Andrea pleads for X Factor reprieve

X Factor hopeful Andrea Faustini has pleaded with viewers to send him through to the next round – and he has extra motivation to succeed.

“Please vote for me because I don’t have a house here in the UK, I don’t know where to go!” the Italian crooner joked last night.

He earned praise all around from the judges belting out Sia’s hit Chandelier as the smoke machines worked overtime.

“You took that song, which is one of the hardest songs you could ever sing, and made it your own,” judge and former Spice Girl Mel B raved.

“You do something to me!”

Andrea said finding himself in the bottom two last week when votes were cast last week had been a serious reality check: “It was hard, but I think it made me realise I need to work even harder.

“I’m fighting.”

The baby of the season, Lauren Platt, fell flat with her first tune Gravity, picked out by girl group Little Mix.

Judge Cheryl Fernandez-Versini revealed the 17-year-old had soldiered on despite coming down with a throat infection earlier in the week that had threatened to keep her offstage altogether.

“I could not be more proud of you for getting out there like a trooper,” she said.

But the poorly teenager turned it around with her take on the Swedish House Mafia crowd-pleaser Don’t You Worry Child, which she said brought back “so many memories” of good times with her pals.

“You are the perfect little pop star,” judge Louis Walsh gushed after her dramatic performance.

Simon Cowell, infamous for his tough-crowd critiques, said he had worried Lauren had lost her touch when she struggled to bring home Gravity.

“And then you started singing the second song and I changed my mind,” he said.

“What it did Lauren was it reminded me of the very first time we saw you … I think that song may have saved you.”

There was no Hail Mary save necessary for Fleur East, who won over the judges with Tina Turner’s A Fool In Love.

Dressed to impress throughout in flares and trademark wild curls, Fleur wowed with her confidence.

“Somebody’s got to go tomorrow night,” Simon told her.

“And it can’t be you, Fleur.”

Louis agreed, telling her simply: “You have to make the finals.”

Ben Haenow rocked in a leather jacket and a Beatles track chosen for him by old favourites One Direction, Come Together, followed by Ed Sheeran’s Thinking Out Loud.

Meanwhile eight-piece boy band Stereo Kicks appeared to be on shaky ground, even though they earned cheers from the audience with a return to an old faithful, the Bruno Mars hit Just The Way You Are.

Mel told the boys her 15-year-old daughter Phoenix was a big fan, but their vocals weren’t up to scratch, “especially for this stage in the competition”.

The show returns tonight, when the final five will be whittled down to four.

Andrea pleads for X Factor reprieve