Meeting Simon Cowell made me nervous, says Natalie Bassingthwaighte

Natalie Bassingthwaighte has revealed that she was "very nervous" before meeting Simon Cowell recently.

The Australian singer and actress, who judges the Aussie version of The X Factor alongside Guy Sebastian, Mel B and Ronan Keating, said that Cowell flew them to the US for a pep talk before they began filming.

Former Neighbours star Bassingthwaighte told The Daily Telegraph: "[Simon] said, 'This is not a karaoke competition. These performers have to get up on stage and [we] as mentors have to treat them like they are already artists.'

"He said [we have to] 'give them a show and to give their performance weight and worth. We don't want them to be cardboard cut-outs of artists that already exist'.

Bassingthwaighte also revealed that she will adopt Cowell's "telling-it-like-it-is" approach during filming, saying: "I hate [playing] nice. I'm a nice person, I'm not a nasty person, but I'm not going to say (singers) are not terrible if they are terrible, because I'm going to look like an idiot."

The X Factor host Luke Jacobz claimed earlier this year that Keating and Sebastian were competing to fill the "mean" shoes of former 'Mr Nasty' judge Kyle Sandilands. Sandilands quit the show along with Natalie Imbruglia last year after admitting that he thought the job involved too much "work".

Last year's Aussie X Factor was won by forklift truck driver Altiyan Childs.

Watch a video of Altiyan Childs performing U2's 'Beautiful Day' below: