Jamie Afro Interview

It’s another preview X Factor story from this week’s News of the World:

X FACTOR evictee Jamie Afro reckons he would do it his way if he entered the competition again – and not take advice from Simon Cowell or the show’s producers.

It was “incorrect” song choices made by his mentor Simon, 50, and producers that left a sour taste in his mouth.

The Londoner reckons they regularly picked the wrong tune for him to sing as they struggled to come to terms with what he was – and tried to turn him into something he was not.

Jamie, 34, from London, tells the News of the World: “You saw how well Sex On Fire by the Kings of Leon went down in my audition.

“A lot of people who watch the show might not have known the song, because it’s quite edgy, and modern – but it went down brilliantly.

“THAT was what I am all about, and I performed with a huge smile on my face.

“But they wouldn’t let me do a similar song again.

“I wanted to do Mr Brightside by the Killers in the rock week but they vetoed it, saying nobody would have heard it, in place of Primal Scream’s Get Your Rocks Off.

“But that was the point – I wanted to try something that not everyone would have heard of, rather than going for the safe option.

“I just don’t think they knew what to do with me because there had never been a rock singer on the show before.

“But I wanted to go with Simon’s choice, because let’s face it, he’s the expert.

“And I feared if I hadn’t have gone with what they suggested then I would have got their backs up and been out of the competition earlier on.

“In the end I wasn’t miserable, but I had lost confidence up there.”

It’s almost a cliché for an ex-contestant to blame the song choices, probably because it’s so easy for them to do it.  We really need some kind of alternate-reality predicting computer that can see how he would have done if he had picked his own songs.