Despite having arguably one of the best voices in the competition, the public had remained unmoved. Rachel may have been voted out, but it goes without saying that she was one of the best contestants to grace this year's X-Factor.
As she departs our TV screens for now, we look back over Rachel's X-Factor journey. Where do we start, at the beginning of course, except Rachel is the only one of the 12 finalist whose auditions were not shown on TV and is one of the reasons she was comparatively unknown at the beginning.
So we to roll forward to the Boot camp where she had her real first exposure.
Paolo Nutini's Last Request was Rachel's choice and it was sensational, but also gave a hint of what was to come. When she choose her own songs she was great, but was given too many songs by others that didn't really fit her.
At this point it will be remiss of us not to mention how excitable and endearing Rachel was. When Dannii was introduced as the Mentor of the Girls group she gave us this legendary TV moment.
Off Rachel went to Dubai, the task was to convince Dannii and sister Kylie Minogue that she was deserving of a place in the final.
She sang Pink's Nobody Knows and Kylie and Dannii had some reservations, but they knew she was the real deal, and as we have come to expect more heartfelt emotion from Rachel when the decision was broken to her.
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Now the real work began, getting on stage before a live TV audience of over 12 million and wowing them.
It was the first show and Rachel was the first contestant to perform not a good place to start because by the time the other 11 contestants have performed, people would have forgotten you. Also who's decisions was it to give her Robbie William's Let Me Entertain You? the song is too closely associated with Robbie. Plus the styling was too harsh.
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Sadly this this left her at the end of the show in the bottom two, the Sing-Off, with Kandy Rain and she had to sing for her life. This time she got to choose her own song and despite being gutted she ROCKED! singing Pink's Nobody Knows again.
Kandy Rain versus Rachel? The Judges were split and it went to the deadlock, the public vote decided it and....
....Rachel was through to week 2.
Once again though she was hampered by poor styling and in my opinion a poor song choice. Rachel is not a battling diva like Leona Lewis or even Alexandra Burke, so Beyonce's - If I were a Boy was not really the song for her. Once again her styling was dubious, it was almost a throwback to Grace Jones in the 80's.
The end result same as the last week. Rachel was again in the bottom two, this time against Rikki Loney. Again she rescued herself with her own song choice U2's With or Without You. A bit gravelly in places, but she was emotional.
This time though the Judges saved her and she was through to Week 3.
Two close calls for and no one would blame Rachel if she thought it was all getting too much, but she is more resilient than that and in Week 3 - Big Band Week - she gave a storming performance of Tina Turner's Proud Mary.
This time there was no doubt of the quality of her performance and she was easily through to Week 4.
Week 4 was rock week and Rachel was given U2's One Love and this time she song was right cos she rocked but did she connect with public?
Sadly she didn't and was again in the bottom two facing the idol of teeny boppers across the country Lloyd Daniel. Her sing-off performance of Oasis' - Stop Crying Your Heart Out was in our estimation the best performance on the X-Factor this season, she blew Lloyd out of the water.
Sadly though three times in the bottom two was three times too many, the Judges were split but the voting public had made their mind up
Rachel we've enjoyed your performances over the weeks you've been on the screen. Your time will surely come
Click to Download Rachel's songs direct to your mobile
U2 - With or Without You (Ringtone)
Pink - Nobody Knows
Oasis - Stop Crying Your Heart Out
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