Ashley MacKenzie is 20, from Croydon and currently unemployed. He is the dark horse of the 16-24 year old group and is second in the betting behind favourite Leona Lewis. He made an immediate impact in the Bristol X Factor auditions when he sang Stevie Wonder's "Ribbon in the Sky" and Simply Red's "Holding Back the Years".



He was proclaimed "brilliant" and with "a great style" by Simon Cowell while Sharon Osbourne stated he was the second person she would remember on the day. Louis Walsh was also enthusiastic and said he had a great voice.

Ashley is one of five children; he has two sisters called Leah and Ella and two brothers called David and Rory. He has sung all his life although not in a professional sense.

He describes his musical influences as varied. As a child he listened to what his sister was into at the time, such as Grease, Dirty Dancing and old school R & B. It was his mother's music collection which allowed him to appreciate Reggae, Queen, and retro music through to his current tastes of Little Mo, Amy Winehouse, Beyonce and Stevie Wonder.

Ashley names Little Mo as his favourite artist in terms of vocal capability and his favourite album is one of hers called "Based On A True Story". He has respect for all the big players in the industry such as Barry White, Luther Vandross and Stevie Wonder.

He does not come from a musical background and his family are more into sports than music. Ashley has a cousin who plays professional football and his uncle Clinton is a former boxing champion. Ashley himself is a keen gymnast and won a trophy in 2000. He has previously done modelling work for Topman and Storm.

After a promising start at the initial auditions, Ashley found Bootcamp a struggle. He felt that the Ronettes' "Be My Baby" would be the song that could earn him a number one hit but he left the judges unimpressed.

Simon Cowell said "I feel like I've backed a horse that won't go the distance" and "his phrasing was so bad". Ashley clawed back some credibility during the final stages of bootcamp when he performed James Blunt's "Beautiful".

Simon claimed "This guy is really really good, when he's good he's good, when he's bad…" Simon also described Ashley as "cocky, unreliable and all over the place" and that he "worried about his reliability to be able to perform at the live shows"

If the X Factor judges want something different to separate the winners and losers, Ashley is willing to try some ska to set him apart from the rest.