Who is Ivy Grace Paredes? The X Factor contestant forced to quit, here’s a few things you didn’t know
The Whitney Houston fan was eliminated from the show due to American visa issues
SHE was praised as being one of the acts to watch and hailed by Simon Cowell as “one of the best we’ve ever had” – but Ivy Grace Parades’s X Factor dream has sadly come to an end.
She has been forced to quit the show as she was refused an American visa which meant she couldn’t travel to mentor Sharon Osbourne’s Judges’s House in Los Angeles.
But as fans call for Simon Cowell to step in and help and bring her back in the competition, who exactly is Ivy Grace?
FAR EAST MEETS MIDDLE EAST
Ivy, 33, is from the Philippines but moved to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates seven years ago in search of a better life.
She landed a job as a singer at the Comedy Junction Bar in Al Mamzar and then won UAE’s Global Pinoy Singing Idol, a competition organised by Filipino radio station DZMM.
Last April she signed a contract with the Regent Palace Hotel to be the Rocky’s Café’s resident singer but in May she was invited to audition for the X Factor, resigned from her new job and flew to the UK.
A SINGER FOR LIFE
The diminutive singer was born in Davao del Sur in southern Philippines but grew up in Malaybalay, Bukidnon.
At nine years old she started singing professionally and in competitions and at 14 she left school to pursue her love of singing and work as one to financially support her family.
She took part in several competitions in the Philippines including Talentadong Pinoy, the Philippines’ version of the Got Talent franchise.
THE X FACTOR BECKONED
Despite working as a professional singer and being inspired by 4th Impact, a Filipino girl group that got to fifth place in last year’s series of The X Factor, Ivy Grace was too scared to follow in their footsteps.
Then she met businessman Kunal Bhansali at a competition in Dubai and he encouraged her to enter.
LOOKING AHEAD
Despite her wowing judges and audiences alike with her amazing and powerful rendition of two Whitney Houston songs, Ivy has had to be eliminated because of the visa issue. She returns to Dubai next month to perform in a show at Club Asia in Wafi Mall.
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But her motivation to keep going is her daughter and speaking to Gulf News, she said: “I don’t know yet what happens after X Factor UK, but I do know that I need to work hard for her.
“I really want to be successful for my daughter. Most of the time I’m travelling and I’m afraid anytime anything could happen. So that’s why I want to make my life secure because that’s what I’m going to leave to my daughter — a life that is secure. I need to be both a loving mother and a father who works for her future.”
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