FROM the thousands and thousands acts that had aimed to become ‘The Next Big Thing,’ just 16 acts now remained in the running, ready and raring to kick off this year’s X-Factor live finals.
With new judges, new attitude and a new opening title sequence (long overdue but I’m not too keen on the remixed theme), everything was in place for the perfect beginning. However week one would be dominated by a ‘Big Twist’ and this time, it would be the first ever quadruple elimination, but not decided by the public. Instead the judges would have complete control over the future of their acts.
First, in their one and only effort to convince their mentoring judge, all 16 acts performed a song either by a popular British or American artist. Here’s how they fared…
GIRLS
Opening the live finals is a very daunting prospect as people expect the standard to be set high early on. This year it fell to youngster Amelia Lily from Middlesbrough. As part of the questionable makeovers given to the contestants in this run, her familiar blonde locks were switched to a shocking pink, but that didn’t stop her giving an confident rendition of the Michael Jackson classic ‘Billie Jean.’ Despite a few dodgy notes in the chorus, it was a good start, considering this is a very challenging song to perform. Next up was Sophie Habibis with a piano version of Katy Perry’s ‘Teenage Dream.’ Slow-paced it may have been, but surprisingly, it came off very well as it showed the entire vocal range she has.
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| BREATHTAKING: Janet made herself the early frontrunner |
Then it was the turn of Misha B (she’s confusingly dropped her surname for the finals) with another surprise package of the evening. Her version of Adele’s ‘Rolling In The Deep’ was spot on and became more special with an added rap element, perhaps showing off what could be her specialist genre. Finally, the favourite for the entire competition, Janet Devlin sang Coldplay’s ‘Fix You.’ Unlike the other girls, there were no gimmicks, no dead giveaways, just her singing beautifully. More focus will now surely be placed on her in the coming weeks.
OVER 25s
THANKS to Nicole Scherzinger’s clever thinking, the Over category was raised last year, but with Nicole parked on the US show, it was dropped back 25 for this series. First in line was Johnny Robinson, with a performance of Cher’s ‘Believe’ that definitely would make anyone cringe. You may remember on the first week last year, I compared Wagner to Gordon Brown on helium. On this occasion, Johnny sounds like Nick Clegg on helium! Following on from him was Jonjo Kerr. He seemed very nervous and his version of ‘You Really Got Me Going’ by The Kinks exposed it in every department. He looked pained throughout and sounded more like a failed pub singer.
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| DIVIDED: Kitty will be either loved or hated by members of the public |
In all honesty, Sami Brookes should be back at her day job, but the exit of Goldie had granted her a lifeline. She didn’t disappoint either, with her version of Yomada’s ‘You’re Free’ and Gary Barlow vowed to resign if Louis Walsh didn’t save her afterwards. Lastly, Kitty Brucknell, the true pantomime villain of the line-up came out with Queen’s ‘Who Wants to Live Forever?’ There is no question that she can sing but whether she can last well into the competition is very questionable.
GROUPS
TULISA was put in charge of creating a groups winner for the eighth time in asking. For this, she (along with her fellow judges) had formed three groups from failed soloists. First of these “manufactured” groups was Rhythmix. Dogged by criticism all week, they proved everyone wrong in their performance of Nicki Minaj’s ‘Super Bass’ and were labelled as the best girl group in the show’s history. The only group to have come in from the auditions proper were Essex duo 2 Shoes, and they certainly brought some glamour into the show by their take of Girls Aloud’s hit ‘Something Kinda Ooooh.’ Gary however wasn’t impressed, comparing it to a “karaoke night in Romford,” certainly the comment of the night.
The two created boyband groups came next. First up was Nu Vibe and they were the disappointment of the night. Their version of Chris Brown’s ‘Beautiful People’ lacked passion and forced judges Tulisa and Kelly Rowland to clash over the arrangement of the performance. That however was then completely forgotten by the appearance of the new look version of The Risk. A spot on version of Plan B’s ‘She Said’ was in tune and executed brilliantly. As far as I’m concerned, they are the leading group in this category.
BOYS
MUCH anticipation was placed on this category as it’s won the show three times in the last four years. First in was heartthrob Frankie Cocozza. Though his performance of ‘The A Team’ by Ed Sheeran wasn’t the best by his standards, it at least proved he had strong talent and not just the looks. That couldn’t be said about James Michael. The Beatles’ ‘Ticket To Ride’ was completely murdered by his weak vocals and in summary, it wanted to make you fall asleep!
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| NAILED: Craig proved he is Gary's secret weapon |
The favourite in this category, Marcus Collins, certainly didn’t disappoint with Maroon 5’s ‘Moves like Jagger.’ He must have felt the luckiest guy around, having several women parading but it didn’t distract him one bit. The final boy, Craig Colton, was labelled by Barlow as his ‘secret weapon.’ Christina Perri’s ‘Jar of Hearts’ is a difficult song to conquer, but Craig nailed it and wiped away pre-show criticism that he wasn’t up to the challenge.
All in all, it was a night of surprises and expectant performances. The judges had 24 hours to decide which of their acts they had to axe in the twist. All the acts could do now was sleep and wait.
The Result
THE public must have felt completely powerless on Sunday as they had to wait with baited breath to see whether the judges would save their favourites. It wasn’t going to be easy at all.
Louis was the first judge to choose on Sunday. He expectantly saved Sami and then, despite the criticism from the people, put Kitty through. His decision to save Johnny seemed to really shock his act, but it was the right decision. Jonjo screwed up his performance the previous evening and deserved his exit.
Next was the Boys and again no shocks were in order with Gary opting to keep Marcus, Craig and Frankie and send home James. His exit again wasn’t unexpected as he had underperformed massively in his song. Then it was the turn of the Groups and Rhythmix, The Risk and Nu Vibe were saved to sing another week. 2 Shoes were sent packing, in some ways, a bit surprising considering Tulisa’s strong affection for them. Indeed, she struggled to compose herself together to eliminate them.
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| CONSOLED: Amelia struggles to deal with Kelly's decision to axe her |
The hardest decision though had to come to Kelly and her Girls. One of them had to go despite all four delivering great performances. Firstly, both Janet and Misha B were deservedly put through, leaving Amelia and Sophie in the running for the final place. It was made clear already that Kelly had adored Sophie from the beginning but the feeling was Amelia would be given the nod. Ultimately, Kelly went for Sophie, axing one of the favourites from the competition. She burst into tears, with the audience looking on. Whatever you thought of her, you just had to feel terribly sorry for the Teeside lass.
The X-Factor always has a secret sub-motto, expect the unexpected! I don’t think anyone expected one of the pre-contest favourites to fall at the first hurdle. I felt Amelia deserved to stay in the competition, but there are those who also thought Kelly got the decision spot on. However, Amelia was the victim of a stupid twist from the producers. Even Dermot O’Leary has had his say on the twist. I didn’t like it, I don’t think many did and with one million viewers not bothering with Sunday night’s viewers show, it looked like some of the audience voted with their TV sets. I hope this attempted format of mixing up the show is put into the ditch and doesn’t return. No act has gone out on week one and has gone onto enjoy a successful career, so unfortunately, I don’t think Amelia will make the grade, which is a real shame.
Kelly will have to deal with criticism from the Amelia obsessed fans, but it is the producers of the show who should probably accept that this was a bad move, rather than calling for the head of a new judge. The public vote begins this weekend; wonder if our heads will be turned by the daft performances or the special singers. However, X-Factor 2011 promises what is says on the tin; plenty of drama and controversy ahead.
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