Croydon's Ben Haenow gives Advertiser readers an exclusive sneak peak behind the doors of the X Factor house as he gets ready for the semi-final this weekend...
I can't believe I'm still here. It's been manic this week, I'm currently getting my nails done and they're trying to get me in the studio.
It's been go, go, go all week. We haven't had much time to sit and think which I think is quite a good thing.
I had a nice family meal on Wednesday. My family surprised me at the X Factor house and I got to have one of my nan's lasagnes and watch some of the shows back with my mum so that was wicked.
I had an OK magazine shoot with my girlfriend, Jess. I was really nice to have her involved and she absolutely loved it. It's crazy I never, ever thought we'd do that. She's great, she's a lovely looking girl so she's going to look brilliant in that magazine.
We filmed Alan Carr Chatty Man earlier in the week too and that was a really surreal moment. It's one of those programmes you watch so to be there on it was unreal.
I'm really looking forward to tonight and I'm really happy with my songs, Please Come Home For Christmas by The Eagles and Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen.
It's a bit of Christmas fun this weekend so it's not quite so intense. But then you still have it looming that this is it, if you get through this you get to the final and you're at Wembley.
It's all coming to a head. Today we've been doing everything to get ready for tonight and it's really getting my nerves up.
To go back to Wembley in the final would make my life. To have that opportunity would be amazing, I can't explain how much it means to me.
Having tried to make a career in music for a long, long time this has validated everything I've done before and makes me feel confident about my singing.
My mum has sacrificed so much in her life so to be able to give something back to her and make my family proud would mean the world to me.
I want to thank everybody so much for their support, particularly back home in Croydon where the it has been overwhelming.
People keep sending me pictures of posters everywhere and I feel really proud to have that community backing me.
I really appreciate everything people have done to support me and I hope I'm doing everyone in Croydon proud.
