BY JASON WRIGHT
NOW in its seventh series, the X-Factor promised that this year’s live finals would potentially be the best yet. Whether it will do so obviously remains to be seen, but on the evidence of the first weekend, it made an explosive start.
There was talk of there being a new set again, mainly to cope with the move to high definition but surprisingly, the present set, having only itself been introduced last year, was re-used with some minor modifications for HD broadcast. However, the real build-up was centred on “The Big Twist” and when the show went live, host Dermot O’Leary confirmed what everyone had expected. Four new acts would join the competition as ‘wildcards’ into what would now become the final 16.
Simon Cowell chose to bring back male duo act Diva Fever, Dannii Minogue gave Paije Richardson a reprieve, Louis Walsh opted to throw a lifeline to Wagner, a sports teacher originally from Brazil with a surname that perhaps nobody can announce properly and Cheryl Cole selected Treyc Cohen. Cole’s choice had been heavily criticised as on the previous week’s judges’ houses stage, she rejected popular Zimbabwe-born singer Gamu Nhengu. It had been speculated that Nhengu would return as Cole’s wildcard choice, but this was scuppered when reports that her family’s visa to stay in Britain had expired and would not be renewed surfaced.
As with previous opening weeks, the finalists performed songs that got to number one in the UK chart. Firstly the groups kicked off with F.Y.D. singing ‘Billionaire’ by Travie McCoy. It wasn’t a good start, it looked way off-key and the vocals weren’t very strong. Louis Walsh said they should be a dance act instead of a group and I would agree. Next, Belle Amie didn’t really impress either with their take on ‘Airplanes’. It sounded very drab and dull, though at least the girls did show good signs of chemistry, having been formed through being turned down as solo acts.
Diva Fever came out with an upbeat version of ‘Sunny’. They are certainly not strong singers but are certainly very entertaining and would go far in this competition through this. Finally, One Direction, also formed through boot camp, sang Coldplay’s ‘Viva La Vida’. It was a solid start but kind of playing it safe, they may need to adopt a better approach from next week if they want to stay in for long. It’s really no secret that Simon might be the biggest loser on Week One with no real standout performances. He’ll be hoping things will improve.
Now onto the boys, Matt Cardle was the first of them to perform with ‘When Love Takes Over’ by David Guetta. It was a song that really suited him and he will definitely be one to watch. Next to go was Paije Richardson with ‘Killing Me Softly with His Song’. He certainly has got very strong vocals and could well be the dark horse in the contest.
Italian songbird Nicolo Festa came next with Lady GaGa’s ‘Just Dance’. It was horrible from start to finish, totally murdering a very classic song from these modern times, yet the judges’ gave him praise for it. Last of all was Aiden Grimshaw with ‘Mad World.’ It was one of the best performances of the night but he has a bad habit of rarely looking straight at the judges’ or the audience, something he has to learn to control with if he wants to go all the way. Regardless, this category is the one to beat after the first week. Round one without question goes to Dannii.
The overs come next, now raised to 28 years. John Adeleye was first to go with ‘One Sweet Day’. He made a good fist of it but whether he can impress the public to go long into the competition is yet to tell. Storm Lee came next with rock tune ‘We Built This City’. Simon already hates him and I can really tell why. He is a total nutcase that should be detained under Section One of the Mental Health Act!
The category’s leading lady, Mary Byrne followed. Having come down with the flu just 72 hours before the live show, her version of ‘It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World’ by James Brown showed no obvious effect to her illness. She totally made the song her own and will be a favourite with the judges and the voting public. Finally, the wildcard pick Wagner sang ‘She Bangs’ by Ricky Martin. The Brazilian looks insane and sounds like Gordon Brown on helium. Simon rightfully described it as “the most bonkers thing I’ve have ever seen”. It is clear that Mary is Louis’ only hope of a second win on X-Factor this year.
Attention was much focused on the girls’ category. Cheryl was out on a mission to become the first judge to win for a third successive year. Rebecca Ferguson was first out with ‘Teardrops’. A solid if unspectacular start, but Rebecca can go some distance if given the right material. Cher Lloyd was next and was the act under the most pressure. Firstly, being the youngest of the sixteen acts at age 17 and secondly, there have been mass tabloid reports concerning that she would be on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Despite this, her performance of ‘Just Be Good To Me’ certainly put those concerns to bed and that she can cope under the pressure. Cher does though have a long way to go and is so far only known for performing R&B songs. Cheryl will quickly need to introduce her to perform other styles of songs if she intends to win, especially if the winners single will be a slow, emotional ballad again.
As with Cher, Katie Waissel had also got a fair share of criticism by the time of her performance. Her version of the historic Queen anthem ‘We Are The Champions’ didn’t help as she sounded and looked awful, an act that will be under complete scrutiny from the viewers already. Treyc Cohen closed the show with U2’s ‘One’ with perhaps the best performance of opening night, a shock for many given that she looked like not being in the line-up. Like Paije, expect to see Treyc as a surprise favourite in the competition. It’s a 50-50 start for Cheryl, her choices in songs for the girls could play a crucial role.
Fast forward 24 hours to Sunday night for the results show. First, there were performances from rapper Usher, which was claimed to be a world exclusive performance, but in the end turned out to be performance of a single from several months ago. Then in keeping with tradition with the past, reigning X Factor winner Joe McElderry returned to perform his new upbeat single ‘Ambitions’. I think we need to wait for what happens to single and album in the charts before we can make our decision on how he will fare. On first impressions, it’s a love or hate song. If you don’t hear often, you’ll be thinking “What on earth is this?” but if you listen to it more often, it will become addictive.
Then, it was onto the all important results. With 16 acts left in the competition, two acts would leave on opening weekend. Nicolo was first out after finishing bottom of the public vote. Considering the good comments he received for such a dire performance, he perhaps may have got through, so this in a way was a bit of a surprise. However, the way he reacted was disgraceful, “I feel like c**p” should not be said in front of about 15 million people watching when you should usually feel disappointed but gracious in defeat and he certainly wasn’t.
F.Y.D and Katie were the next two acts that received the lowest votes and went into the first Final Showdown of the series to win the judges’ support. Like before, both acts performed a song that they had specially picked themselves to perform if they end up in this situation. The boys sang Rihanna’s ‘Don’t Stop the Music’ whilst Katie opted for ‘Don’t Let Me Down’ by The Beatles. After both Simon and Cheryl expectantly backed their own acts, Dannii sent home F.Y.D. and Louis had the casting vote. He resisted the rather strong temptation in his view to send it to deadlock and back to the public vote and voted to eliminate the boys.
Fans of the show were livid with Louis’ decision but they shouldn’t be. It is rightfully suggested that Katie ended up in the sing-off because of the controversy surrounding her passage into the live finals and her performance on Saturday was a mess. On Sunday, she sang her survival song as if her life depended on it and so deserved to be given a second chance. She will have to raise her game though immediately if she plans to stay any longer.
So one week down, nine to go, and it’s still far too early to predict the clear cut favourite in this year’s contest. I’ll be back at the end of Week three in a fortnight’s time to give a view on the next two shows to come, but for now I’ll leave you with a summary of the latest betting odds after Week 1.
Outright winner of The X Factor 2010 (as of 11 October, supplied by William Hill)
9-2 joint favourites: Aiden Grimshaw and Matt Cardle, 5-1: One Direction, 6-1: Rebecca Ferguson, 8-1: Cher Lloyd, 10-1: Mary Byrne, 20-1: Treyc Cohen, 33-1: Paije Richardson, 40-1: Katie Waissel, 66-1: Belle Amie, John Adeleye and Storm Lee, 100-1: Diva Fever, 150-1 outsider: Wagner
The X Factor continues Saturday at 7:30pm on ITV1 and ITV1 HD.
No comments:
Post a Comment