MEGAN McKenna has told how four years of being judged on reality telly has been tough ahead of her appearance on X Factor: Celebrity.
The 27-year-old star says she feels nervous over how fans will perceive her when they watch her audition for Simon Cowell’s talent show on Saturday night.
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Megan rose to fame on Towie, Ex On The Beach and Celebrity Big Brother and was branded Mental Megs for her screaming matches and outbursts.
However, she’s ready to show the public her “real” side as she told Sun Online: “I hope people can just watch it and listen to my story and just listen to the real me.
“I feel like I’ve had a tough few – it must be about four years now – on reality shows where I get judged left right and centre and I’ve had a very 50/50 reaction.
“This is a completely different show, this is just me being me, there’s no cutting in there, arguments there, drama there, so I just hope they can see me for me.”
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Now viewers will hear the Essex beauty’s incredible voice after she launched a music career and turned her back on reality shows.
But it hasn’t been an easy transition, as Megan, who has ditched her lip fillers for the show, said: “I’ve got a lot of pressure because I’ve been really trying to crack the music industry for a long time now and I think coming off of reality shows, people have a perception of me and they judge me on shows I’ve done and it’s really difficult to be taken seriously.
“So I feel like coming on this show, people can see how much this means to me and they will take my music seriously. That’s why i wanted to do it.”
Megan once had a furious bust-up with Simon where he told her she’d be a flop.
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But she confidently croons in front of an audience of music industry executives in Simon’s back garden in Los Angeles in Saturday’s second episode of the talent show – and the head honcho is gripped.
Megan came face to face with Simon after the music mogul, 59, laughed at her for wanting to sing country music back in 2015.
The telly star auditioned for X Factor twice in 2014 and 2015, and got to boot camp on both occasions yet all evidence of her appearance on the talent show has apparently been removed.
Touching on her experience this time around, she said: “I always feel like when I come off stage, feeling like I sounded good, thinking ‘Ok, I’ve done alright,’ but I just never know because I’m so hard on myself.
“When I watch myself back I’m like, ‘Oh my god, no, that’s a bum note, I can’t do that, that didn’t sound good’, but I’m feeling 70 percent good about it.”
She added about meeting Simon again: “I don’t know if he remembers me or not I was so young. I was 16, in a girl band, but I’ve grown up a lot.
“Obviously me coming on this show, showcasing me as a singer, a solo artist, it’s completely different.”
Not only is she appearing on the celebrity version of X Factor, she also topped the Country Music iTunes chart back in 2017 with her debut single High Heeled Shoes – and even toppled Taylor Swift that week.
She has since toured the UK and the US with her album Story of Me.
But it is this weekend that Megan will be showcasing her talents back on X Factor as she stars on the star spin-off show.
However, viewers will see Megan cry when she comes out of a rehearsal for her audition, as the pressure builds to get through to the live shows.
She is joined by a whole host of celebrities including chat show host Ricki Lake, Glee’s Kevin McHale, The Chase’s Jenny ‘The Vixen’ Ryan and a group made up of Love Island stars Wes Nelson, Zara McDermott, Eyal Booker and Samira Mighty.
Speaking about Megan on the show, judge Louis Walsh told The Sun: “Megan McKenna will surprise a lot of people though.
“I was down in Essex for the first time ever this week. She is everything I thought she wasn’t. She takes it very seriously and works hard.”
- Catch the first epsiode of X Factor: Celebrity on Saturday at 8.35pm
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