Tasty Crushie Tuesday: The X Factor's Luke Friend

 

17-year old teen star Luke Friend made headlines in ITV’s The X Factor! The tenth UK series of The X Factor began on ITV on 31 August 2013 and ended on 15 December 2013. The live shows started on 12 October 2013 where Friend was chosen as one of the twelve finalists. During the end of the competition, Friend finished in third place. Nevertheless, his goodlooks, great smile and charming personality sure helped The X Factor ratings went up this year.

* More info and photos after break...

Luke Friend (born 30 April 1996) is a student from Teignmouth in Devon. He was born in Leeds and grew up in the Chapel Allerton area of the city. He also used to live in Shipley, Bradford, where he attended Beckfoot School, before moving to Devon when he was 13. He then attended Coombeshead Academy. In July 2013, Friend won TeenStar 2013.

Friend's room audition, in which he sang "Stand by Me", was the first audition of the series to be broadcast. Walsh commented "You have your own style, your own finish, love your voice. You're different."  Friend's arena audition saw him sing "Too Much Love Will Kill You". He performed "Alone" at bootcamp, and then "Cannonball" and "Somewhere Only We Know" at judges' houses.

In week 6, Friend was in the bottom two with Sam Callahan, but was saved after Walsh refused to vote and then Scherzinger, Barlow and Osbourne all voted to send Callahan home. In week 8, he was again in the bottom two. Walsh and Osbourne backed him, and Scherzinger and Barlow chose to send him home, resulting in deadlock. Friend was saved by the public vote and progressed through to the semi-final. In the semi-final he was in the bottom two again, this time with Rough Copy. Walsh backed Friend as his own act, whilst Barlow did the same with Rough Copy. Scherzinger chose to send Rough Copy into the final, but Osbourne could not decide and so chose to send it to deadlock again. Friend was revealed to have received more votes and was sent through to the final. In the final on 14 December, Friend performed a duet with Ellie Goulding and later finished in third place.

On 19 January 2014, Friend won 'Rising Star of 2014' in the Best of 2013 awards.

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