The X Factor returned for its new series tonight - and two auditions in particular were the big winners with viewers.

The first contestant to stop the judges in their tracks was 16-year-old Samantha Lavery who arrived at the auditions with her granddad. He was a wannabe singer and performer back in the day, but had to give it up in order to provide for his family. https://twitter.com/SamanthaLavery_/status/768092436421865472 Samantha paid tribute to him as she gave an electrifying rendition of Ellie Goulding's 'Explosions'. The reaction was instantly positive. https://twitter.com/lukageee_hewett/status/769616775759691777 https://twitter.com/PowerWayne/status/769617406130028545 https://twitter.com/KittyKatPK/status/769617044262248448 https://twitter.com/Beno_ldn/status/769616672995045376 Samantha might only be a teenager but she's a dab hand at this lark already: she has recorded and released a single called 'A Mile Apart', and is a regular performer at gigs and festivals. https://twitter.com/simon_dukey/status/745964062752837632 A little while later in the opening instalment of the show came 19-year-old Christian Burrows, whose audition started very unpromisingly by attempting a stripped-back acoustic version of John Denver's 'Country Roads'. At that point, an unimpressed Simon Cowell stopped him, and after some chat, Christian revealed that he had one of his own songs that he could perform instead. The track is called 'Thunder Buddy', and was written about his brother who died at two months old. “It’s a song that means everything to me, and only my mum’s heard it," he explained. Watch the performance below: https://twitter.com/TheXFactor/status/769618852237893632 Sure enough, judges were wowed, as were the viewers.  https://twitter.com/MattEdmondson/status/769618685661155328 https://twitter.com/liammckenna1/status/769619783641948162 https://twitter.com/dalemcdermott/status/769620007890321409 https://twitter.com/TheXFactor/status/769619724527366148