Bermudian Hailey Smith was excited and fired up for more last night after her auditions for Britain’s X Factor, Europe’s biggest singing talent contest.

“It’s been a very long day,” Ms Smith said, but the 18-year-old “enjoyed every minute” in front of the judges for her tryout, performing Sam Smith’s I’m Not the Only One, plus If I Ain’t Got You by Alicia Keys.

“It’s such a fun experience, and nothing I ever thought that I would be doing.”

Naturally, judges took interest in the fact that she came from Bermuda. Ms Smith said she’d grown up in St George’s, but moved to United Kingdom when she was 13, living now in Crawley, West Sussex.

“I moved with my family to have better opportunities — for example, to try for X Factor,” she said.

“I’ve always been interested in the arts; I finally just decided that I needed to go for my dream. I was encouraged by my parents and others and I went for it.”

The second round of auditions comes tomorrow. After that will be the final cut in front of the four judges. “It’s been great to get feedback from people so high up,” Ms Smith said — although judges also had questions about the Island’s beaches and climate.

If successful, Ms Smith will be on screen late this summer for the 2015 offering of the show, hosted by TV presenter Caroline Flack and Olly Murs, a singer who was runner-up in 2009. X Factor has turned into a global franchise over the past decade, but the UK version is the originator of the series — and the last season, which wrapped up in December, had nearly nine million viewers in Britain.