The X Factor

[arcadia]

Yeah I agree, Shayne doesn't really have anything much different from 50 other boy band-y singers. But there will be lots of little girls voting for his looks.

[arcadia]

Grrr, I'm annoyed that Brenda got voted out when she was the best one there! Women always do badly on these kind of shows. I've heard that the audience is 75% female. To make a few sweeping generalisations, I think the main voters are teenage girls, who vote for the one they fancy most (Shayne this time round, last time Tabby), and grannies, who vote for the nice young man who sings dull easy listening songs (this time Andy, last time Steve). Since Simon knows his audience, Journey South have picked up votes from the grannies by singing the occasional Rod Stewart song or Candle In The Wind or Let It Be, while getting some of the teenage vote by being good looking and singing reasonably contemporary songs as well. Meanwhile Brenda and Maria, both great singers who took the occasional risk with their songs, get voted out because women tend to be jealous of anyone prettier/cleverer/more talented than them, and because men don't vote.

Grrr, it annoys me. It'll annoy me even more next week if Andy ends up winning like Steve did, because (though he seems like a nice chap) he's so dull, seems to sing the same song every week and often messes up on stage.

[Mirela]

I think Andy is a much better singer than Steve (and a nicer person too) but I agree, he needs more variety to his song choices.

I had been going to watch the repeat of this tonight on ITV2 but my mum went and gave away the result because she saw the repeat on ITV1 this morning - oh well

[arcadia]

Well, Shayne won, unsurprisingly. Andy was second and Journey South third.

I thought they all sang really well in the final and all raised their games. Some of the song choices were bad though - When A Child Is Born??? Whatever the Christmassy song was that Andy sang?? Such a cheesefest. Me and Mrs Jones from Andy nearly sent me to sleep. That Bedingfield song that I hate from Shayne. And Over The Rainbow was a weird choice for Shayne but he sang it really well, though the falsetto bits were probably not meant to be funny.

After Journey South were knocked out, Shayne and Andy both sang the winner's single, which may possibly be the dullest song I've ever heard. But Shayne's version is being rushed into the shops and will probably be the Christmas number 1. Then I estimate it'll be 4-5 months before Shayne is forgotten, replaced by the next above average looking nice young man off the production line.

[Mirela]

Well, WACIB is a lovely song to me, especially since it's on G4's new album - it's stunning I think.

I haven't really commented on The X-Factor properly because of Strictly Come Dancing being on, but I taped the final on Saturday and watched it yesterday. I actually thought all the finalists were good...and I like Shayne's voice and looks *hides* No-one can take over from G4 and Jon for me though...so don't shoot me