The final can come across as a rather frenetic affair, and tonight was no exception. The evening started with the three contestants trietting on a podium, Sam in the central gold-medallist’s position, and featured the show’s attempts to atone for the lack of a memorable novelty act this year by packing the stage with the all-time greats.
It ended with Luke being announced in third, the result most of us had been expecting before the publication of this morning’s YouGov poll made it seem much more open between the two boys.
Round one involved varying levels of distracting “arena” staging. Nicholas had it worst for ‘Candy’. Nicole made the point that there were too many people on stage whilst Gary noted that the song was completely unsuitable. You could say that. I think he dealt with it admirably, when I could make him out amid the colour vomit that is. The cameras tended to focus on the hoopla that surrounded him.
Sam Bailey didnt look particularly comfortable having to slide down a pole, and there was also some questionable styling and dancing going on. But at least she had a song that showed off her vocals and was in her comfort zone. It was easily the best vocal performance of the first round, but that wasn’t going to be difficult considering the choices given to her two rivals.
‘We Are Young’ was suitable for Luke in terms of his demographic, though not ideal for him vocally. He had a tendency to struggle with his low register in the verses before belting out the choruses. I did feel that he got the best staging of round one, however. He was front and centre on top of the tube train, and there was one particularly effective overhead shot panning into the crowd.
Overall, it didn’t feel like there had been a gamechanger. My feeling was that Sam had won the vocals, Luke had won the visuals and Nick had won the homecoming VTs, with big and enthusiastic crowds and tears aplenty.
The duets are usually more hit than miss. Luke was first up this time with Ellie Goulding. ‘Anything Could Happen’ wasn’t a car crash, and it will have pleased the demographic, Luke and Ellie happily strumming their guitars. Beside that, it did rather wash over me, but then I’m not Goulding’s greatest fan.
Nicky’s duet with Shane Filan never seemed likely to promise a Beyonce-Alexandra moment, and for a while it seemed like they were going to spend the whole song on opposite sides of the stadium. But they eventually came together in front of a backdrop that Jessica wondered might have been a sun or a black hole, and which put commenter Rad in mind of the Hunger Games.
Nick’s now-trademark gold lighting was out in force, though the gold lights seemed to have been turned up a notch for Sam as she belted out ‘And I Am Telling You’ alongside Nicole. Arguably there was a little too much solo action for the latter, but at least that avoided it becoming too much like a battle round from The Voice – which consensus in our comments section was that Sam would have lost.
There’d been a mentor-mentee bonding session in the VT and a Nicole-Sharon love-in in the Dermot interview. Despite the sound of someone talking over the performance, it felt like full-on winner’s staging.
Will Sam be getting the winner’s staging for real tomorrow night, or do you believe Nick can overturn not only the YouGov deficit for second but also the much larger one for first? Do let us know what you made of tonight’s show below.
High 5 to Stoney. The scottish vote really does count for something. I cant believe Nick has got this far. but will it be enough to overtake Sam? I very much doubt it
For me the major thing to come from that final is just how poor the standard was this year. Sam is clearly the best singer there and Nicole beat her like she was a red-headed stepchild. Sam came a ross like the backing singer.
Yep where as last year JA held his own in a very good duet with Nicole
Nicole did it to Jahmene last year. One of the mics went bust and Nicole snatched Jahmenes out of his hand!!
http://smg.photobucket.com/user/andthatisthat/media/nicoleslayzinger.gif.html
Best gif ever.
Its all about ME ME ME!!! lol. Anyone have any ideas on the winners single? Any reliable leaks etc?
I’ve read in a lot of places that Skyscraper is Sams winners single (I guess after Union J didn’t they thought they’d give it to someone else), but I’ve got no idea in regards to Nick.
And on the front page of tomorrow’s Star…
DAILY STAR ON SUNDAY front page: Screwbo slams #xfactor singers …No talent jibe by favourite Sam… https://twitter.com/cfmcfc/status/411985413465980928/photo/1
Win equal amounts on either Sam or Nic 🙂 Happy for Luke to be shown the door.
But I would love for Sam to win.
About bloody time they allowed an “over” to win. And Sam’s the best over they’ve ever had.
And now in the Daily mail…
‘I know people singing in pubs that will p*** over half the people on this show’: X Factor front-runner Sam Bailey accuses producers of favouring sob stories over talent
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2523824/I-know-people-singing-pubs-p–half-people-X-Factor-runner-Sam-Bailey-accuses-producers-favouring-sob-stories-talent.html#ixzz2nUnuOJCu
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
I didn’t know that Sam had already auditioned in 2007.
I presume these headlines won’t affect her much as her fanbase would be firmly established by now, and I wonder if there are any floating voters available for tomorrow’s show.
There were some poor finalists, she’s right, but tonight she got thoroughly pissed on. She sounded like the competent but unexceptional performer that she is.
A couple of months ago I popped into a backstreet pub in Blackpool one Monday afternoon (happy hour). The act on stage was better than anything on X Factor, including Sam Bailey. If acts are any good they are too busy working to bother with the likes of X Factor. I have a friend who’s been a professional singer all her life, until she retired to Bulgaria. She would never have dreamed of entering a talent show because she always earned good money doing the clubs. Through my friendship with her I have seen hundreds of different acts up and down the country. Sam B is right, but although she sings in tune, she doesn’t have that something extra. Not exactly Peggy Lee is she?
Well quite. But this is a set of finalistswho mostly struggl to sing in tune without shouting whilst simultaneously remembering the words. And to that the walking in a steaight line without looking awkward and in that company Sam looks exceptional. One eyed people, lands of the blind and all that sort of thing.
Imagine her replacing Niki Evans lol
I would say nikki evans had the edge over sam bailey… for me she had more charisma and her voice had a more recognisable tone to it than sams and had the edge in stage presence and aspect. but times are different.
I disagree with the views on the Sam/Nicole duet. I thought Sam did just fine – she has a much more distinctive and interesting voice than Nicole, who even live sounded over-produced. It wasn’t a great song for a duet however, it was just ridiculous belting.
Looked forward to Luke and Ellie Goulding’s duet of Anything Could Happen, which is a song I love – sadly, that definitely was an example of being upstaged. The song suited her and didn’t suit him so well.
I’m not writing Nick out of this race yet. He seemed to win the duet round because the performance was at least ok. He hasn’t been in the bottom 2 at all, so we have no concrete information about his vote. Honestly, if the producers have been in this much of a panic about him winning, maybe that’s because he’s gonna. Sam’s obviously the favourite, but I’m too confused to be too sure about what is probably going to be the most comfortable win in a while in reality.
I missed the first two songs, but otherwise pretty much saw what you saw. I’m unsure whether Nicole outsinging Sam will do much damage. It struck me that she might have been promised a finals duet that was shifted to Sam when Tamera went out. She didn’t really seem interested in pulling off the song for Sam so much as shining as brightly as possible herself. She’s apparently looking to relaunch PCD soon, after all.
I will point out that the novelty act song likely means we’ll see a couple of those back last year. My rough impression from looking through forums for the last few years is that the viewership reacted badly when it initially became clear how those acts were scripted into every year’s show. However, I think this year’s experience has left most viewers hankering for a bit more humor and entertainment and realistic about the necessary tradeoffs.
Oops, and I forgot to mention that Nick went on first *again*, and I’ve seen few forum comments about it. Next time we discuss how obvious producers are willing to get, I think his treatment in the last five weeks or so is going to be important to take into consideration.
I have just endured watching a recording of the final (well just the performances such as they were). It seemed like the final stage of the Tour de France – the positions have been decided in the previous rounds and this was just a procession for the winner. OK Sam B was totally outclassed by Nicole, but in turn she easily outclassed the two boys. After the duet they might as well flashed up WINNER in gold light in the background and set off fireworks and ticker tape.
The only way Nick wins is if half of Scotland sits up all night pressing redial on the phones – so yes it is still possible.
Other than that the comments on this forum were far more entertaining than the actual final.
Don’t forget SPOTY tomorrow with Sir Andrew of Murray, current holder of the Greatest Living Englishman title, depending on phone votes.
Could a split scots vote mean that neither win? That’d probably make independence a cert. It’d be like PG Wodehouse said… “It is not usually difficult to distinguish between a Scotsman with a grievance and a ray of sunshine…”
If Sofabet had a like button…
I have one big question to ask and that is WHAT IS GOING ON?
Is anyone ele completely baffled by this entire final show? I am completely and utterly confused at what the producers are trying – who the heck do they want to win this?
Ok so they’ve been trying their best to deramp Nick as much as possible and got Luke over their favorites RC and Tamera so that he wouldn’t win. Then what happens? They put Luke BEFORE him during the duets, gave him unfavorable staging for We Are Young, the worst part of the duet on the recap. While they gave Nick the ultimate backstory that will motivate votes, winner’s staging for the duet, great comments! What on earth?
Add this to sound problems during Sam’s performances of the backing track SCREAMING over Sam’s voice. The camera panning onto Nicole all the time who is completely outsinging Sam Bailey. It’s a mystery what’s going on. Oh and let’s not forget this news article which has conveniently come out JUST before the final:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2523824/I-know-people-singing-pubs-p–half-people-X-Factor-runner-Sam-Bailey-accuses-producers-favouring-sob-stories-talent.html#ixzz2nUnuOJCu
Wow – is Nick now their preferred winner???
And it’s not just this final! This entire series has been one massively complex labyrinth to try to get through…as in I have absolutely got no clue who they want to win, who has been pimped as their favorites constantly being given unfavorable staging/comments and different contestants are being pimped and deramped EVERY show. What on earth is going on?
Of course Nick isn’t their preferred winner. It seemed pretty clear to me from last night’s show they want Sam to win.
I very much doubt the producers have complete control over what the press write about the show! The stories that they do leak are usually made up or aren’t direct quotes from a contestant. I expect if this story is true, Sam was having a few drinks, talking to a journalist and this just came out. Of course the papers will want to publish it on the day of the final!
Sam’s story was in the Mail online & Sun, the 2 most read papers, and both within a couple of hours of the show ending. I feel that it was released to the press by TPTB to give Sam integrity.
“I won purely on music and without a sob story” she said as her sick gran sat behind her crying tears of joy.
The thing is that she’s right.
I think Paul Akister was the best singer they had this year but apart from Nick and Sam most of the others have clear vocal deficiencies.
Luke has a tendency to sing flat on high notes and has poor control and he was in the final.
Rough Copy’s harmonies and tuning have been done to death.
Abi, while unique amongst the finalists, had some poor early song choices and performances and the other two girls were mostly generic wannabe divas that you hear belting out Celine and Whitney at karaoke nights.
Lorna never had a chance and there were a couple of overs rejected at judges’ houses whose names I’ve forgotten who might have done something but were not given the chance.
We’ll never know what might have been with Miss Dynamix but none of the groups seemed up to much.
With tptb mistakenly culling the better singers to leave the road clear for a Tamera procession, or so it seemed, and gifting us Sam C and Luk’s (non-existent) rasp the other singers weren’t any competition.
That is, of course, assuming she said those things. She gave me the impression that she was canny enough to know not to do that.
The background in Luke’s first performance was that of a train tunnel. The movement is as if Luke’s in a train in the tunnel and the train is moving away, as if saying “bye guys, I’m leaving.”
The problem for Sam was that her moments were met with wide shots while Nicole’s were met with close-ups.
There’s no question for me that the entire show was engineering a Sam Bailey win – the ill grandmother was the coupe de grace, the cherry on the cake, the winning moment. She got the best staging for Edge of Glory although not perfect (red-and-black with Sam looking uncomfortable with movement) and the judges struck the right tone including an appeal for votes. The duet had issues but that was technical rather than trying to deliberately deramp her IMO.
Nick was completely deramped with Candy; Richard Betsfactor will be delighted at the sea of colour vomit which was splurged across the stage and the cameras were more interested in the choreographer’s (Sisco?) appearance than Nick meaning he was missing from shot quite a lot. Louis went over-the-top in his defense and criticism of Gary considering the latter’s remarks were fair and Sharon alluded to everyone being winners at this point.
Luke, Luke, Luke – where should I start? The gang of 10 outside his house resulting in the Sophie Habibis effect? I have to admit, his staging was hilarious. Nothing says ‘busker’ more than the Underground; especially when two of the dancers sat reading the paper while Luke performed – something which the cameras focused on. The tunnel image presented a connotation of him going ‘down’ and he was up on something (a train carriage of all things) leading to a disconnect with the audience. The judges comments were muted with the oh-so-helpful Devon vote, which worked so well last week, called upon again.
Being the bread of a Tom Odell performance probably did not help either – here’s one indie performer and here’s another indie performer… who’s better?
Also, did anyone else notice that Dermot thanked someone else for helping in Nick and Luke’s performances (the dance group for Nick; the audience for Luke)? Sam, meanwhile, did it all by herself.
Onto the duets and Luke was back first, having a very short recovery time from his busk. And hello to unfocused lighting, an unhelpful song where Luke and Ellie Goulding didn’t really compliment each other and a game of ‘where’s Luke’ in places.
Lucky Nick, getting Shane Filan who hasn’t even made an impact as a solo singer. On the plus side, the pair worked much better together than Luke and Ellie and the song was in Nick’s comfort zone. The gold returned but the ‘sun’ on the backing screen was slightly strange – why so much black? He’ll be thankful for the choir and, for me, the show was definitely about keeping Nick’s vote in relative check rather than murdering it completely. Possibly they feared that people wouldn’t bother with a Sam v Luke final as the winner would be far too obvious.
But what was Shane doing? During Dermot reading out Nick’s number he made a thumbs up, then stuck two fingers up before pointing at Nick. But Nick’s number is 01; Sam’s is 02. Did Shane simply become confused because Nick performed the celebrity duet second or was it a clever piece of producer subterfuge? To be fair, I’m leaning towards the former but still…
So Sam gets the support of two judges while Nick and Luke have to share Louis – arguably three judges as Gary did nothing but praise Sam while criticising Nick and Luke. The performance was powerful and showed off Sam’s voice to it’s full extent. It wasn’t really a Alexandra and Beyonce moment but it was as close as the final was going to get. The only black mark was the technical difficulties that beset the performance which meant Jedward drifted in and out while they were presumably preparing for the ‘Joke Act’ return.
But overall, IMO, it was Operation Bailey and no Daily Mail article is going to bring her down after the help she was given.
I wasn’t watching all that carefully because I was trying to bake and post on my phone as well but agree with your conclusions. I did wonder for a while if Luke might overtake Nick but didn’t catch on to the busker connotations of Luke’s performance.
I listened to Betsfactor after the show and yes Richard, you are clearly the greatest multimedia reality tv betting podcast in the known multiverse (copyright J Hamby). They couldn’t have colour vomited Nick’s dancers more if Sharon had woken from her alcohol induced stupor and actually puked on them after a pint of creme de menthe and cointreau.
All in all a surprisingly dull show but a great advert for Miss Nicole Scherzinger.
As an aside, why do they all feel the need to copy George Michael with Mr Elton John in Don’t Let Your Son Go Down On Me and announce their duet partners. It’s not like it’s a surprise.
And Luke’s mini crowd was pretty funny. I must confess I wish some resentful schoolfriend or neighbour would throw a pie at these homecomings. Surely not everyone can be delighted about their success. What happened to good, solid, traditional emotions like bitterness, hatred and envy? Are we all americans now, a-whoopin’ and a-hollerin’ at every opportunity and feeling comfortable in the presence of success? That just seems wrong. They should be made to apologise to their hometowns for showing everyone else the shitty reality of the grim and miserable lives they will all return to on Monday.
Hi Daniel, I can’t find the yougov poll file on their website, shouldn’t it be already published by now?
Hi Boki, I think it is standard for them not to publish the full survey until after the final.
Now I found it’s not like that, look in their archive from last year:
YouGov-Sun-Results-7Dec12-x-factor
Published
Sat December 8 2012, noon GMT
So it seems they published it on the day of final.
After the final they posted the following:
YouGov gets it right on X-Factor, predicts James Arthur win
Published
Mon December 10 2012, 12:15 p.m. GMT
This year still nothing, very unprofessional.
To recap last night. It really was as bad as I first thought.
Beyonce appeared in a video to tell us that Sam B will appear at a gig with her as Tamera is not available.
Nick was literally and metaphorically dropped from a height.
Sam B can sing better than Nick. Nick can probably pole dance better than Sam.
Luke’s performance was so dull that one couple didn’t bother to watch – and they were on the stage.
Luke and Ellie Goulding did two different versions of Anything could Appen at the same time.
Nick did a duet with some bloke who can sing better than Nick but not as well as Sam.
Sam did a duet with Nicole. Sam is definately better than Nick and Luke. Nicole is definately better than Sam.
We’ll have to wait until tonight for the result but I’m pretty sure that it will be Nicole winning the recording contract with Syco. She’s been the dark horse of this competition.
HEH!!!
I forgot the dropped aitches. Did Ellie start doing that partway through the song (to imitate Luke I guess)? It was like listening to the Eton Footlights Revue do Consider Yourself from Oliver.
I hope Nicole does win. She deserves to based off those performances.
Really this has been the worst final ever. Nicole was the only part worth watching. Her and Wagner.
I don’t know – but for me it was the Ighlite of the whole night.
Hindeed. 🙂
A previous x factor duet
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJj2ei6WNQs
Didn’t she play a stripper as well?
Weally wonderful Wodney.
Duet songs X Factor would never provide…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evQnDvU41zA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zh64meCypGE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoBYORMo96w
For some reason, I’m imagining a Mary Byrne and Frankie Cocozza partnership…
I don’t think any of the acts had a great night.
McNick and Candy was bloody awful. Now I’m not one that looks too deep into staging and lighting but that really was colour vomit. Vile. Flying Without Wings was pretty average but will no doubt delight the demo.
Sam got off to a good start with Edge of Glory but was outscreeched by Nicole in the second round. What was going on in the background though? One of the producers left a mike on?
Luke couldn’t hit the low notes on We Are Young and Goulding’s voice overpowered him in the duet. I didn’t think it any surprise to see him gone but hats off to him, I had written him off at the start of the lives and predicted him being voted out in week two. A very well earned third place in the competition from someone who obviously wanted it and tried his hardest to get there.
Now on to the winner. I’m a bit schizophrenic on this because I can see huge reasons for and against both acts. Nick has a huge regional vote and potentially the votes of lots of middle aged women, but he is fishing in the same pool as Sam for the latter, she being “Everywoman”, as eurovicious described her. Anyway, I’ve nailed my colours to the mast now and looking for value, on the basis of the regional vote and the Star leaks from a few weeks back that he topped the vote, my money is on Nick. However, it would be an absolute pleasure to be proven wrong and see Sam win.
One final thing that is interesting. Commenter Phil mentioned that Luke’s tube train staging looked like it was designed with RC in mind (https://sofabet.com/2013/12/14/x-factor-2013-final-second-friend/#comment-35065). We’ll we thought the same! And also noting that the winner will be supporting Beyonce, this looked like it had been set up for Tamera. Might also explain a major deramping of Nick…
The noise during Nicole and Sam’s duet was Jedward getting their microphones turned on too early.
Glad to hear they can still make mayhem wherever they go.
I know I’m sounding like a bit of a whiny bitch but I found the novelty act medley a bit disappointing too. It was nice to see them again but taken out if the competition and put into a highlights reel like that didn’t really work for me. It was the fact that Wagner appeared to believe in himself and his performances that made him magical. That was a bit like watching John McEnroe lose his temper in a veterans tournament at the Albert Hall
Hmmm. My “everywoman” friends (and their friends) on Facebook are going nuts for the Sam and Nicole duet. Will be interesting to see the winner and voting results tonight.
Winners Singles..
Sam B- Skyscraper, Demi Levato
Nicholas- Superman, Five for Fighting
Both songs were previously covered by Joe Mc Elderry on his albums.
Think Nick’s song is very good and well within his range wheras Sam needs to be careful that she doesn’t veer towards shouting what is meant to be a very heartfelt song.
= BREAKING =
Daniel’s just retweeted a link with the winner’s singles on. Assuming it’s correct:
SAM – Demi Lovato – Skyscraper
NIC – Five for Fighting – Superman
== Grand Final Fun Quiz ==
One song has been out for twelve years and gathered 10m views on Vevo.
One song’s been out for two years and gathered 112m views on Vevo.
One song reached #48 in the UK (plus #56 when it was on Joe McElderry’s album) and #14 in the US.
One song reached #7 in the UK (plus #6 in Scotland) just ten weeks ago and #10 in the states a year or two back (#2 on downloads). The same song was performed on the auditions for this year’s X Factor and surprised when it raced up the iTunes charts to as high as #4 as a result.
But which could possibly be which?!
Will you do podcasts next year Richard, or for BGT? I know you’re done with the Betsfactor site but the podcasts are a great listen and, as far as I am aware, the finest multimedia reality tv show betting podcast in all of creation ever (apart from the one distributed by the ant-people of Zycorax 5 but that is broadcast by combining odours so it doesn’t count).
I would like to see the podcasts return next year too. Even if you scrapped the phone in and just did the chat with Daniel every week like this week’s.
Hi Jessica,
Thanks for the lovely words, Daniel has been immense of course.
Wouldn’t rule it out, but no plans to.
Richard
Love the show, by the way…..
Lyrics watch!
Sam: “Go on and try to tear me down
I will be rising from the ground
Like a skyscraper”
Nick: “It’s not easy to be me”
And last year if you had the same points to make about impossible vs Let it Be?
Fair point!
There’s obviously one massive thing against Let It Be though, and that’s that it’s about 1000 years old (or it may as well be to a lot of the X Factor crowd anyway!)
Impossible was a much more contemporary song.
If you just take the first part of the final at face value then I think it is quite clear.
Luke was probably third by a good margin. Yes he had support in the arena and yes he has polled well. But the performances will have pleased his fans, but not picked up too many new votes.
They burried Nick with Candy, the duet was the same old same old. So again lots of votes from his fans, but probably no new votes.
For the viewer only watching or perhaps voting in the final I’m sure they only saw one contestant really in it. If Sam was outsung by Nicole it does not matter – it was still the performance which made the most impact.
All they need is the one off voters to offset any switch from Luke to Nick. I think that will have worked and that Sam B will be at least the 10% head in the vote which should ensure the win no matter what happens tonight.
Just look at last year’s songs though… Jahmene, Let it Be and James, Impossible- the former was far and away the most well known and successful. James was, however, on an upward trajectory wheras Nick seems to be falling slowly for the last few weeks. Still think Nicholas’ song is better but am doubtful of how many floating voters will only see tonight’s show. The vts will be very interesting here- if Sam can be given a connection to this song and be vulnerable with it, it could be very moving. If she just belts it out, I feel Nick could have the advantage.
I think Superman is a great song and actually a very good choice for Nick. It flopped on the chart but it got quite a bit of radio play at all and it’s long overdue to make a comeback like Iris or Drops Of Jupiter. I expect the original will do very well on the chart next week now.
I tend to believe they try to go for a good song for every contestant because if they do win, they’ve got to release it. Even Maloney’s single which leaked was actually quite good. They tend to go for a song which is somewhat familiar to the audience but not so well known that it seems ridiculous to cover it (with the exception of Let It Be, which was an odd choice!)
Skyscraper is a perfect choice for Sam and I can already hear her singing it. I think she’ll actually do a better version than Demi. She does the “light and shade” thing so well like she did on Bleeding Love.
Looks like an easy Christmas #1 for whoever wins – so far none of the other contenders are top 10 on iTunes, with the spoiler song “Highway To Hell” by AC/DC only #14.
Just saw the start of X-tra Factor last night, although that was before I watched the liveshow, so I wasn’t quite clear of what to make of some of the comments.
However what did stand out was that they asked Sam B how good would it be if she was standing there as the winner tonight. They asked Nick how he felt to have made it as far as the top 2.
Yes. It’s clear who they want to win. The only question is, given their appaling failures and mistakes this year, will she?
Best of luck to everyone who is financially involved tonight.
my alarm is set for 03.30 am to watch the drama unfold as I am currently in myanmar on holiday.
Obviously missed last nights show but I am glad Nick made it to the final 2.
my head is saying Sam wins it from here and i guess she deserves it but I hope that Nick does it simply because of the underhand treatment he has received.
Once again best of luck to each and everyone.
Good luck to all, a Scottish double across the channels tonight? Only joking, I recovered most of Rough wasted £ last night so happy enough, and thanks to Sofabet ahead for the series now thanks in in no small way to Daniels Kinglsand Road call! Again good luck to all, looking forward to seeing the actual votes!
Well done to Daniel & team on great coverage on a series that has been hard to endure at times. Hope people win big tonight, I know some ham Sam at nice odds so well done to anyone who wins a few quid.
Can someone please pelt One Dirrction with plastic pint glasses full of fresh urine.
That’s what would happen if they tried to sing that gubbins to a rock crowd, surely.
The first bit sounds a bit like “My Generation”. The rest is a right mash-up
So the staging for Angel is practically the same as the heat which means the irritating dancers remain. Nick’s been given stars on his collar, though. Gary remarks that he had a chance of winning despite earlier saying that Sam should clearly be the winner. Nicole used the dangerous ‘p’ word – ‘proud’. Louis mentions Scotland and called for a generic people to vote.
At this stage I think the suggestion is that Sam is far enough in the vote to hold on so they don’t have to radically deramp him now.
I’m not sure they called Nicholas ‘little’ often enough. I think they need to emphasise it. Little is a quality I always look for in pop stars. Little excites. Soon Nicholas could be the littlest pop act in the world, just like that One Dimension. Oh… hang on a minute….
Be fair Jessica – Prince is quite petite but has a fair amount of talent.
And who calls him ‘little’?
No onr. That’s my point. I saw prince 4 times at the O2 and at some crappy festival in Kent and noone ever calls him little.
In my view they were patronising and diminishing him compared to the way they were talking about WOMAN Sam Bailey. And they made a point of saying One Dimension are the BIGGEST boy band in the world. In the critique of the song I made that post for, every judge mas a point of calling him ‘little’, some more than once.
When Sam & Nic came out singing Katy Perry, she had the camera on her for all the big “and you’re gonna hear me Roar” parts of the song.
Cage – plinth – red-and-black… WHAT??? I didn’t expect that at all. If I was right with my original prediction that Sam is far enough ahead in the vote then they could be using it to say ‘it doesn’t always fail’ but I’m surprised about it’s use.
That’s nothing to the ‘tartan check’ between Dermot and Louis before the performance to remind people of Nicholas.
The comments were great though – Gary asked people not to be complacent, Nicole reminded people that Sam is a mother and called her empowering and Louis asked for all mum’s to vote for Sam. And Sharon begged for votes too.
The roar from the audience was phenomenal.
Thinking back I think the cage being raised was releasing her from her prison job and the plinth was ‘winners staging’. Not sure about the red-and-black but the staging wasn’t as bad as I first thought now I’ve sat back and thought.
I wish I’d carried on watching Robin Hood on Movie Mix.
According to Nicole, Sam is a beacon of light and Nicholas has wings made of butter. Has she been sipping Sharon’s water?
Is there anything else the judges can do to drum up more support for Sam Bailey?
Desperate pleas for votes from judges after Sam’s performance. Even Louis towing the producer line and saying pick up the phone and vote for Sam!! Vote must be to close for comfort. I would love Nic to upset tptb!
If the vote was that close I would have thought the lighting and judges comments would have been more targeted for a deramp. I don’t think there was anything particularly in the Angel performance to suggest it.
At least in Katy Perry they don’t have a vocalist who can make the contestants look bad. She looks great but she sings like nails down a blackboard.
Onto the winners single and the doors behind Nick seem to me to be very Stars-In-Their-Eyes but he’s getting a lot of gold. And another game of ‘Where’s Nicky?’ at points. The song isn’t particularly going anywhere – it’s even blander than The Climb. Gary didn’t stand to applause.
The comments had something very conciliatory about them as though he’s coming to the end of his journey. Louis’ weak appeal seemed very weak, just reminding people this is the last chance to vote.
Those doors just needed the word “Exit” above them!
That wide side profile shot of Sam singing down to the judges during winner’s single was the best of the whole series. Will post screenshot later. Beautiful.
Another plinth for Sam but a much better song; current and memorable. The shattered glass in the background is a bit off-putting though – it’s quite distracting. Plus they gave us a game of ‘Where’s Sam?’ with some long shots. The high notes were slightly shaky too.
The pre-song VT worked well with how the show has changed her life, she had a four judge standing ovation and the comments have been good for her (as long as Louis saying ‘that’s going to be a number one record’ wasn’t to make the vote complacent) but the staging really doesn’t match what else is happening for me.
The interview with the boy should be the icing on the cake.
Oh crap! Now she’s the voice for all of us.
If I watch this turd next year I better at least try to make some money. I couldn’t respect myself otherwise.
This sentimentality just annoys me.
It’s ridiculous how obvious they are making their preference for Sam to win. Nicholas opening the show again (it must be some kind of record!), but mainly the comments from the judges. Louis seems far more interested in Sam winning that his own act!
I can’t wait to see the actual voting results to see if it was necessary to get Sam ahead of Nicholas. I’m actually looking forward to seeing the voting stats more than the final, or anything else in this disappointing series.
Well what do you know – almost an anticlimax in the end.