Louis Walsh was pleased and chuffed on tonight’s X Factor show as another Irish hopeful came to the fore.

We reported earlier this year that Belfast born teenager Jade Collins‘ wowed the panel when she tried out for the ITV show recently and this evening her performance was shown in full, on the penultimate audition show of the series.

Before singing, the cute hopeful revealed that she has struggled with family problems in her past and mentioned a few times that her dad isn’t in touch with her right now and has been in and out of prison for much of her formative years.

Jade’s mum accompanied her to the tryout and told producers that her daughter is incredibly focused on her music and dedicates all her spare time to rehearsal and learning new songs. The pair seemed to be very close and had a lovely dynamic, which made us invest even more in Collins before she had even sang.

When she did take to the stage, Jade told the judges about her daddy issues and Tulisa seemed to understand more than most, having battled with similar parental problems herself.

Collins confessed:

‘I’d just be much happier if my daddy was here to see this.’

Jade is close to the perfect X Factor contestant, because not only does she have the whole compelling background story going on, but she can really sing too and the judges looked on in amazement, as she belted out ‘Sweet Dreams’ by Beyonce.

It was a stripped back, slowed down and really lovely version. There were one or two wobbles, but Jade was so invested in the song that she totally sold the performance to the judges and the audience.

After the audition Take That star Gary Barlow revealed that he did love her singing but told the teenager off for not warming up properly, he said her lack of preparation affected her ability to hit some of her top notes.

Louis Walsh enjoyed Collins’ ‘raw emotion’, telling her that he could clearly see her ‘pain inside’ when she sang.

Tulisa saw something very ‘special’ in Jade and praised the teenage hopeful for the ‘spark’ she displayed in her audition, while guest judge Anastacia raved:

‘You are 17 and you have so much passion in your heart.’

Unsurprisingly, Jade won four yeses from the panel and sailed through to the bootcamp round. Viewers will find out next weekend if she made it past that stage and onto judges houses and if she did, the Belfast lass will be mentored by Tulisa Contostavlos, who has landed the girls category this year.

Did you enjoy Jade’s performance tonight? Do you think she’s good enough for the live shows? Leave your comments below…