Shaheen Jafargholi’s prospects looked bleak when the infamously hard to impress Cowell brought the audition to an abrupt halt just one verse into his rendition of “Valerie,” the Zutons’ song covered by Amy Winehouse.

“You’ve got this really wrong,” Cowell told him. “What do you sing apart from that?”

Jafargholi instead offered to perform “Who’s Loving You,” written by Smokey Robinson and performed by a young Michael Jackson with the Jackson Five, bringing screams of delight from the audience as he launched into a note-perfect rendition that brought a beaming Cowell and fellow judges Piers Morgan and Amanda Holden to their feet.