This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Demi Lovato and Britney Spears will replace Paula Abdul and Nicole Scherzinger as judges in the second season of the FOX singing competition, "The X-Factor," airing this fall.Although she is only 19, Lovato proved Thursday night at EnergySolutions Arena that she is a good judge of her own talent, knowing how to perform and work a crowd into a frenzy.Simply put, Lovato showed that at times she had the x-factor.Lovato is often dismissed as yet another teen-aged flavor-of-the-month rolling off the assembly line, destined to follow in the forgotten footsteps of Tiffany and Debbie Gibson. And when Lovato dropped out of a tour in late 2010 to enter rehab for an eating disorder and cutting herself, it seemed as if her career was as good as over, with much of her appeal up until then being squeaky clean.But Lovato completed the treatment, and late last year she released her third and best album, "Unbroken," and showed that she was able to make the difficult step from teen queen to an artist with the potential to have a long-lasting career — much like Spears. Two of Lovato's songs from the past year — "Skyscraper" and "Give Your Heart a Break" — have become top-20 hits.
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