The X Factor Finals: Week 9
December 7, 2009 12 Comments
It’s the ‘semi-finals’; thank god it’s nearly all over.
Saturday
Running Time (including the Xtra Factor): 150 minutes
Time I watched it in: 70 minutes
X Factor Ratio: 46.7%
It’s Michael Jackson night, so at least there might be some good songs. Of course, he did plenty of bad ones too. Fingers crossed that no one does ‘Earth Song’ (you can read more about my fear of Earth Song here).
Olly – Can You Feel It? – No, Olly, I can’t. I’ve never been a huge fan of Olly, but this was probably his worst vocal yet. He’s also an atrocious dancer. This week, he seemed to have been inspired by a fish. Simon looked ecstatically happy – he’s got a great poker face.
Dannii said that they could all feel it in the room. Bully for them. All the judges gave him absolutely glowing praise, so maybe it’s just me.
Joe – She’s Out of my Life – I’ve slowly warmed to Joe, very much in a case of substance over style. He’s still not my cup of tea but at least he can sing. It’s just a shame that they gave him such a depressing song. I can’t believe that he’s now one of my favourites – it just shows how bad some of the others have been this year.
Louis gave sickeningly gushing praise, Dannii and Simon quickly followed suit. I started to for someone to get an absolute slating, just to liven it up. Cheryl, of course, loved it – he is from Newcastle, after all.
Stacey – The Way You Make Me Feel – Gosh. Dannii is either really brave or really stupid to pick the penultimate week to give Stacey an up-tempo song and a routine that involved more than just standing still. It didn’t quite work, but it was nice to see her doing something different. It was a bit of a weak song really, and really did nothing for her voice.
Simon: ‘It was fine, but it wasn’t you.’ There’s a reason why he’s the best judge and his comments here were really spot on.
Danyl – The Man in the Mirror – Simon covered his mouth early on in the song as if to say: ‘Dear god, what have I done?’ As always, Danyl was much stronger in the second half of the song. Was he terrible or was he actually pretty good? Yet again, I had no idea. He got a standing ovation from Simon AND Cheryl. I didn’t think it was worthy of that.
Simon said it was incredible and then got even more carried away. I take back what I said about him being the best judge.
The second set of songs are ‘judges’ choice’. Joy.
Olly – We Can Work It Out – This was the straw that broke the camel’s back – Olly is crap. This was bloody awful. And his dancing is neither big nor clever. Towards the end, I did start to wonder if he’d actually suffered a nervous breakdown and nobody had noticed.
Louis said he was impressed that he picked a song that wasn’t well known. Yeah, because the Beatles are just an obscure indie band.
Joe – Open Arms – Cheryl did a really awful overhead clap at the start of the song. It made me feel a bit embarrassed. I don’t know what the song was (I looked up the title), but it was absolutely awful. We were right back in the realms of musical theatre with this performance. He was also stood on a table.
The judges were getting on my nerves by this point. Cheryl thinks she is actually Joe’s mum.
Stacey – Somewhere – The cheese factor was really cranked up with this song choice, but it did suit her voice. I’m no fashion expert but her dress wasn’t very flattering; I kept thinking that it was going to inflate.
Simon came out with one of his classic lines: ‘You are back in the game, sweetheart.’ I hope that Stacey wins, simply because she’s so bashful when she gets compliments. It’s not a very good reason for wanting someone to win, but its all I’ve got. Thank god that she did this song last or she may have been in trouble.
Danyl – I Have Nothing – God, Simon can’t half pick some melodramatic rubbish. I’ve reached this weird point with Danyl where I simultaneously think that he’s a cracking singer and that he’s absolutely garbage. I don’t really know how to comment.
Louis now officially thinks that everyone should be in the final. Cheryl managed to give him positive comments without actually giving him a compliment. She clearly doesn’t like him.
With the main show finished, I thought I’d managed to escape its evil clutch, but the Xtra Factor played a snippet from Earth Song. A snippet is more than I can handle. Holly appeared to be wearing one of Bet Lynch’s old dresses, but, dear god, was she ever working it.
We get to the best bit of the week – the public interrogation of the judges, who seem to be genuinely dreading what the callers are going to ask them. You can’t have better proof for what a good feature it is. Jenny phoned in for the third week running and completely lost the plot. I’ve never heard anything quite like it and Holly said that she was a bit scared. Jenny is either a great actress or a complete nutcase. Louise then phoned in and attacked Dannii in a Paxman-esqe way over what Stacey wears on stage. Simon just sat and grinned.
My predictions:
Should go home: Olly
Will go home: Danyl
Sunday
Running Time: 120 minutes
Time I watched it in: 43 minutes
X Factor Ratio: 35.8%
I was at my brother’s when the show was on live and I had the misfortune of watching the first 40 minutes. I couldn’t believe just how boring it was in real-time. This kind of robbed my final bit of enthusiasm for blogging about it.
Danyl went home.
In Conclusion
My prediction was right and the early favourite, Danyl, went home. I wish it had been Olly. Here are my current favourites, for what it’s worth.
1. Stacey
2. Joe
3. No… I’m not going to say Olly.
Total Duration: 270 minutes
Total time I spent watching it: 113 minutes
Overall X Factor Ratio: 41.9 %
About sherby57
Evening, Sherby.
I know exactly what you mean about Danyl. It is so bizarre. I’ve come to the conclusion that he has a great voice, but he has no idea what to do with it. No control of it. So everything is shouted and exaggerated and often out of tune. Man in the Mirror is one of my favourite songs, but not the way he sang it, and I’m fed up of Diva songs, so he did nothing for me at all this week. Having said that, I was pretty surprised he went. I thought it was Olly (who was mediocre) or Stacey for the chop, but shows what I know.
I’ve warmed to Joe now too – he’s tuneful, he has a sweet voice and now he’s cured himself of the habit of grinning inanely through songs of despair and heartbreak, he’s a lot more convincing. He put some real feeling into the first song and yet again wiped the floor with everyone else. I’ve never heard the second song before in my life and amn’t in a hurry to hear it again but I don’t think that was his fault, he was fine. Still think he’s more of a musicals person but I hope he wins.
I just can’t see it with Stacey at all, to be honest. She always looks so uncomfortable no matter what she’s singing. Like she’s desperately trying to get this next note out. It just seems really awkward and I never enjoy watching her at all. Her second song was better than her first but only because her first was embarrassing – she was soooo ill-at-ease. Part of her appeal is the girl-next-door thing, I assume, so why turn her out in the same sort of get-up that Kandy Rain got pelters for? Hm, Dannii?
Good evening, CJ.
I think you might be right about Danyl. It’s a very strange situation. I don’t think it helps that you get into a hyper-critical frame of mind, so you don’t actually know what you’d think of them out of the context of the X Factor.
I think that Olly should definitely have gone but he seems to have a lot of support.
I certainly started off not liking Joe, but you have to hand it to him for putting it in each week. He’s definitely improved too. One of the problems with Danyl, as I’ve said before, is that after a stellar first audition, he had nowhere to go.
I can see what you’re saying about Stacey. She’s my favourite just because I quite like her. She does have a pleasant voice, but she’s very nervous, as you say.
Oh well, it’ll all be over next week. I wonder who’ll they’ll draft in for the duets?
Westlife for the duets – every time. They are contractually obliged to perform on X-Factor as many times as possible…
Oh god. How depressingly accurate.
Rumours on t’internet that George Michael and Sir Paul of McCartney have agreed to be amongst the duetters…..who knows. I’d love to see Joe do “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down On Me” and announce “Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr George Michael.” Heh.
Awww that would be a moment of the utmost cheese! Let’s hope it happens.
They’re pretty impressive guests if the rumours are true. To be fair they’d be very impressive.
I guess they’d have to get a female guest to balance things out. They’ll have to go some to top Beyonce’s appearance last year.
Artists that are doing a big PR push at the moment: Rod Stewart, Westlife, Robbie Williams.
I reckon these are gonna be the favourites for duets. All horrific. Why do I watch X-Factor again?
I read a rumour today that it’s going to be Robbie Williams, Michael Buble (Mickey Bubbles) & George Michael doing the duets, with ‘Macca’ doing a solo spot. Rod Stewart would have been awesome, you can’t beat a bit of the Rod.
You watch the X Factor because it’s horrific. It’s one of those paradox things.
Didn’t you see the Rod Stewart audience with thingy…
How can you do a tribute to yourself? It’s, like, weird.
Hmmm. I didn’t watch the Audience with Rod Stewart, which perhaps explains why I’m not horrified by the thoughts of him on the X Factor.
ITV are very keen on getting celebrities to perform onanistic self tribute. I think they’ve found a format that just feeds the ego of the ‘superstar’.
Joe for 1st place because hes got it all popularity 2 a awsoom voice and well girls just love him special the young ones
Stacey for 2nd because she has a nice voice but i don’t think she will win because joe has been consistant all the way through and he’s just better
Olly for 3rd place great dance and popular keep up the dancing and sining love you all wish u could all win but joe stands with xfactor lv ffrom Louise Harris x
Hi Louise,
It’s nice to hear from you!! After watching tonight, I think I agree with your rankings – although, it’s sad now because Stacey is out!