Hundreds of Northland X Factor hopefuls flocked to Whangarei hoping for their 15 minutes of fame and chance at stardom.
Tauraroa Area School student Elese Russell, 16, said she initially had not planned to audition but did not want to miss the opportunity. "It was real last-minute, really," she said. "I was thinking otherwise that I would be really regretful".
She was one of hundreds of people who attended the first-stage auditions at ASB Sports Arena at Kensington Park that ran from 3-8pm.
Elese planned to sing Apologize by One Republic but said she would not be too disappointed if she did not get through to the next round.
"On TV I watched it and there's so many people out there (waiting to audition) and I don't know what to think," she said.
Kaitaia College's Laura Gorrie, 14, travelled from the Far North with best friend Maia Wood, 14, for the auditions.
After her audition she said it was not as scary as she had initially thought, though she was not expecting to make it to the next round. "I'm not getting in I don't think because they said they very rarely let 14 or 15-year-olds in," Laura said.
"I was really nervous going in there but once I got in there it was actually really fun".
Maia had a handmade "Go Laura" sign which was waiting for her, slightly embarrassed, best friend after her audition.
"I asked her not to but she did it anyway ..." Laura said.
Northland's Troy Kingi, a nationally well known actor and singer, proved to be the motivation for Ritchie Brown, 18, who used to be Mr Kingi's opening act.
Mr Brown planned to sing Mr Kingi's song True Love for his audition, hoping it would make the judges fall for him.
"I asked him if I could sing his song and he said 'Yea Bro. All good'," Mr Brown said.
The X Factor hopefuls sung in front of the shows two producers and if they got a "yes" or a "Maybe" then they were invited to attend the next round of auditions in Auckland.