Saara Aalto

Saara Aalto
Contestant Profile
Birth Date	2 May 1987
Age	37
Hometown	Helsinki, Finland
Occupation	Singer Voice actress
13
Category	Over 25s
Mentor	Sharon Osbourne
Placement	Runner-up (2/12)
Gallery

Saara Sofia Aalto (born 2 May 1987) is a Finnish singer from Helsinki who competed in Series 13 of The X Factor as part of the Over 25s mentored by Sharon Osbourne. Initially eliminated at the Six Chair Challenge she was chosen as a wildcard by Nicole Scherzinger.

Due to the eliminations of Relley C and Honey G, she was the last act remaining in her category. She reached the final, finishing as runner-up to Matt Terry.

Performances

Episode	Theme	Song	Result
Audition	Free choice	"Chandelier"	Advanced
Bootcamp	Group performance	"On the Radio"	Advanced
Six Chair Challenge		"I See Fire"	Eliminated
Judges' houses	Free choice	"The Winner Takes It All"	Advanced
Week 1	Express Yourself	"Let It Go"	Bottom three
Week 2	Motown	"River Deep - Mountain High"	Bottom three
Week 3	Divas	"It's Oh So Quiet"	Safe
Week 4	Fright Night	"Bad Romance"	Safe
Week 5	Girlband v Boyband	"Sound of the Underground"	Bottom three
Week 6	Disco	"No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)"	Safe
Week 7	Movies	"My Heart Will Go On"	Safe
Week 8	Louis Loves	"The Winner Takes It All"	Safe
	Contestant's Choice	"Diamonds Are Forever" / "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend"
Week 9: Semi Finals	Christmas	"All I Want for Christmas is You"	Safe
	Songs to get you to the final	"Chandelier"
Week 10: Final	Free choice	"Everybody Wants to Rule the World"	Safe
	Celebrity duet	"Bohemian Rhapsody" (with Adam Lambert)
	Song of the series	"It's Oh So Quiet"	Runner-up
	Contestant's Choice	"I Didn't Know My Own Strength"

Post The X Factor

Following the final, Adam Lambert and British electronic group Clean Bandit expressed an interest in working with her.

On December 20, she confirmed in a press conference held in Helsinki that she had signed a joint deal with Sony Music Finland and Sony Music UK and hopes to collaborate with Sia. In early 2017, she embarked on her first solo tour, with X Factor winner and friend Matt Terry appearing onstage with her in Finland.

In summer 2017, she was confirmed as a judge on the Finnish version of The X Factor. In October, she confirmed that she had left Sony Music and signed a deal with Warner Music.

In November 2017, it was announced that she would be representing Finland at the Eurovision Song Contest 2018, making her the fifth 'X Factor UK' participant to take part in the Contest, following Andy Abraham, Jedward, Ruth Lorenzo and Lucie Jones.  In March 2018, it was announced that 'Monsters' would be the Finnish representative, after winning a special edition of Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (New Music festival) where she performed 3 songs that she co wrote (the other two were called 'Domino' and 'Queens', and were also part of her album) and she confirmed via social media that it would serve as her international debut single. At Eurovision in mid-May, she reached the Grand Final, breaking Finland's three-year non-qualification streak, but only managed a 25th place in a field of 26.

On 27th April 2018, she released her debut international album Wild Wild Wonderland.

She subsequently partook on Dancing on Ice in the UK for 2019, and went on to reach the final, again losing out, placing 3rd.

Discography

Singles

2017

"Monsters"

Judges Rank

Year	Category	Last Act	Position
2018	Girls	Tika Liljegren	Winner

Trivia

• She holds the record for reaching the final in spite of being in the sing-off three times, where she was saved each time.
• In all the weeks she was in the bottom three, she received the most votes of the bottom three acts in the main public vote. She received more votes than Freddy Parker and Bratavio in Week 1, Ryan Lawrie and Parker in Week 2 and Four of Diamonds and Sam Lavery in Week 5. This meant that if there was not a lifeline vote, Aalto would have never been in the sing-off.