14 DAY TRIAL // After the judges’ house stage, X Factor reject Annastasia Baker made some startling claims according to which hopeful Katie Waissel had actually worked as recording artist before coming on the show. As it turns out, it’s true that she did.
Rules say no X Factor contestant is allowed on the show if he or she had a record label before. However, when the allegations regarding Katie came to light, producers took no steps to have her eliminated.
The Daily Mail has now learned that, indeed, not only does Katie have a past as a struggling recording artist, but that she’s also connected with Sony BMG, which co-owns the rights to Simon Cowell’s label SyCo.
In other words, Katie came as close as it gets to the recording machine behind the show – and she wasn’t even a contestant when she did so. Whether these most recent claims will influence her position on the show is yet to be determined.
“Katie Waissel, described on the ITV1 show as a part-time receptionist, has extensive links with executives at Sony BMG, the record label that jointly owns the rights to the show with Simon Cowell,” the Mail reports.
Apparently, Katie was first spotted by Sony staff in 2004 and they were so impressed by how talented she was that she was asked to audition to the Vice President at the New York headquarters.
As recently as 2 years ago, Katie (back then working under the stage name of Katie Vogel) was receiving career advice from Sony’s head of UK artists and repertoire. She also toured with 2005 X Factor runner-up Andy Abraham.
“Sony is a partner with Cowell in Syco, the company set up to manage and exploit the commercial potential of The X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent. Cowell has described the company as ‘my home for 15 years’, while his talent shows reportedly provide 70 per cent of Sony UK’s annual profits,” the Mail says.
So far, there have been no signs that Katie’s connections have earned her extra points on the show, but fans and even some of the contestants believe she’s been treated with more leniency because of them.
“Katie was not known at all to either Simon Cowell or anyone at Syco before she entered The X Factor. Syco has nothing to do with artists’ tours or their support acts. Those are run by independent agents,” a rep for SyCo tells the Mail about the recently surfaced claims.