X Factor!

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Has anyone else been watching the X Factor? With Saturday nights in having become my default mode (thanks to toddler) I've ended up watching more this year than ever before and now require the POPTIMISTS to tell me who should WIN.

So - Who should win?

To jog yr memory the remaining contestants are:

ALEXANDRA - Londoner (I think) who always looks a bit miserable and seems to be at home on fierce soul ballads. She is the best singer remaining and has been for a few weeks I think. Not a lot of presence tho.

DIANA - Skinny big-haired scouser who has a weird highly intense Kate Bush / Dolores O'Riordan witchy warble thing going on, quite unlike anyone else I've seen on an X Factor/Idol style show. I like her because she pushes herself (and the arrangers) to do something different with familiar songs, BUT whether it actually works or not is incredibly dependent on the song.

EOGHAN - Scary man-child with a weird mask-like face which looks 16 (his actual age), 10 or 100 depending on how the camera catches him. I am desperate for him to be sent home as he unnerves me deeply, except when he's performing when he's just rubbish mostly.

JLS - Who I always call JSL - they are a very smiley and innoccuous boy band, my wife's favourites. I like 'em and would be happy if they won because I think on the whole it's good for the balance of pop to have a boy band around, but they have as much chance of making un-bland records as I have of being picked for a Mars mission.

Does anyone else care?

Comments

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

I have been watching since the start of the finals (the audition rounds are mostly just humiliation of the GBP so not to my taste). This years is MUCH better than the last couple IMHO.

Who should win:

Ruth. Oops, oh dear. Actually I think she would have been a great winner, and could have had a couple of hit albums, playing up the power-ballad, soft rock, 80s nostalgia and 'something for the dads' line.

Eoghan. FUCK OFF YOUR FACE LOOKS LIKE A CAT'S ANUS.

Alexandra: the new Leona, i.e. NO Personality except 'must win and become robot singer', Cowell obviously reckons he can be saviour of UK R&B by generating 2 superstar singers in a row.

Diana: was a breath of fresh air at first but is now just really really annoying.

JLS: best boyband out of a reality TV show. Quite annoying but can sing and dance and don't look too rough. I think they could be the first successful Brit R&B boyband since Blue.

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

The Britney tracks were tough because she has quite a weedy voice, so the songs didn't suit the 'good' singers, and so much of her stuff depends on personality. The Diana song choice was good, but she sort of throws clouds of notes at the actual melody and ends up warbling like an otherkin, which doesn't work with this sort of song. And God knows it doesn't work with REFuckingM / Coldplay. I assume Diana is supposed to sound like Joanna Newsome rather than the bird from the Cranberries but it never works!

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

i.e. credible alt-pop crossover rather than caterwauling harridan.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

To be fair I liked her version of Everybody Hurts more than the real thing. But I'd have liked Eog-Sothoth's more than the real thing.

From a commercial standpoint I suggest S Cowell is considerably more interested in the next Cranberries bird than the next Joanna Newsome!!

(Pls pls pls let Diana be given "I Just Shot John Lennon")

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

you realise what the song is the winner will release as thier first single?

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

JAYSIS

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

well quite...

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

wtf?!

Is that seriously the best that they could come up with?

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I now quite want Eoghan to win just because he'd be SO out of his depth with it.

Diana's would be beyond insufferable.

[lockedintheatti.livejournal.com]

The bizarre thing about Alexandra is she seems to have loads and loads of personality when being interviewed (she's lovely and bouncy and fun, and sooooo much more interesting than leona was)....and then sghe loses most of it when she sings. Great voice mind, and my favourite to win, but it's like she hasn't worked out how to inject her personality into her performance.

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

yes that seems a fair assessment. It could be she's too nervous - too much back story / personality in your singing and you end up in Rachel territory - or just trying to be blank pop canvas / professional about it.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I read somewhere that she's spent a while plying her trade as a pub singer, backing vocalist etc...singing to earn a living in places where stamping your personality on a song is a no-no, where they just want a straight cover version. Which could explain it. I don't think she'll ever be as character-driven as a Beyonce or MJB, but I can see her making a well-written song her own - I mean if Kylie, who has no character in her voice whatsoever, has have the career she's had, I'm sure Alexandra can carve something distinctive out for herself.