Sixteen year old Ella Henderson closed tonight’s X Factor episode and as they say, they saved the best until last.

The teenage singer from Tetney in Linconshire showed up to Manchester to try out for the ITV show earlier this year and revealed that she has been writing her own material since she was 13 years old, inspired by her late grandfather who always encouraged her love of music.

She took to the stage and sang her own composition for the panel, and though she dedicated the tune to her granddad, the lyrics were about an ex boyfriend and not a dead relative. She later explained that when writing the song, she felt like her grandfather was in the room, guiding her along.

The performance was enough to lift Mel B out of her grumpy mood and after spending the whole afternoon slating almost anyone who took to the stage, the former Spice Girls raved about Ella insisting that her song had ‘hit a chord’ with everyone. She gushed about the teenager’s ‘clever’ song writing and added:

“It made me go into my own little world, and go OMG, I felt like that at one point.”

The mum of three added:

“That’s hard so to do as a song writer. When you sang it, you just made me believe every single word, I was right there with you.”

It was nice to see Mel being so positive for a change and Louis continued the praise, declaring that Henderson is a ‘class act’ who delivered a ‘brilliant audition.’

Take That star Gary Barlow knows a thing or two about penning his own songs and was full of praise for Ella, saying her song was ‘out of this world’ and incredibly ‘special.’: That performance was absolutely out of this world, it really was. That was really something special, thank you very much for that.

Tulisa Contostavlos could see the potential too and admitted that she was desperate to mentor Ella in late stages of the competition.

Unsurprisingly the teenager received four yeses and won a place in bootcamp. Did you enjoy her performance tonight? Do you think she’ll make the live shows? Leave your comments below…