Latest Apprentice evictee Aoibheann Walsh says she was not the main person to blame and was shocked to find herself even in the boardroom for the final showdown after a music video task. The second episode of the hit BBC series saw the owner of a Hair & Beauty Salon in County Donegal fired by Lord Sugar after she added an AI vocal to her team's track which made the song sound robotic. They had to record a single and produce a music video before pitching for brand sponsorship. After the robotic rap failed to hit the high notes, Lord Sugar said: "Aoibheann, one of the big mistakes being made here was digitising the voice which put a lot of people off… on balance, Aoibheann, I don’t think in the last two tasks I’ve actually heard much from you or see you do much. So, I’m sorry to say, Aoibheann, you’re fired.”.
But hitting back, Aoibheann told the Mirror: "The first task, I know it wasn't shown on the show, but I did a lot of sales, and yeah, if it wasn't for my sales, we would not have won, we would have lost the first challenge. And then also the contribution to the second task. I just feel like, yeah, maybe the AI voice was not the most intelligent move. It was definitely an error on my part. "But there was some reasoning. The brands that we were selling to was Alva Romeo family car,, and Debenhams a family company, simple skincare, also family orientated. So these brands were all very much so like family brands. And then I felt that the genre of music that we chose wasn't very fitting to these brands, so I was trying to soften and mellow it out a little bit by putting the AI voice. I was really, really shocked to think that I was in the boardroom to be honest, I I felt, I didn't feel like I deserved to be there at all. I was unlucky.".
Aoibheann launched her own beauty salon in Ireland at 24 and is now launching Sashsó which is a wearable sash so make-up artists can carry around their tools. The 37-year-old said: "It's ergonomic, it's functional, it's hygienic and it's stylish. I really hope all the other makeup artists, hairdressers and costume designers love it as much as I do because I put a lot of work into it. We need a product that carries our tools when we are doing weddings and are on the go.
"I don't know if there's ever been many patented products ever on The Apprentice before but I feel like Lord Sugar has definitely missed a trick. I'm launching my brand now. "I'm gonna take over the UK and Ireland first, and then my plan is to go to America with it and then go global. "I'm doing pre-sales and getting subscriptions at the moment, and it's in production as we speak. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks it will be ready to go which is very exciting.".
