Amelia Lily

Lily auditioned for The X Factor in Liverpool in front of judges Louis Walsh, Gary Barlow, Tulisa, and Kelly Rowland in 2011. She sang Erma Franklin's "Piece of My Heart" and won praise from all four judges. Barlow said, "...oh my goodness, 16 years old that was incredible. That absolutely lifted the top of this arena, well done. Amazing vocals. Amelia I am blown away..."[6]

She progressed through boot camp to the judges' houses, where she sang "E.T." by Katy Perry in front of Rowland and guest judge Jennifer Hudson. Lily made it to the live shows in Rowland's girls category, along with Misha B, Janet Devlin and Sophie Habibis. She performed "Billie Jean" receiving positive reviews. The judges loved her performance on the Britain vs America theme show, with Walsh saying, "Amelia, you deserve to be on that stage"; Barlow also gave her thumbs-up, commenting, "That was a really great opening to the show" but she was the first of the girls category to be eliminated from the live shows on 9 October by decision of her mentor. There was no public vote in the inaugural live show. After her surprise elimination, Lily continued to perform at clubs. Prior to the sixth live show of The X Factor, it was announced that Frankie Cocozza had been axed and that the public would be given the chance to reinstate a contestant eliminated during the first live show. Lily was voted back into the competition after winning 48.8% of the vote, beating 2 Shoes, James Michael and Jonjo Kerr. Her comeback performance of "The Show Must Go On" received critical acclaim from all four judges.

In week 7, she sang "Think" by Aretha Franklin. Despite positive comments from the judges, she was in the bottom two with Craig Colton, and was saved after Barlow and Tulisa voted to send Colton through to the quarter-final while Rowland and Walsh voted to send Lily through to the quarter-final. The result went to deadlock and Lily advanced to the quarter-final. In the quarter-final, Lily again received critical acclaim from the judges for her two performances: "China in Your Hand" and "Since U Been Gone", with Barlow commenting that the performance was "really nice to hear ['China in Your Hand'] sung in tune." It was later revealed that she topped the public vote in the quarter-final. On 4 December, she won a place in the final along with Little Mix and Marcus Collins. Throughout the series, she topped the public vote twice and was in the bottom two only once before reaching the finals, where she finished in third place with 26.5% of the public vote.

After Lily embarked on the X Factor tour, it was announced that she had signed a £500,000 record deal with Sony subsidiary Xenomania.[7] In September 2012, she released her debut single, "You Bring Me Joy", which reached number one on iTunes following its release,[8] eventually charting at number two in the UK.[9] Her second single, "Shut Up (and Give Me Whatever You Got)", was released in January 2013, peaking at number 11 on the UK Singles Chart. Her third single, "Party Over", was released in April 2013[10] and reached number 40.

Her debut album was planned to be released on 29 April 2013,[11] and was to be titled Be a Fighter. Lily described the album as featuring an eclectic range of genres—"There's a bit of dubstep on there as well which I think will surprise people! The sound is all over the place but I think the record works because we've only included songs that I really connected with."[12] Lily announced in July 2013 that the album's release had been postponed to record new material for it as she wanted it to be "perfect".[13] Be a Fighter appeared on online retailers later in 2013 with a new release date of 4 February 2014, but was subsequently taken down.

Lily was the support act for Girls Aloud's arena tour, Ten: The Hits Tour, participating from 21 February to 20 March 2013.[14] Lily was also the main support act for Olly Murs's gig at the INTRO Festival.[15] She also performed at Allstarz Summer Party at Madejski Stadium in Reading [16] and later Chester Rocks at Chester Racecourse in June 2013, both of which were alongside Jessie J and Lawson.

In July 2014, Lily announced the release of a single titled "California" with Warner Music, due for release 7 September 2014. Lily released the music video for "California" on 25 July 2014. In 2016, a CD featuring the explicit version of "California" appeared online, including two new tracks, "The Best Of Me Yet (Greatest Night)" and "U Get Me".

In November 2014, it was announced that Lily would be replacing Marcus Collins in the UK tour of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat[17] from February 2015. In May 2015, the London Evening Standard announced that Lily would be taking on the role of Whatsername when Green Day's American Idiot came to London.[18]

In 2017, Lily competed in the twentieth series of Celebrity Big Brother. She left the house on Day 25 as the runner up behind Sarah Harding.[19] Lily returned to the musical theatre stage in the 2017–2018 UK tour of Shrek the Musical in the role of Princess Fiona.[20] In October 2019, it was announced that Lily had joined the cast of the MTV reality series Geordie Shore.[21]