The full list of songs for this weekend is here.
Songs voted by the public –
Andrea – Hero by Enrique Iglesias Mariah Carey
Ben – Thinking Out Loud by Ed Sheeran
Fleur – If I Ain’t Got You by Alicia Keys
Lauren – Don’t You Worry Child by Swedish House Mafia
Stereo Kicks – Run by Snow Patrol
Songs chosen by other artists:
Andrea – Chandelier by Sia, chosen by Sam Smith
Ben – Come Together by The Beatles, chosen by One Direction
Fleur – A Fool In Love by Tina Turner, chosen by Emeli Sandé
Lauren – Clarity by Zedd, chosen by Little Mix
Stereo Kicks – Just The Way You Are by Bruno Mars, chosen by Tulisa Contostavlos
Do let us know what you think of them below.
This is how they’ll make Andrea sing Chandelier:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9ilBHkH9Io
i don’t for a moment believe that Tulisa, Little Mix or One Direction had one iota of choice over the songs given to Ben, SK and Lauren … so those might be the songs to focus on to see why TPTB have chosen them.
Sam Smith and Emile Sande have a little bit more artistic credibility than the aforementioned three so it is just possible that they were given a little more of a free reign – but then again do we really believe that!
Some of Sia’s Chandellier lyrics:
“I am holding on for dear life
Won’t look down, won’t open my eyes
Keep my glass full until morning light
‘Cause I’m just holding on for tonight”
Oh dear 🙂
It’s almost like they’re trying to make Stereo Kicks the safest. ‘Rise Like A Phoenix’ narrative to victory for them is looking more and more plausible by the day. Ben looks safe to me as well. All of the other three have a WTF song, in my opinion, all of which I had to look up.
Now what they should have done is given SK that very song, complete with fake beards and women’s clothes…
If SK is/are Conchita, who is Andrea? Verka Serduchka or Cezar? With that song choice could be either.
Andrea is Modern Folk Trio.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SICfYe7bTLU
Good clip. When were they ever “modern”? But then Andrea reflects the same zeitgeist as Modern Folk Trio. Massive de-ramp heading his way.
Andrea is Molly. Huge inital hopes only to completecompletely arse it up at the business end of things.
No act wins if it was bottom 2. Ahm, I mean no act wins if it was bottom 2 twice. Or was it 3 times ? 🙂
initial thoughts…
Lauren… oh dear… I don’t see final 3 based on these songs…
she gets 2 very different songs to what we are used to hearing her sing so far…
neither probably very well known to most of the XF audience… plus she can’t do both of them as slowed down acoustic versions… which one will she do in the original tempo??
Andrea doing chandelier and Hero… further deramping… in the damned if you do… and damned if you don’t kinda way…
SK… giving them two relatively modern… but demo pleasing songs… they are doing everything to get them into that top 3…
Ben… gets 2 pop/rock songs… a modern and a classic… seems positive….
Fleur… gets a dull RnB/pop ballad (Alicia)… but more interestingly, she also gets a bluesy/rock/soul Tina song… is that 2nd choice to try and steal some of the of ‘rock’ votes away from Ben… and prove she can do any genre, not just modern pop?
Looks like they def want Fleur and SK in the finals…
Seems that Lauren and Andrea are being most obviously de-ramped… so either that means they want Ben in the final 3 also… or, at the risk of sounding like i am trying to cover all bases… Lauren is really pulling in the votes (in comparison to SK and Fleur)… so they need to go all out in the next 2 weeks to reduce her votes enough to ensure SK and Fleur get there…
For the sake of accuracy, Andrea will perform the Mariah Carey song, Hero – not the Enrique song as shown above.
X Factor website says it’s the Enrique song, Hero, what’s going on?
Must be a typo, Andrea says himself it’s Mariah:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZx3skJHxRQ
Andrea might be singing the Mariah Carey lyrics, but they’re playing the Enrique Inglesias backing track. Now that’s what you call a deramp.
Now confirmed as Mariah on X Factor website.
Isn’t it ‘Hero’ by Mariah Carey what Andrea is singing?
Heisenberg
Funniest thing I’ve seen on here for a very long time. I’d given up posting here because it was getting a bit like the Telegraph Trolls’ paradise, but you have re-affirmed my belief in the punters’ natural sense of humour. BTW you are dead right about what they are going to do to Andrea. They’ve already had several goes at it. I thought making him say that Italians don’t go in for Halloween (when it it is an official national holiday where every Italian visits their relatives’ graves) was the key to how they wanted to de-ramp him. Good luck to him with this one, poor sod.
Lauren update: http://goo.gl/PO5JQR
Is there a hint of colour vomit and lights all over the place in one of her performances?
More than a hint I’d say. Interesting last minute politics though. They’ve pushed her from the beginning so now illness means a dignified de-ramp. Has this happened before to any contestant?
Green lights for Ben and Stereo Kicks
Amber for Fleur
Red for Andrea
And a big stinking warning there is a bus coming your way sign for Lauren.
Would be how I sum up those choices
Lauren’s turn to be ill… if someone has a lot of time on their hands could they get the stats of how being flagged as ill historically helps/unhelps your vote.
It could be people feel sympathetic and lob you a vote even though the performance wasn’t great.
Or it could be that being ill leads to a below par performance which gets below par votes.
Or it could be teed up as a big worry which makes a good performance seem great because they were ill but still smashed it.
Which kind of ill is Lauren!?!?!?!
Problem is Lauren is genuinely ill. If she performs then she will get sympathy only if TPTB mention it enough which seems that way given the leaks.
Pretty sure fleurs song was the song olly murs sang in big band week. His best performance in the live shows. Definately plays to a broader demo
Certainly wish I’d listened to you early on Stoney. Fleur is standing out as Plan B. SK is Plan A because with 8 of the chuffers, you can turn the sound down on the out of tune ones and still have a decent show. As the impresario you can get rid of of one or two and the target audience won’t remember they’re gone past bedtime. Brilliant.
If you think that sk still remain plan A I advise a punt on them. Tptb would still be able to engineera win for them guys.
Since the songs were revealed it’s fleur who has continued to shorten
Should have listened to you and my other half. Fleur was the one to go for. But SK have been pimped to the max, so here’s hoping.
Does anyone recognise the person introducing this version of ‘A Fool in Love’?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXoyOkh70Sc
Stereo Kicks have the most positive song choices and will no doubt please their demo delightfully 🙂
I envisage a top 3 finish for them. They have definately improved lately and the spice nicknames did them heaps of good. I for 1 found that excessivly helpful
All sk represent are people looking for value at the last minute as they missed the boat on fleur
“When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?”
– John Maynard Keynes –
I stick by my principles im a loyal type of guy. Hence whyi still support westham not Chelsea 😉
I must admit that doesn’t really make sense to me. A childhood loyalty to a football team surely isn’t the same as a bet on an x factor contestant. However, if there’s one thing I’ve learned from Mr Hamby it’s that sometimes a man really does have to do what a man has to do. And sometimes it works out pretty well.
All I would add is this. If a Fleur victory will bring you life changing money then it makes sense to stick with her and run the risk. If not then what you’re doing is having a punt rather than a strategy. You could cover yourself, take a nice profit and have a very nice pool for Eurovision without having to risk anything.
Just a thought.
Regardless I wish you well and will post no more on the matter.
And fwiw it doesn’t matter to me who wins out of SK and Fleur. All I need to have an extraordinary first x factor betting experience is for SK and Fleur to be top2. The order doesn’t matter. I just think not guaranteeing yourself a profit when you have created such an advantageous position for yourself is foolhardy. This isn’t a tv quiz show. You’re risking your own money. It’s been a lot of fun this year as far as I’m concerned but I think it would be a shame for you to miss out on a nice profit just because of pride.
The only time anyone is likely to win a life changing sum of money is through a long shot football/horse racing accumulator. It would however represent my biggest single betting win in a 15 year career. Im not saying I won’t put an insurance in place, cos I always do when the time is right. But im 99.9999999% certain fleur makes the final. And as usual ill be getting a copy of the sun as they land in the local petrol garage on the morning of the final, and if the youguv poll suggests fleur might not win ill be ready to act accordingly.
Well done stoney this series really, I listened to you in week 1, and I should have put money on Fleur then because I had already agreed from that moment it was between her or Lauren. I chose to back Lauren this series though.
For the future though, aside from Little Mix which was a group, has a teenager ever won XF? Can’t remember how old some of the contestants were when they won.
I think I said at the time when everyone was tipping lauren that I saw no reason why she would do any better than lucy jones, dianna vickers, ella henderson. All early favourites that didn’t connect with the general public enough to make a serious challenge of winning. Of course there is always a chance the mould will be broken but I just didn’t feel this was it.
I’m being sentimental but we’re getting to the sharp end so this one’s for you.
Good luck dude.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUUU5LSbYHA&feature=youtube_gdata_player
And 4 all my sofabet sistas an bruvvas.
😀
Nothing but positive signs for Stereo Kicks this weekend – and the Tulisa VT looks like it won’t hurt:
http://goo.gl/oIdk9n
Should we also expect to see Sam Smith, 1D, Emeli Sandé and Little Mix in the other VT’s?
Always fascinates me how different people perceive things. In my eyes Tulisa is fighting to save her career after he recent Court case. And even prior to that she was flopping sales wise.
Similar to the sainted Cheryl. When I make sarky remarks about Cheryl to my mother-in-law, it’s as though I’d said the Queen had gone dogging in the Ranby lay-by.
Tulisa is bound to be back on the show next year I reckon. For that reason, I don’t think tptb see her as a negative.
I doubt they do but that’s not my point. Maybe they are just using the opportunity to get her back into the X factor spotlight
7/1 at Ladbrokes if you think she’s a 2015 mentor.
The finalists – I mean 3 of the remaining 5 acts – do some bonding and more Stereo name kicking:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIbpCC0TSxI
This in my opinion is like series 7. Ben is matt cardle, fleur is Rebecca Ferguson and stereo kicks is one direction. One direction was the one they wanted to win but weren’t getting the votes so started backing rebecca who was the only one that could beat matts votes but that didnt work. Thats why this year I think Ben will win.
The only flaw in that theory is matt was the bookies favourite from the start. Ben is gonna have to beat an odds on favourite to win. Could happen i guess
If the theory is correct one question remains: will they actively try to depress Ben’s vote in the final like they have been doing last couple of years on runner-up’s? I didn’t watch series 7 but remember there was a discussion why they didn’t try to bring Cardle down.
In saying that Ben could be more like Marcus Collins never was in the bottom two but never topped the votes. So fleur could be like little mix who came from nowhere
Marcus, Jahmene or especially Nicholas could win if they were allowed to and I’m afraid that Ben has a similar fate. Another story is if he is topping the vote like Matt and market was kept blind with Andrea.
Song choices, Lauren’s are not that unknown as was stated by someone here… Just saw on YT the song choice from Clarity has over 100m views, However, no sure it will suit Lauren at all, same with SHM song, will be interesting how she does with them and what twist she gets for the songs.
What interested me though is the Clarity song features Foxes, who Lauren supposedly stole Happy from 😉
Very good song choices for Stereo Kicks I agree, they are ramping up the volume on them for sure, but I believe its to get them to the final, rather than possibly win it. However if they are ever going to get the traction to win this show, then these songs will help them.
Fleur should have a solid weekend, that’s all I can say. Will be pimped up for the win I am sure but we could find out how close SK are.
I think Ben will be solid too, but I prefer his Ed Sheeran song choices.
Andrea has a bad weekend in store.
I don’t think Lauren’s choices are unknown, but I’m not sure they’re the most suitable for an X factor audience. clarity didn’t even go top 20 in the uk did it? In my eyes it’s a near perfect pop song, but her performing two edm records from a similar time period is a worrying sign to me, particularly if she John Lewis’ both of them.
SK have exemplary choices. Both unoriginal as holy hell but they’re prove X factor hits, they should be fine.
Ben, again, should be comfortable. The Ed Sheeran song is decent, people love it and he should pull it off. Come Together will suit him to the ground, back to the Highway to Hell style he was previously praised for. Nothing new for him, but if he’s being deramped it’s not through song choice.
Fleur I have lost all interest in. She’s destined for the final, I’m not a fan of either of those songs, or her. The Alicia Keys song is very shouty but she’ll be pimped to high heaven regardless.
Andrea is interesting. Hero will delight what is left of his demo, his deramp will come through vt and comments but it’s restricted as it was a public vote. Chandelier is a genius choice for him, he will be fantastic at singing it but it’s not the most well known song of recent years, again it’s very shouty and lyrically it’s a car crash in terms of inspiring voters. Poor guy.
I think Lauren is toast tonight but I’d cover with Andrea too as we aren’t sure on her votes. It’s hard to get fully behind a lauren elimination when they could easily suppress Andrea’s bounce (if that’s even a thing a anymore).
Lauren is doing a big production for 1, Brian Friedman confirmed but that could kill her too
Thinking logically a running order the last 3 weeks of 3-2-1 for Lauren means she is probably toast tonight as surely we must expect even a bit of an Andrea bounce?
They asked the XF photographer what his 3 fave photos were on the official XF Facebook page
His 3 photos were 1D hugging Dermot, SK celebrating (winner springs to mind and 1D comparison) and lastly Andrea singing covered in Gold lol the manipulation just stinks
Careful you’re not reading too much into things Dean, this could just as easily be honest answers
Could be indeed but it was funny seeing that Andrea pic again. Poor guy.
Wil not feel too sorry for him though, gets his bit of fame in the British limelight
Lauren’s choices are hysterically unsuitable for The X Factor audience. I had to look the Zedd one up to realise a) I knew it and b) while it’s a decent song it doesn’t really go anywhere, much in the sense of Charlie XCX’s Boom Clap (which got Only The Young into the bottom two). As for Swedish House Mafia – Kye Fawkes Night anyone? Both are distinctly Radio 1 songs, I can’t imagine them being played on Heart much if at all and they would alienate the older audience.
Andrea’s choices are potentially disastrous as well – Hero allows them to accuse him of a boring choice (I’m just glad you’ve got a second song tonight) and Chandalier is, again, not suitable for the X Factor audience for the same reasons as Swedish House Mafia. Beyond that, the lyrics are really unhelpful if we’re going into this with the background knowledge that there have been tabloid reports of him barricading himself into his hotel room etc.
It does appear both of these acts are being nuked. I suspect producers are certain they want Fleur and Stereo Kicks in the final, and Ben is more reliable than Lauren on a weekly basis so would help produce a good final. They probably know what songs they need to give Ben to ensure the public don’t all rally behind him. I felt Andrea was being primed for the final but then to lose, but there’s too much danger that viewers who only tune in for the final recognise him as the best singer and get behind him, so it’s probably safer to get rid of him early.
So the problem is that, while I’m certain either Andrea or Lauren are going this week, for varying reasons (sympathy bounce vs sickness) I’m not sure which one.
I thought Andrea was a cert to go until I saw the song choices. There are good reasons why he would still be the target but I’m glad I haven’t committed to anything.
Im on a win win this weekend. If lauren goes ill have next elimination. If andrea goes ill have the match bet versus stereo kicks. But obviously I want both of them to win so lauren this week andrea next week will do just nicely.
Apologies if this has aready been posted. From the Daily Star today: http://www.dailystar.co.uk/tv/x-factor/412776/Simon-Cowell-Mel-B-kick-out-Andrea-Faustini-X-Factor
“Asked who he thought would be in the final Cowell continued: “I think it’ll be Fleur, Ben and Lauren.
“I’d like to see Stereo Kicks there.
“It would be a great final, but Lauren has the young girls voting for her.”