A recent performance by a 16-year-old girl on the British reality television series, the X Factor UK, was enough to bring one of the judges to tears. The girl, Ella Henderson, chose to perform Cher’s song, “Believe,” as a slow ballad. That was in contrast to the original version, which is an uptempo version that was created with faster dancing in mind. Henderson also used her full, actual voice, in contrast to Cher’s auto-tune enhanced version that led some critics to ridicule it.
Once Henderson’s performance was concluding, one of the judges, Nicole Scherzinger, was seen wiping tears from her eyes. Scherzinger later said that the lyrics served as a source of inspiration for anyone, saying that, “I can do it.” Then, she said, “We can’t touch her. We need to be in awe of her.” Scherzinger was then seen fanning herself.
Another of the judges noted at the start of his critique that the song would be in his Top Five of most annoying songs of all time, and very near the top. However, he soon noted that Henderson’s version was worth paying a lot of money to hear again, describing the performance as “amazing.”
Henderson said that the decision on choosing that song was, in her words, “to take her out of her comfort zone,” and do something she ordinarily wouldn’t perform.To get to that point in the first place, Henderson impressed the judges enough during the audition process by performing a song she had personally written.