The X-Factor 2011 - It really is love and heartbreak

By Jason Wright (Entertainment Expert)

THIS weekend, the public could respond to the barbaric decisions by the producers to have four acts leave the competition last week.  The second week of live shows on the X-Factor was when the ‘real’ competition began, with the theme songs associated with love or heartbreak.

GROUPS

COLOURFUL: Rhytmix flourished under pressure to perform

NU VIBE kicked off the show on Saturday.  After a downbeat start last week, they were looking to improve with U2’s ‘With or without you.’  It was a lot better than last week but questions were being raised by the judges over the chemistry between the band members.  It would prove to be their ultimate downfall.  Whereas Nu Vibe were struggling, girl group Rhythmix flourished.  They set the bar last week and took it further with Nelly Furtado’s ‘I’m like a Bird.’  After seven years, are they the group to at last break the girlband jinx?  That performance was then backed up by The Risk, with a polished and well tuned version of Bruno Mars’ ‘Just The Way You Are.’  On the early evidence of this year, they could be the next big boyband group.

OVER 25s

FIRST of the Over acts was the act that stood out in this category last week, Sami Brookes.  To give credit, Whitney Houston’s ‘I Will Always Love you,’ is a hard songs to conquer but she did just that.  For once, Gary Barlow was out of line by comparing her performance to a “cruise singer.”  What performance was he watching?  Fast becoming the joke act is helium-pitched Johnny Robinson.  The theory is backed up by putting Kylie Minogue’s ‘Can’t Get You Out Of My Head’ to shame, and that was just being dressed in near-drag.  I sense the equation of: Johnny Robinson + Louis Walsh = THE NEXT WAGNER!  It seemed Kitty Brucknell took tips from Johnny too with her rendition of Bjork’s ‘It’s Oh So Quiet,’ putting a sort of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ twist on it.  The one big difference is of course, Kitty can sing in tune and Johnny can’t!

BOYS

WEAK: A late song change left Frankie in a very vulnerable position

ONE act that has surprised a lot of people already is Craig Colton.  His rendition of Beyoncé’s ‘Best Thing I never had’ wasn’t as strong as last week but still sealed the fact that he is actually a genuine contender.  It was tough week for ladies man Frankie Cocozza, as his song was changed less than 24 hours before the show and it proved to be a genuine mistake.  He slouched his way through a weak version of Coldplay’s ‘The Scientist.’  Louis Walsh rightly said that he lost his “swagger” before Kelly Rowland jumped to Frankie’s defence, by banning Louis from using that word!  Certainly an American way of telling him to shut the hell up!  To complete what was an indifferent night for the Boys was Marcus Collins who did the best he could with Rihanna’s ‘Russian Roulette’ but it was always a song completely out of his vocal range.  Overall, Gary Barlow will look back at this week as disappointing.  However, he made more errors in his selections than his acts did in their performances.

GIRLS

AGAIN, the category kicked off with the leading contender, Janet Devlin.  The Northern Irish teen was coming into the show on a back of a difficult week following the tragic death of her grandfather.  She overcome this, but putting her own unique style of the classic Elvis Presley song ‘ICan’t Help Falling in Love with You.’ It was moving and stunning to listen to and her grandfather would be so proud of it.  Another one hoping to, and did, impress well again was Misha B.  Charles & Eddie song ‘Would I Lie To You?’ is certainly a song suited to her but she well and truly took to another level with, like Janet, putting her own twist on the song.  Finally, Sophie Habibis could have counted herself lucky to have been saved in the big twist.  However, her performance of The Calling’s ‘Wherever You Will Go’ was a big highlight of the evening and may have surprisingly suggested that Kelly actually did make the right decision to save her from going home last week.  Amelia who?

The Result

MISSING: The connection factor was the downfall for Nu Vibe

THE public was finally back in power this week, and ITV used the show to try to reintroduce text voting to its shows, after it was suspended following the infamous phone-in scandal in 2007.  In the end, the two weakest performances of Saturday night proved to be the two acts participating in the ‘Final Showdown.’  For Nu Vibe or Frankie, one was about to be thrown out of the competition by the judges.  It was a tight sing-off which saw both acts giving it their all.  Nu Vibe eventually got eliminated, with only getting the backing of their mentor, Tulisa.  Their performances in the live shows were a major disappointment for an act that had promised so much potential.

     Away from the singing, it was to be a devastating weekend for the show as it lost its three year unbeaten record in the TV ratings. Beaten hands down by rival show Strictly Come Dancing on Saturday, the figures only surged when the overlap with Strictly at the start of the show concluded.   It’s the first time since the fourth week of the live finals back in 2008 that X-Factor has been defeated by Strictly.

     It seems this shock slump in ratings has been down to four factors;

1. The new judging panel is unsettled in the live environment but that’s bound to happen, they’ve only started so I’m sure they would have got used to it by the series end.
2. The quality of acts is poor.  OK, I admit, it’s not as great as 2008 or 2009 but it’s already beating last year’s bunch hands down.
3. A mass boycott with viewers still angry at last week’s elimination procedure; truth hurts but that’s kind of expected.
4. It’s simple, the public misses Simon Cowell but unfortunately there’s nothing anyone can do about it, it was his decision after all to quit in favour of taking part in the US counterpart.

     Regardless, we can still expect fierce competition and rivalry in the eight more weeks to come.  There will be no blog next week, taking a break in line with the school/college half-term so the next blog in a fortnight’s time which will wrap up both weeks three and four of the finals.

The word that is very complex

By Simon Wright (Personal column)

NOTE: No harm intended towards anyone, this is an honest opinion from myself in which I share my experiences and feelings on the subject.

AS I was finishing off my glass of wine on the balcony of the apartment I stayed on my recent Fuerteventura holiday two nights ago, I began to think of a word that brings a lot of joy, but also can create massive heartbreak and plenty of problems; love.

     What is love?  It’s a very strong word which can be used in a variety of ways.  When this word is used in any given sentence, the words for me that sum it up are desperation, affection, feeling and closeness.  Why do I think these words?

Desperation – Sometimes, people just want to love someone, no matter what, which will inevitably lead to desperate measures.

Affection – In a loving relationship, it is important to show affectionate ways of love, and no, that does not mean regular use of the bedroom!

Feeling – An obvious word; when you love someone/something, there must be some kind of feeling behind it, otherwise, it isn’t true.

Closeness – The help from friends and family can never be forgotten, especially when you get rejected or are going through a tough breakup. 

For me, I always have a loving family and plenty of close, loving, caring and supporting friends who always stick by me, despite being at time, an absolute nightmare.  Those who know me can vouch me for that!

    I’m even known as a relationship expert, though that’s a tag that I’ve pretty much adopted.  I’m there for a lot of people and have offered a lot of impartial advice down the years to plenty of people, even if that opinion can sometimes be quite damming.  So, what about my love life in relationship terms?

     Well, it’s non-existent and I’m afraid, it always has been.  Does it frustrate me?  Yes, of course it does.  Being single is no fun; I’m not going to lie.  It was when I was 16, 17, even 18 years old, but it isn’t now.  If you say to me; ‘I want to be single for the rest of my life,’ then you are more than likely to receive a slap round the back of the head with a wet fish rather than any decent advice, because you’d deserve it! 

     However, am I desperate to find someone?  No, absolutely not.  If I was desperate, I’d be on a dating website by now and that’s something I haven’t contemplated and don’t plan to either.  If something develops and happens, it happens and of course, all good if so.  Relationships do come with plenty of complications.  I believe that many given friendships can attract total opposites.  Look at me, I don’t drink excessively, despise heavy metal, love Formula One, don’t smoke, hate horror movies and would be a nightmare at any given international cuisine restaurant!  So, I’m very different to many people I know.  In a proper, full-blown relationship, it is very difficult to be completely opposites.  The hobbies and interests two people have can make things very complex.  Let’s be honest, we know the turn ons and turn offs in a relationship.  Romantic meals, regular trips to the movies and social drinks out are the way to go, whereas playing video games excessively, doing DIY in your spare time and watching football 24/7 are so dire – you’d be left behind in the 20^th century!  At the end of the day, there’s no contest between choosing a romantic movie at the cinema with your girlfriend to watching Bayern Munich v Borussia Dortmund at 11pm on a midweek evening on ESPN!  And if you choose the latter option, you deserve to be dumped and get a life!

     I’m no stranger to love heartbreak, it has happened to me twice.  The last time was pretty recent, last Christmas in fact.  I expressed my feelings to someone I know pretty well, but it didn’t work out the same way and frankly, I honestly don’t think there was a chance of that happening.  I moved on pretty quickly from this disappointment and that was a real help from the experience that did leave me totally traumatised in the summer of 2008.  I fell for another girl who I’d met on my course at Milton Keynes College.  I really liked her and had never felt like this for anyone before.  Yes, there had been very brief school crushes, but everyone’s had them, I was mad about her.  I generally felt that she felt the same way, but she wasn’t ready for anything at the time.  Fine, I wasn’t bothered about that; there’s no point pressuring girls or talking them into bed, because the following morning, there are bound to be plenty of regrets.  What upset me was that this girl went on to date another guy she met on the internet, clearly having not met him before and she didn’t have the decency to tell me.  I always thought I had a chance with her until that moment, and the experience really knocked me back.  It dented my confidence totally in expressing general feelings towards the opposite sex.  It was painful to experience, but I’m a better person for it.

    However, there is someone for everyone and I believe in it anyway.  Love is around the corner and my advice would be, which corner?  Don’t rush into things, otherwise they can and have the tendency to spiral out of control.  Single or not, it will only make things worse.  Traditionally, I am the fast and furious type, but this time, I have to admit slow and steady will earn the right results.

     Love is complex, but if it was easy, would there be any point in the word existing – not really!  Go with the flow and just see where the path takes you because no-one knows what’s around the corner.