"She's amazing, she just goes for what she wants. It's awesome."
She said the disappointment of not getting through to the boot camp phase herself was totally neutralised by her daughter's success.
"She just looked so beautiful on stage. I was just totally on the edge."
Michaela admitted the whole experience was pretty daunting too.
"It was very nerve-racking, I was shaking the whole time," she said.
The Mercury Bay Area School pupil played the guitar and sang a song called Falling Slowly, from the film Once.
She said she got yesses from judges Stan Walker and Natalia Kills, while Kills' husband Willy Moon and singer Melanie Blatt were not so keen.
"Natalie and Stan liked me and Nat convinced Willy to say 'yes'," she said. And though they may not have both got through to the next phase, the mother and daughter team will still stick together with Karen staying on to look after Michaela.
The second series of the Kiwi version of X Factor will hit TV screens next year.
The show is based on an original UK series.
Following the boot camp phase, 12 remaining contestants will move on to the judges retreats phase, where each will be assigned one of four judges as a mentor.
Following that, the love shows will begin, where one act is eliminated each week through public voting.
The winner will be signed to Sony Music Entertainment New Zealand.
In July, Mediaworks was given $800,000 from New Zealand on Air to help fund the show.
The first season of X Factor the show had an average audience of nearly 450,000 people, according to global measurement company Nielsen.
X facts
When will X Factor start on TV? Early 2015
How many people auditioned for X Factor? Thousands
How many got through to TV auditions? About 300
How may TV auditions are being held? Two sessions a day for seven days in November.
When will contestants know if they have got through to the next phase, and what is the next phase? As soon as they audition in front of the judges they will know. A contestants needs a 'yes' from three of the four judges to get through. The next phase is boot camp, which is filmed in January at Vector Arena.
How many spaces are there at boot camp? There isn't a specific number - no one can predict who the judges will put through.
