Well, that was a turn up for the book - I did not expect little George Sampson to come out on top, but the rain soaked dancer scooper the prize after the public vote. Ant and Dec asked him how he would feel performing for Prince Charles. I doubt this 14 year old really cares too much about dancing for the heir to the thone - this isn’t the 18th century - but I suspect he might be a little more interested in the £100,000 prize money which they had been curiously coy about that mentioning until that point.
Andrew Muir flopped a bit in the final with a fairly uninspiring version of Imagine. There’s no really soaring parts to that song and he didn’t convey emotion very well, so it was all a bit of a disaster and he got a strong slating from Amanda and Simon. Andrew hinted that he had been told to sing that song though which certainly adds a bit of intrigue. I don’t think we will be seeing much of Andrew Muir though.
I’d liked to have seen Gin and Kate win, as that dog might be the most amazing animal I’ve ever seen. I can see Gin being the star of TV adverts for sure, so hopefully it’s not the last we’ve seen of him.
Do you think the right act won Britain’t Got Talent?
A clip from across the pond here, as David Archuleta sings Imagine in last week’s American Idol. This guy is seriously talented and will almost certainly win the competition. His version of Imagine reduces Paula to tears, and she calls it one of the most moving performances she’s ever seen. What do you think?
It was Week 5 on the X Factor and I was suddenly hit by the realisation that Dannii Minogue is actually incredibly annoying. Her post performance comments all seemed to trail off into some odd voices she was putting on. I wish she’d just give a straight comment without trying to play to the gallery or turn it into a performance.
But back to the performances themselves. Well, it was Disco week which meant there was a massive pool of fantastic tracks available, but somehow some of them still managed to get some duds. Rhydian performed the Village People’s “Go West”. Bit of a boring song in my personal opinion. Dannii said it was hard to find a big Disco track for a male vocalist, but I’d loved to have seen him do something like “MacArthur Park”.
Leon got his first positive comments from Simon with his take on “Relight My Fire”. I don’t think he’s a winner, but the fact I could watch him dancing without putting my head in my hands and cringeing was at least an improvement.
Niki also had to tackle her dancing issues and made a good fist of “Hot Stuff”, which went down well with all the judges except for Simon who said it was a bit “Mum-at-a-wedding”. Niki challenged to get up there if he thought he could do any better - sorry love, that’s not quite how it works. Louis’ other act Beverley again proved she has a great voice with a powerful “I’m Every Woman”.
Alisha should have been on safe ground with a classic track like “Young Hearts Run Free” but I think she just didn’t have enough about her to make it a standout performance. In fact, so little was there to say about her that the judges ended up arguing about her roller skating dancers.
For the groups, Hope did a very credible job with Abba’s “Man After Midnight” and Same Difference did “Blame It On The Boogie”.
After the results had been counted, Hope and Alisha were in the final two and the judges decided to keep Hope. It was sad because Alisha seems really nice but she has never really shone, although her version of Valerie was probably her finest moment.
So Sharon lost her final act. Next week the theme is Motown.
It was Big Band week on X Factor, and usually that means the usual selection of swing standards, and that was there to some extent but also they threw in some curve balls like Pink’s “Get The Party Started” (performed by Rhydian) and Madonna’s “Hanky Panky” (performed by Hope).
FutureProof performed “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You”, which according to Simon is an Andy Williams classic. Hello? How about some credit for the original recording artist to have a hit with it, Franki Valli. Louis was in particularly scathing mood, saying the middle three of the five-piece group were OK but he didn’t like the “two book-ends”.
Rhydian’s performance was magnificently over the top. Sounded to me like a few bum notes but I’m probably not qualified to say for sure. Alicia at last managed a performance that had some life about it and was rewarded by not being in the bottom two for the first time. Same Difference were their usual happy selves with a rendition of “Reach”. They’re always bright and bubbly so its hard form an emotional connection with their performances. Louis said they were destined for panto. I’d say Butlins would be closer to the mark.
Andy did a great job with the Bacharach classic, “This Guy’s In Love” - which Louis oddly called “obscure”. He seems more and more detached from reality each week.
Beverly and Niki made sure the over-25s were well represented with two great performances although Beverly got the better comments from the judges.
Simon said earlier in the night that Rhydian’s performance has the best series so far, but then went on to say Hope’s Hanky Panky was his favourite of the night, which must have meant that was his new favourite of the series. It seemed the public didn’t share his enthusiasm for it because Hope were in the bottom two along with Simon’s other group, FutureProof.
Louis and Sharon both voted to keep Hope before Dannii voted to keep FutureProof. Call me cynical but I’d suggest she did solely to put Simon in the position of having to choose between the groups. He looked like the decision pained him but I think he knows this about making a good TV show more than anything else, and he eventually came down in favour of Hope, thus consigning FutureProof to the history books.
It was week 2 of the live shows and it’s hard to see any real stars in this lot who are any where near the standard currently being set by last year’s winner, Leona Lewis.
As expected, Sharon Osborne was back on the show after last week walking out. Not another cynical publicity stunt? No, surely not.
The common tactic of the judges now when wanting to attack each other is to slate the song choice. So rather than talk about the performance, they prefer to talk about the song choice, ie themselves. What with that and the whole Louis firing & re-hiring, the tabloid tales of rivalry between Dannii and Sharon, as well as Sharon’s walk out, you’d have to conclude that the drama is shifting to the panel this year because the talent just isn’t up to scratch.
That said, I did enjoy Rhydian’s mad performance and actually thought Andy’s version of Night Fever was excellent despite the panning it got from the judges for being just like a karaoke performance. Leon was much better than last week and was working the camera in fine style with his rendition of Michael Buble’s “Home”. Emily tried to put some more personality into her performance and I thought to myself after that I wished she hadn’t. And what was with those mad eyes.
After the votes were counted, the bottom two were Alisha (for the second week) and Daniel. Daniel looked bitterly gutted to be there and hinted he blamed the song but honestly, there was hardly any discernible voice there. Sharon suggested he’d be better suited to a boy band. If only he was still a boy, that may be half decent advice. The judges decided to send Daniel home.
Next week the theme is Big Band - I’m hoping Michael Buble might be the celebrity guest!
Last night’s X Factor was a humdinger of an episode with the usual mix of emotions that we’ve come to expect.
Katie gave a good audition and was initially voted through to Boot Camp, only for the judges to later realise they made a mistake - she’d be giving birth during the live finals - and Simon told her they had changed their mind. Her boyfriend was less than impressed.
Johnny Rocco was a fiesty entrant, who prefaced his performance with the question “Do you know Elvis?”. His rendition of Always On My Mind produced fits of giggles from Louis, who called him a pub singer. “You’re talking stupid” said an incredulous Johnny Rocco. Not for the first time, Johnny.
ITV’s X Factor returned tonight, for it’s annual slot leading up to an inevitable Christmas number one.
Things have changed around slightly this year, with the ever so smug Dermot O’Leary taking over from Kate Thornton as presenter.
In a scheduling move which maybe unprecedented, Dermot O’Leary was hosting prime time Saturday night shows for both ITV1 and BBC1. Because before X-Factor had finished, National Lottery 100 to 1 started on BBC with, yes, you guessed it, Dermot O’Leary. If Dermot is also presenting Big Brother’s Little Brother tomorrow, he will officially have taken over your TV. Where will he turn up next? The new host of Newsnight perhaps? The Sky At Night with Dermot O’Leary?
It got me wondering as to how this man has become such a hit with the TV bosses. Dermot always comes across to me as so convinced of his own funniness that I imagine he hears canned laughter in his head after his every utterance. Although thankfully he didn’t have to say too much in this opening episode so he was about bearable.
Anyway, back on the X Factor the new line up continued with Dannii Minogue and Brian Friedman recruited to replace the sacked Louis Walsh. Of course, one could make the point that Dannii Minogue seems to have no particular qualification for judging the talent of others but I think that would be churlish.
We were reminded of Louis Walsh’s sacking from the very beginning which suggested to me it all was a publicity stunt and he quickly re-hired half way through the program as Sharon and others complaining about a lack of chemistry, and Brian seemingly carrying the can.
And what of the talent? Well, we had the usual rag bag of absolute no hopers and the potentially very talented. Stand out acts for me were:
14 year old Emily singing Randy Crawford’s Almaz
79 year old Joy from Kent, who played invisible instruments (prompting Simon to ask if he could see them - No Simon, they’re invisible), although she may have been better suited to Britain’s Got Talent.
Nikki, who sang “I Will Always Love You”. I think the last performer of the day must be statistically more likely to do well judging by the number of people who have turned up at the end of a bad day and been excellent. Or is that just part of the format?
So that’s episode one out of the way and we can look forward to the X Factor being a regular fixture for the rest of the year. Don’t try and fight it. Just enjoy it for the throwaway nonsense it is.