The X-Factor 2010 - Competition levels go up and the show descends into chaos

BY JASON WRIGHT

Week 4 (30-31 October)

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!

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.

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.

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’.

DEBATE: Wagner's performances are the main gossip

It was another predictably mixed night for the two remaining Over’s.  Mary had struggled with her song all week and although her performance of ‘There You’ll Be’ was solid, it obviously wasn’t as good as previous.  The late Elvis Presley was the next world famous icon to be destroyed by Wagner, but to give credit, his medley of ‘Viva Las Vegas’ and ‘The Wonder Of You’ was certainly by far, his best outing to date.

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.

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.

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)

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!

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.

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.

The X-Factor 2010 - The Live Shows Begin With A Bang

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.

The X-Factor 2010 - Looking Ahead To The Live Shows

BY JASON WRIGHT

Thousands and thousands of people applied and now just the best of the best remain.  This Saturday sees the start of 2010 X Factor Live Finals.  Ten weeks of hard-fought gruelling competition with a multi-million pound recording contract and celebrity status awaiting the eventual winner.

Last Sunday saw judges Simon Cowell, Louis Walsh and the welcome returns of Dannii Minogue from maternity leave and Cheryl Cole, fully recovered from her life-threatening battle with malaria disease, choose twelve acts from the 32 remaining to advance through to the live finals.  However, this year’s series will have a twist, something which won’t be revealed officially until the Saturday night itself.  The mass rumour going around is each category will receive an extra act, known as a ‘wildcard’ and the first few weeks will see a spate of double (or maybe even triple) eliminations to ensure that the Grand Final Weekend, set to be on the 11^th and 12^th December, has at least three acts as usual.

Here is a brief look at the twelve acts that have definitely booked their places in the live shows.  Bookmakers’ odds are supplied by William Hill (as of October 3).

The Boys – mentored by Dannii Minogue

Aiden Grimshaw

Unemployed from Manchester aged 18

Aiden’s first experience of performing was in a school production of Grease.  After this, he began going to theatre school and started performing at weddings and function room parties at just 15.  After delivering sensational performances throughout, he was an easy pick for the live shows.  He will certainly get the girls vote, but whether he can continue impressing with his voice will be interesting to see.

Bookies odds: 8-1

Nicolo Festa

Student from London, originally from Italy, aged 22

Nicolo is a big fan of the show, although his native Italy doesn’t do a show like this.  So, he gave up his life abroad to come to Britain and contest.  His musical influences range from rock bands to divas. Despite a poor performance at the judges’ houses stage, Dannii felt that she saw something in him that perhaps others wouldn’t.  Will he be able to prove his doubters wrong?

Bookies odds: 16-1

Matt Cardle

Interior decorator from Essex, aged 27

Matt started singing when he was a child and formed a school band with his mates at the age of 16.  He is a guitar professional, beginning to play at age eleven and has written over 100 songs just for that purpose.  Away from his music, his other interest is DIY, being an expert interior decorator and painter.  He ultimately dreams of swapping the paintbrush for microphone full-time and his ambition is to be the headline act at Glastonbury in the future.

Bookies odds: 11-4 favourite

The Girls – mentored by Cheryl Cole

Rebecca Ferguson

Single mother from Liverpool, aged 24

Rebecca is an unemployed mother from Liverpool.  In her child life, she attended stage and dance schools and performed in holiday camps.  She applied to participate in the show for the first two series but fell pregnant before both and had to pull out.  After five years of raising two children, she has finally decided that she is ready for a challenge like this.

Bookies odds: 4-1

Katie Waissel

Receptionist from Harefield, North London, aged 24

Katie has been writing since the age of 14 and began playing at gigs across the country three years later.  She likes jazz and swing music, so expect her to excel on Big Band week should she still be in the competition then and also has a soft spot for rock music as well.  Her musical idols include Madonna and Queen.  She is already under severe pressure having forgotten the lyrics TWICE in the early stages, any mistakes like that on live TV and it could be all over for her before it’s hardly begun. Will it work out?

Bookies odds: 20-1

Cher Lloyd

Student from Malvern, Worcestershire, aged 17

At present, the youngest act left in the competition. Cher started singing through karaoke and since then has always dreamed of being a singing superstar.  She is a huge fan of Cheryl Cole and this helps in being her mentor.  Her superb audition immediately installed her as a favourite but at judges’ houses; a throat infection put her position in serious doubt.  Cheryl decided to put her through nonetheless but with this is in mind and newspaper rumours circulating that she could struggle to cope with the pressure of the live shows, she has a huge lot of work to do to prove that she is talented enough to win.

Bookies odds: 6-1

The Over 28s – mentored by Louis Walsh

John Adeleye

Retirement home worker from London aged 30

John has always enjoyed singing and describes himself as a ‘self-taught singer’.  He has been an experienced gospel choir singer for eight years, but quit to focus on being a private tutor for young and upcoming performers.  At his job in a retirement home, he provides music and drama activities and often sings to the residents.  His gospel experience unsurprisingly means he has a passion for soul music.

Bookies odds: 14-1

Storm Lee

Music producer from Edinburgh aged 37

Born as Lee Gardner, he left his Scottish hometown as a teen to relocate to the US.  There he changed his name to Storm Lee and became a private music producer and has recorded backing for popular acts such as Meatloaf and Ozzy Osbourne.  He returned home this year with the aim of becoming a music star on stage himself.  Simon Cowell took an instant disliking to him, so you can tell this is another act of spite from mentor Louis, putting an act through that he knows his arch nemesis will hate.

Bookies odds: 16-1

Mary Byrne

Supermarket worker from Dublin aged 50

Mary has been working behind the tills at Tesco for several years now but always dreamt of becoming a famous singer.  Away from her job, she performs in a cabaret act with her brother every month.  She is a huge fan of the show but didn’t have the nerve to apply early on.  However, she has finally learnt that at her age, this could be her last shot of fame and she has so far taken it by storm.  Regardless of her quality, it was straight away a dead cert that she was going to end up here when Louis was revealed as her mentor.  The bookies believe she is an outsider at the moment but she hopes to prove them very wrong.

Bookies odds: 20-1

The Groups – mentored by Simon Cowell

F.Y.D.

JORDAN GABRIEL, Customer service worker from London, aged 22

ALEX MURDOCH, Dance teacher from Sussex, aged 22

MATT NEWTON, Barman from London, aged 26

RYAN-LEE SEAGER, Student from London, aged 22

KALVIN LAMEY, Dance teacher from London, aged 25

F.Y.D. (short for For Your Direction) first met at dance class but never sung together until The X-Factor.  After a shaky start, in which mentor Simon gave them a no at their first audition, they have vowed to improve and it has worked. Now can they continue moving forwards in the live finals?  It’s a very big ask.

Bookies odds: 25-1 outsiders

Belle Amie

ESTHER CAMPBELL, Student from London, aged 17

SOPHIA WARDMAN, Student from Manchester, aged 23

GENEVA LANE, Student from Guildford, aged 20

REBECCA CREIGHTON, Unemployed from Dublin, aged 21

These four girls were a short handful of girls that were rejected as solo artists.  However with the considerable lack of talent in the Groups category yet again; they received a lifeline through forming a group.  They made a solid debut at judges’ houses and Simon made the wise decision to give them a proper chance.  The show though is noticeable for the ‘Curse of the Girl Groups’, previous early favourites Hope (2007) and Miss Frank last year, flopped miserably, the former extremely lucky to reach the final five and in 2008, both the series girl groups, Bad Lashes and Girlband, were the first two acts to leave.  It will have to take something special from this foursome to reverse the jinx.

Bookies odds: 16-1

1 Direction

NIALL HORAN, Student from Cardiff, aged 17

HARRY STYLES, Student from Cheshire, aged 16

ZAIN MALIK, Student from Bradford, aged 17

LIAM PAYNE, Student from Wolverhampton, aged 17

LOUIS TOMLINSON, Student from Doncaster, aged 18

Given their ages, this is a true boyband.  Like Belle Amie, all five boys entered as soloists and were merged into a group at Bootcamp.  One of the groups’ members, Liam, is an X-Factor veteran, having competed in 2008, being eliminated at the judges’ houses then.  His elimination as a solo singer stunned many but relieved that he has been thrown a lifeline.  If given the right material, expect to see them competing with Aiden for the teen girls support.

Bookies odds: 9-2

Wildcards?

The remaining twenty acts that were booted out of the competition will of course be hoping that this wildcard plan materialises.  The rumoured situations are that either just one act is chosen out of the twenty to become the 13th finalist or each category gets another act.  It is understood this is being introduced to ‘shake up the competition’.  All will be formally revealed come Saturday night.

In the meantime, the final twelve for now once again has a fair mix of fan favourites and no-hopers, all with the same ambition nonetheless, to change their lives forever.  This will be when we see who the judges, aside their own acts, label as their favourites.  And everyone will also keeping a watching eye over them for the following, will Simon Cowell decide to wear a tie on a regular basis? How far will Cheryl and Dannii take with their fashion sense? And will Louis Walsh be writing up a new version of his seemingly now accustomed ‘Rule Book!’

I will be keeping up to date on the series, writing blogs for this week’s show as well as on weeks three, six, the semi-final and of course, the final.

The battle to win The X Factor 2010 begins Saturday at 7:40pm on ITV1 and ITV1 HD.  Good luck to everyone contesting.