BY JASON WRIGHT
Week 4 (30-31 October)
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| MAGIC: A new side to Mary worked a Halloween treat |
HALLOWEEN weekend meant the theme was subtly songs that were at the least loosely related to the occasion. The Over’s began the action with Mary Byrne performing the Take That classic ‘Could It Be Magic?’ it was certainly magic, much different to what she had performed before and held no fear to the challenge. The least could be said for Wagner as he killed two classic songs, making a mockery of the X Factor signature tune ‘O Fortuna’ followed by his rendition of ‘Bat Out Of Hell’, was performed a language that has perhaps never existed. Simon Cowell asked Louis Walsh if he had been drinking, which was strenuously denied but to be honest that could have been planned over ten shots of whiskey!
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| AWFUL: Aiden's rendition of 'Thriller' wasn't a thriller! |
The three Boys come next and the ghosts seemed to haunt Aiden Grimshaw as his version of Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ was less fun than watching paint dry! He wanted to make it his own but that completely backfired. Matt Cardle also had a difficult night with ‘Bleeding Love’. He sang it well but it was totally out of his depth. Paije Richardson did manage to salvage some pride on what was a terrible week for the category as his performance of ‘Back to Black’ won some praise from the judging panel despite not really being stand-out again.
Both of the Groups had survived the previous week and were on top form again. Belle Amie truly arrived with ‘Venus’ and Louis seemed to put to bed the criticism he gave the previous week. Meanwhile One Direction again impressed singing ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’ and they are proving totally the decision by Simon to have them formed from solo singers into a group.
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| TOP CLASS: Cher answered her critics in stunning fashion |
All four Girls were still left in the running. Rebecca Ferguson was at the top of her game again with ‘Wicked Heart’ and even though it hadn’t matched the material shown previously, it was still well on par with the front-runners. Treyc Cohen bounced back from the sing-off last week with an explosive performance of ‘Relight My Fire’ though it did draw criticism for not totally being her style of song. Katie Waissel was another act who seemed to have finally arrived with a lavish performance of ‘Bewitched’ though it was kind of stolen by showing off too much make-up, perhaps enough to make someone go blind! After three weeks of rapping, Cher Lloyd was surely on the brink of elimination, her support having crumbled rapidly during the build-up. Finally Cheryl Cole listened to the abuse and gave Cher a ballad to perform. Her performance of ‘Stay’ was not only sung, it was sung from the heart. Simon labelled it as “the performance of the series”, Cher finally proving what she could do.
Belle Amie and Katie were forced into the bottom two on Sunday’s results, both for the second time. After Simon and Cheryl kept their acts in the running, Dannii Minogue chose to send home Belle Amie, leaving Louis with a difficult decision. He liked both acts and simply couldn’t decide so opted to send it back to the public vote.
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| TEARS: Belle Amie depart |
For once, the deadlock was brought with a delighted reaction from the audience but it would prove to be misery for Simon as Belle Amie were sent packing with the fewest votes. Once again, the ‘Girlband Curse’ had struck and so disappointing on this occasion as the girls had so much more to give. Four weeks down and Simon was now on his last life.
Week 5 (6-7 November)
The show went Stateside for the fifth week, the halfway point of the contest as the ten remaining acts performed popular songs from US artists. The Girls began the show with Cher. After the stunner of Halloween week, it was back to basics from her with ‘Empire State of Mind’. It went down very disappointingly with the judges, and put her position at risk again. Katie came next with ‘Don’t Speak’, again, which was very strong but weaker than the previous few performances. Rebecca received plenty of praise again for a brilliant take of ‘Make You Feel My Love’ and after a dodgy couple of weeks, Treyc seemingly returned to form with the Aerosmith classic ‘I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing’.
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| DEBATE: Wagner's performances are the main gossip |
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| BREATHLESS: Matt was superb |
The Boys also returned to form after the horrors of Halloween. Aiden’s performance of ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ was again a little subdued but this perhaps is what should be expected from him now, it’s his style after all. Paije delivered his best performance of the competition. His version of ‘I’m A Believer’ saw mentor Dannii declare him to have arrived in the show. However it was Matt who well and truly stole the show with ‘The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face’. Breathless is perhaps the only word to describe it and rightfully earned the first standing ovation of the series.
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| FORM: One Direction are a force |
Louis was undoubtedly taking the Mickey out of Simon for having just one act left but the maestro was obviously not taking it seriously. After all, his one remaining act, One Direction is a bookies favourite and proved it with an up-tempo performance of ‘Kids in America’. If they keep it up, Simon shouldn’t have anything to worry about for a couple of weeks.
After having kept all four girls in the running for four weeks, Cheryl was finally destined to lose an act this week but for the first time, both of the acts in the final showdown were hers, Katie and Treyc. It would descend into utter farce as first Katie ‘accidentally’ said “sod it” during her performance and then the show producers messed up totally by doing the order of voting by the judges wrong. Simon first sent home Treyc and then Cheryl was told to go next. She was taken aback by having to decide early, as normally if two acts of the same mentor are in this situation, that judge is saved until last. As a result, Cheryl “claimed” she was not ready to decide and asked if she could wait until last. The show’s host, Dermot O’Leary was told through by his earpiece, that he had to give it as a refusal to vote.
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| DIGNIFIED: Treyc put a brave face on her elimination |
Treyc’s fate was sealed as she only received the support of Dannii with Louis’ casting vote going to save Katie. Some people put the blame on Dermot for this but that shouldn’t be the case. It was the producers who got it all wrong, but Cheryl doesn’t get away with it scot-free. What she did was a complete and utter disgrace. If she was last to vote, then forcing a deadlock decision would certainly be acceptable but in this situation it is no-no! The tabloids called for Cheryl to be sacked and rightfully so. The decisions she has made so far this series have been extremely shocking and this latest controversy has surely put her future on the programme under severe threat.
Week 6 (13-14 November)
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| TESTING: Paije produces a mundane performance |
Quickly putting the controversy of last week to one side, the remaining nine acts celebrated the music of Elton John last Saturday. First up were the Boys and it started off with Paije singing ‘Crocodile Rock.’ It felt like a drunken karaoke pub performance and it wasn’t a hit with the judges. Aiden followed up with ‘Rocketman’, and again it was another solid if unspectacular performance from him. Following the praise of last week, Matt was under huge pressure to deliver strongly again and although his version of ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’ wasn’t as good as last week, it still kept him as the competition favourite.
The Over’s once again were in their predictable pattern. Mary still looked below-par with her rendition of ‘Can You Feel the Love tonight.’ Meanwhile Wagner was getting worse week-by-week. If wrecking famous songs was his speciality, now he was after the films, firstly ‘I’m Still Standing’ wasn’t catching on, but it went out of proportion with ‘Circle of Life’, one of the best Disney songs of all time, totally ruined. Maybe he does actually have a future…he could be the one to save the troubled Pontins resorts!
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| SURVIVOR: Katie is hanging on, by the skin of her teeth |
No act had ever survived three sing-offs before but Katie was still holding on. She kicked off the Girls performances with ‘Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting’, once again provided a lacklustre performance. Getting lost amongst the dancers didn’t help and Louis didn’t find this performance captivating. Simon’s response went as far as threatening to kick Louis off the show! Cher finally delivered a good performance of her speciality, her version of ‘Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word’, did again have an element of rapping but not as much as previous renditions. Rebecca continued to be the standout of the category with a strong performance of ‘Candle in the Wind’. It was again very consistent and captivating from the single mother.
One Direction meanwhile was the standout of the night with ‘Something about the Way You Look Tonight’. This is genuinely perhaps the first time a group could potentially be in a strong chance of winning. Regardless, it would be a travesty if they at least didn’t make the final.
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| STUNNED: Dermot O'Leary embraces a shocked Aiden |
It was a battle between Dannii and Cheryl’s acts in the sing-off this week. Aiden’s rather inconsistency finally caught up with him and he was forced to perform again along with Katie for the FOURTH time. Another strange voting order was used in which Simon went first instead of any the mentors with acts in this situation. He voted to save Katie again and when both Dannii and Cheryl unanimously stood by their acts, it was all down to Louis again. He saved Aiden, which was the right call, so it went back the public vote and the whole studio was left stunned when Aiden came bottom of the vote and was ousted. Aiden was left rightfully disappointed at the result and when he revealed a possible leak on Twitter that he was in the bottom three, and the public and press went insane again.
The battle to be the best may be closer than ever, but this year’s series seems to be overshadowed by controversy, judges bickering and confusion. The question is has the shambles of the last two weeks marked something…could it be the beginning of the end for The X Factor?
We’ll have to wait and see, I’ll return at the end of week eight for a detailed report on the next two weeks to come. Let’s hope we’ll be speaking more about praise for singing and less of the outrage.
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