.
* Andy actually auditioned for X Factor when he was 19 but got turned down. So he spent three years training every night and has been going out clubbing regularly to practise his dance moves, and he’s hoping to impress Brian Friedman!
* After getting through the first round audition Andy got a “music” tattoo on his bum, the same as his Dad and Brother!

Age: 22

From: Newport, South Wales

Job: Runs an asbestos removal company with his brother