MARY BYRNE survived another week on ITV's X Factorin spite of producing her weakest performance in the competition so far.
On Saturday's American-themed show, the check-out worker from Ballyfermot was visibly shaken after struggling through Faith Hill's There You'll Befrom the 2001 film Pearl Harbor, which she had never sung live before.
It was the first time Byrne, who turned 51 last week, performed a song written in the 21st century on the show after she had been repeatedly urged to update her repertoire.
However, the move backfired when judges picked up on Byrne’s uneasiness with the material.
“I think tonight, for whatever reason, you didn’t feel like you were inside the song,” said Dannii Minogue.
Fellow judge Cheryl Cole added: “You seemed very emotional tonight and not really yourself.” When host Dermot O’Leary then commented that Byrne looked “shattered”, the Dubliner admitted she was missing her 23-year-old daughter Deborah, whom she has never been apart from for more than a week.
"I haven't been in the zone at all . . . I've been feeling quite low and lonely for my daughter," she said. "I'm very nervous tonight and I honestly don't know why." X Factor's other Irish contestant, 17-year-old Niall Horan from Mullingar, earned a place in the next round after his boy band One Direction were voted through for their performance of Kim Wilde's Kids in America.
Katie Waissel and Treyc Cohen were paired against each other in last night’s sing-off before the judges ultimately decided to eliminate Cohen.