A Tucson college student is among 150 contestants on Simon Cowell's new talent show "The X Factor."
Tonight, Tucsonan Tora Woloshin will start "X Factor" boot camp, two shows' worth of performance workouts that will clear the deck of more than two-thirds of the contestants.
"It's in Cali and it's really a crazy, crazy time. You'll have to see it. It's very difficult and emotional," Woloshin said during a phone call from her Tucson home Tuesday, speaking cautiously so as not to give anything away. "You'll just have to watch and find out. I can't say that much about it."
The boot camp segments airing tonight and Thursday were taped in Pasadena, Calif., said Hayley Hindinger, a show spokeswoman. By the end of Thursday, the contestant pool will be cut down to 32.
"It's a huge elimination. The 32 that make it through are split into groups, the guys under 30, the girls under 30, men and women over 30 and then the vocal groups. Each of the judges will take one of those groups to mentor," she said.
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Think "American Idol" meets "The Voice" - a new talent contest that takes its cue from the European version of "X Factor" that has aired for seven years, Hindinger said
Woloshin said her lifetime of performing prepared her for "The X Factor." The 21-year-old Pima Community College student has been singing and dancing in Tucson since she was 6, including fronting the popular rock band Less Than Famous a couple years ago.
Her "X Factor" audition came in late June on the heels of winning the local Lucky Break talent contest.
"The night of the last Lucky Break show (in June), we started driving straight up to Seattle for the audition," she said. "It was back to back, and it did help my confidence a lot."
Contestants who make it past the group-mentoring will get a chance to go home with their judges for one-on-one training before 16 contestants advance to the live shows leading up to the Dec. 22 finale.
On StarNet: See a video of Tora Woloshin azstarnet.com/video
Tune in
"The X Factor," featuring Tucsonan Tora Woloshin, at 7 p.m. today and Thursday on KMSB Fox 11.
Follow Woloshin's progress at the Caliente Tuned In blog, go.azstarnet.com/tunedin
