Factor X - The Nova Files

Hurrah for the GBP seeing sense at the very last moment, and at least voting the one with the talent to be the X Factor winner of 2006 - so congratulations, Leona - I just hope you can buck the X Factor trend and have a worthwhile career :)

Thats about it for this blog - thank you for all your comments throughout the series, and hopefully, I'll see you again next Summer for X Factor 2007.

In the meantime, you can keep up with my regular goings on in my 'normal' blog ::LINK ALERT::: Nova's Regular Blog  :::::LINK ALERT::::

And finally...

Merry Christmas to you all! Lets hope 2007 sees each of you happy and healthy

Nova xxx

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So... from 100,000 down to just two - our X Factor finalists, Ray and Leona. Shame it wasn't Ben and Leona, but hey ho, it wasn't to be, so we had the warbling non-diva versus the gurning Aardman Animations character instead.

Ray got off to a good start with My Way - he sang this much better than he did in the live show a few weeks back, and seemed much more confident in his own ability. Leona fought back with I Will Always Love You.. unfortunately, this will always remind me of giving birth to Number Two Son (it was number one at the time) and as such will be tainted with memories of screaming and crying - and that was just the Original Mr Nova, whose hand was tightly clenched through the whole birthing process. She did do an amazing job... so pretty much neck and neck so far.

Next up, was Ray's duet with Westlife, and Thats Life. I was waiting for Esther Rantzen to appear, but apparently it was the swing Thats Life, not the dodgy consumer show of the same name. Unfortunately, Westlife showed up all of Ray's vocal inadequacies.. not a good choice, I felt :(  Leona had the outstanding pleasure of accompanying Gary Barlow and the boys from Take That to A Million Love Songs - she actually contributed to the song, which was more than Ray did with his, and I felt that she streaked ahead at this point.... whether it'll come down to 'who is more popular, Take That or Westlife?' is anyone's guess..

Finally, we had another Swing classic - Fly me to the moon, and a song which apparently Celine Dion sang (but which I'll always associate with Eric Carmen or Bridget Jones' Diary) - All By Myself. How Louis can say that Ray has shown he is more than a one trick pony is beyond me - he's sung swing standards all night.. but it is what he's good at. Leona did a good job of her final number, although she's still not great in the lower registers.. that's all forgotten when she belts out the high notes...

Inbetween the main acts, we had the obligatory 'auditionees', 'nearly made it Shaun' (it was lovely to see him complete a song in front of a live audience.. but there's something fundamentally wrong about such a young boy... and he is a young boy.. singing such a poignant love song), 'rejected by the public finalists' and the brilliant Edna. Life was made ironically perfect when her daughter in law missed her singing cue. And I'd still buy anything that Ben produced before I bought something of Ray's.

For me, Leona is the true winner of X Factor.. she has talent, she has a great voice, she SHOULD go far.. unfortunately, Ray has an army of teenage fans and older women who should know better ::glares at Flik::... and as I said to MrNova when Take That were singing.. Gary Barlow is far superior to Robbie Williams vocally and musically.. but Mr Williams wins hands down when it comes to actually performing and holding an audience...

Lets hope that talent wins out.

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First of all, an apology for my absence.. the shock of Eton Road being voted off plunged me into a dark despair, only lifted by the joy of the MacDire Brothers being sent back to Scotland, hopefully never to venture south of the border again.

(Well, okay, actually my mother in law was here, and I haven't really been able to get near my PC)

I can't believe how devastated I am that Ben was kicked off last night. Admittedly, I don't feel it was his best performances - but he was still 3000 times better than the gurning Scouser. (Is Ray lining up toothpaste sponsorship? Or perhaps tissue sponsorship after his murdering of You'll Never Walk Alone.. I'm not surprised he cried, I was too.. nothing to do with any 'emotion' he showed in the song, more that a travesty was being perpetrated in front of my eyes)

Perhaps its time for the hordes of tone deaf teenage voters to be removed from the equation? Or at least for their faddish effects to be toned down. Its time that the 'judges' were just that - impartial judges, with no tie to the mentoring process (from what I've seen, I doubt they actually do that much mentoring to begin with). Their comments SHOULD count for something - perhaps something similar to Strictly Come Dancing, where the judges votes count for half of the final vote - hopefully that would have prevented the ridiculous situation of the MacDonald Brothers being in so long - or for Ray being through to the final two.

Leona sang her heart out last night - probably the best I've ever seen her sing, and Simon Cowell must be rubbing his hands in glee at the thought of her being his million pound contract winner. Sharon must be bewildered and amazed that her star talent has gone out (although hopefully this could be a good thing, especially if the rumoured interest from EMI pays out, and Ben doesn't now have to suffer a year's 'management' from Simon, whose track record with X Factor winners isn't really that great). I've still got my fingers crossed from two weeks ago, when Louis promised he'd get the Eton Road boys a record contract.. and I still maintain  that the finallists (if Simon hadn't done a shock two act eviction) should have been Ben, Leona and Eton Road.. At least I got one of the finallists right (makes a change) :-D

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Ok.. now, this is important. After the travesty of Robert being sent home last week, its vital that the Great British Public come to their senses and get rid of either Ray or The MacDonald Brothers - a joke's a joke, but its got on long enough. Come on people, get 'em out.  If you want to see Robert singing Always and Forever, have a look at my other blog, at http://www.dreamytimes.co.uk/blog/

The dates for the X Factor tour next year have now been announced - the full details are available here: The X Factor - The X Factor Live Tour - but here are the dates:

February:
17th - Newcastle
18th - Aberdeen
22nd - Nottingham
23rd - Sheffield
25th - Birmingham

March:
2nd - Manchester
4th - Glasgow
7th - Brighton
12th - Cardiff
15th - Wembley
20th - Belfast
21st - Dublin

But what are they all singing tonight, with a theme of Film Music?

Eton Road: From the film The Lion King, Elton John's "Can you feel the love tonight?"
From The Blues Brothers, "Everybody needs Somebody"

The MacDonald Brothers: From Notting Hill, Ronan Keating's "When you say nothing at all"
From Benny and Joon, The Proclaimers' "500 miles"

Ray: From My Best Friend's Wedding, Frank Sinatra's "The Way you look Tonight"
From Jailhouse Rock, Elvis's track of the same name

Leona: From The Bodyguard, Whitney Houston's "I will always love you"
From Moulin Rouge, Christina/Pink/lil'Kim/Mya's "Lady Marmalade"

Ben: From Live and Let Die, Paul McCartney's track of the same name (although from the sound check, it sounds like he's doing it more like the Guns n Roses version, thank the Lord)
From Moulin Rouge, Elton John's (Well, Ewan MacGregor) "Your Song"

Should be a good night - lets just hope that all their voices hold out.

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Now, you'd have thought with a wide ranging theme of 'Number One Songs' that they could have pretty much picked anything this week. Something to suit everyone. So why did no one pick Shaddup Ya Face? It would have been ideal for the MacDonald Brothers, who could have just repeated it endlessly to Simon.

Hey ho, an opportunity lost, I feel :)

There hasn't been much gossip this week, apart from the worries over Ben's laryngitis (although a croaky voice would be ideal for the Joe Cocker version of Ben's song choice) and that Leona is missing female company. Apparently one of the boys is missing something too - the toilet bowl when they're having a pee. Men - they're all the same.

So, here's the run down on the song choices, and in order to pad this entry out a bit (lol) some info about each of the songs.

Ray: Livin' la vida loca
Perhaps Ricky Martin's best known track, this is the song which gave him his first number one in 1999. It's also well known for being performed in the movie Shrek 2, by Eddie Murphy and Antonio Banderas. Lets face it, its as close to swing as you can get without actually being swing.. so not much of a departure for Raymondo.

Leona: Bridge over troubled water
Released from the album of the same name, this track gave Simon and Garfunkel a number one in 1970. Its been covered by the world and its dog, including such notable names as Aretha Franklin, Elvis Presley, Eva Cassidy, Nana Mouskouri (yes, really) and Charlotte Church. How will Leona follow that lot? :-D Mind you, it was knocked off the top by Dana's All Kinds of Everything, so who knows.

Eton Road: Don't Feel Like Dancing
Gosh, I love the Scissor Sisters, and in a way, Eton Road have the same weird quirkiness which could make this really good. Or incredibly bad, if they try the same sort of thing as last week. This song was co-written by Elton John (who played the piano for the Scissor Sisters track), and gave the band their first UK number one, in September this year.

The MacDonald Brothers: Love is all around.
Okay,well this song was famously performed by Wet Wet Wet, which is incredibly apt for the MacDire Bros - who could perhaps reform as Drip Drip (Drip in harmony). Having said that, it did sound quite good on their sound check last night (that should give it the kiss of death :-D) Originally released by The Troggs in 1968, it was covered by lots of people, including R.E.M, before The Wets took it to number one in 1994, after it featured in the soundtrack to Four Weddings and a Funeral. It was top of the charts for a massive 15 weeks, and by the end everyone was being sick as soon as they heard even the opening bars - that can be the only excuse for Whigfield's Saturday Night taking its place at the top of the charts. Lets hope it doesn't have that effect on the audience tonight (what am I saying?)

Ben: With a Little Help From My Friends
Written for and sung by Ringo Starr, this was originally a track from The Beatles' Album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, however, it was Joe Cocker who covered it and took it to the top of the charts in 1968. Since then, its been taken to the top twice, first by Wet Wet Wet in 1988, and then by Sam and Mark in 2004 (who were of course Pop Idol finalists, who finished third and second behind Michelle McManus) Hopefully, this will be more like the Cocker version.

Robert: You are Not Alone
This Michael Jackson track came from the album History, and was number one in the UK in September 1995. Really, it seems like a bit of a weird choice for Robert, although I don't doubt that he can deliver - but if you're going to do a MJ track, surely there are better ones to do?

Now, with only 6 acts left in the competition, the bottom  two are probably going to be extremely contentious this week. Obviously, Ben is a worry with his illness - but other than that, who really couldn't be in the bottom 2? I sincerely doubt that Eton Road will be, or Leona, so if we include Ben in the exclusion too, that leaves Robert, Ray and The MacDonalds... it would be a travesty if Robert went out, so lets all pray its Ray and The MaccieDs... and that finally we get to wave goodbye to the real dirge of the competition (either one would do :-D)

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After an inspirational comment from my middleSon, I now know why the MacDonald Brothers are still in. People obviously think they're voting to GET THEM OUT, instead of realising they're voting to keep them in.

See - so simple, a 14 year old worked it out.

After that, its almost an anti-climax that Nikitta has been voted out. I'm glad that the public had Ray in the bottom two - but if Simon had any credibility as a mentor, he would have sent the decision back to the public.. and let the one at the bottom be booted.

Nikitta can now try and make a go of things with Jermaine.. and fingers crossed Ray and MacDonald Brothers will be in the bottom two next week.. well,  a girl can live and dream.

(Can't quite believe that so many leaders thought the MaccyDs were good this week - they've obviously all had too much to drink :-D)

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After last week's ruckus with Simon and Louis, they need all the lovin' they can get this week, so perhaps its the perfect theme for a change. Its also a wide ranging genre, so there should be something to suit everyone.. and perhaps then we can hear what their voices are like with a song which they enjoy doing.

Will the love overflow into Simon's heart tho? With his belief that Louis kicked Ashley off from spite, and his subsequent storming off to his dressing room (resulting in Sharon declaring him a 'diva', and Louis stating he was having a bad trouser day) things may be a little tense in the studio tonight. I guess Simon's main problem is that he really thought Ashley could win this competition, and hasn't taken kindly to him being booted so early. However, to be fair to Louis, based on their performances last week, Robert was much stronger than Ashley.  

I feel so much for the contestants each week. Not only are they performing, but they have to face that either they will be booted out, or one of the people they've grown to like, admire and respect will go. Thats the big problem with all of them being kept in one house. Its inevitable that they will form emotional attachments to each other, and than can only make things worse as one by one, they leave the house.

There's also been a lot of mixing and matching with the song choices this week. Initially, Leona was down to sing Christina's Beautiful. I feel that would have been such an obvious song for her to sing, and I'm glad they changed their mind. Next on the list was James Blunt's Beautiful, but Leona didn't feel it would suit her voice.. then, third on the list, and at last an acceptable choice, was the song she's performing tonight. (All song choices listed below, so stop reading if you don't want to see them)

The MacDonald Brothers have also been on a merry go round with their songs. Initally, they were going to sing Lonestar's Amazed.. then, when Leona rejected the second Beautiful, Louis thought that could be the one for them... but finally, they went with a Robbie Song. I so hope this isn't going to be a huge mistake: the only person who can sing Robbie songs is ..er.. Robbie.

And, before we look at the song choices, here's a mental picture for you all tonight... Anthony never wears underwear ;)

Song Choices this week:

Nikitta: Last Dance (Donna Summer)
Leona: Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word (Elton John)
Ray: Crazy Little Thing Called Love (Queen)

Eton Road: With Love From Me to You (The Beatles)
The MacDonald Brothers: She's The One (Robbie Williams)

Ben: Don't Want to Miss a Thing (Aerosmith)
Robert: Always and Forever ( possibly the Luther Vandross track?)

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Really, Ashley had never lived up to his full potential. His performance at the auditions was amazing - a beautiful voice, very unusual, and I thought to begin with that he could go all the way.

However, even in the Boot Camp stage, and through to final selection process, his arrogant attitude (which I feel was an act to hide his nervousness) overshadowed his performance. Also, some poor song choices from Simon Cowell didn’t help - he was lucky to survive last week’s bottom two placing, and I guess it was inevitable that Louis would put him out.

But what on earth was Robert doing in the bottom two again? He did a great rendition of Take A Chance - and when we still have Ray and the MacDonald Brothers in the contest, I quite despair.

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