Nobody expected Reggie N Bollie to get this far. Or, if someone among us did, they didn’t say so: of the 43 Sofabet commenters who joined in the fun of trying to predict the 1-13 finishing order, all but three had Reggie N Bollie leaving between 10th and 13th. The highest predicted finish (take a bow, annie) was 5th. So how come they’re in the final?
With the benefit of hindsight, we suspect the answer to that question lies in how everything else this series – other acts; putting on a good show; ratings – has been subservient to the overriding aim of getting Louisa to the win. Producers have pimped two acts above all others, keeping them clear of singoffs: their Plan A, Louisa, and a fun but vocally limited act, Reggie N Bollie. We assume their thinking is to enable an appeal to the voting public’s sense of fair play in the final, asking them to give the win to the better singer of the two.
Here’s how we’ve seen Reggie N Bollie’s journey.
Then known as Menn On Poinnt, they had a promising introduction. A five-minute segment in the final arena audition show portrayed them as ropey singers but hugely entertaining. We saw Cowell and Cheryl rolling their eyes as they said they were going to do an original song, then Rita getting into it, Cheryl beaming as she was won over, and Cowell’s mid-song looks of incredulity giving way to comments of “I love it… not sure about the vocals, but I get the feeling it’s always a sunny day with you”.
We’ve seen this genre of audition many times. Most series have at least one such act – vocally limited, but entertaining. With producer support (Stevi Ritchie, Rylan Clark, Wagner, Jedward), they typically have a ceiling of fifth or sixth. Without producer support (Bupsi, Blonde Electra, Storm Lee) they depart in the first or second show. We wrote at the time that Menn on Poinnt could “brighten up the live shows as a fun act intended to be jettisoned before the business end”, as such acts usually are for the sake of the franchise’s credibility.
Did we miss any signs at the time that producers viewed them as more serious contenders all along? Perhaps we did: in a rewatch of the audition segment, you could see it as more significant with hindsight that Simon muses to the rest of the panel afterwards that “we’ve never had an artist like that on X Factor”, and Rita chips in “they’re actually so musically relevant right now”. Then again, Cowell has this week been quoted as saying “I thought they would just be a joke act”.
The fun-but-vocally-limited acts who are going to have producer support generally tend to feature prominently at every stage of proceedings, building their talking-point status. So it seemed pretty damning of Reggie N Bollie’s prospects that producers didn’t bother to show them during either the bootcamp group show or the individual bootcamp shows.
In our judges’ houses preview, we noted that the groups category had thus far been all about pimping 4th Impact and Alien Uncovered. That suggested gamma group status, and the associated probable early exit, was the best Reggie N Bollie could hope for. And, from the greater prominence given in bootcamp edits to rivals Beklyn and Silver Tone, we thought the duo might not even get that.
We wrote:
Of the three acts who we suspect may be missing out on the lives, if we were casting the show, we wouldn’t hesitate to find a place for Menn On Point. The cheerful Ghanaian duo put smiles on our faces at the arena audition, and did the same again at the six-chair challenge. We’d have a lot more fun watching Menn On Point on Saturday nights than most of the acts likely to make the final 12.
Evidently we were closer to producers’ wavelength than we realised. Bookies were offering them at 100/1 at that stage of proceedings.
Rewatching the first live show, in which they covered Shaggy’s ‘It Wasn’t Me’, there are the now-familiar Reggie N Bollie trademarks: the big, fun production, colourful staging and lighting, numerous backing dancers, and smiling judges. But there’s no huge pimping, as we got later. The sense was merely that they were getting a fair crack of the whip, as many acts tend to in the opening show, so producers can test their level of support. The public didn’t take to Alien Uncovered, leaving only 4th Impact and Reggie N Bollie in the category.
The second show, the ‘What Makes You Beautiful’ and ‘Cheerleader’ mashup, was a different kettle of fish altogether. Here we had the heartwarming family VT; the off-stage entrance with cheerleaders; Cheryl, Rita and Grimmy dancing; and Simon joining them for a four-judge ovation. In the following days, they were backed down from long double-figure odds to single figures in the win market, as Sofabet commenters debated whether or not it was fair to call them a novelty act, with the traditional expected ceiling that moniker implies.
Their week 3 treatment was generally agreed among Sofabet commenters to be a distinct application of the brakes. Starting with a ‘My Heart With Go On’ skit, which exposed their ropey vocals, they went into ‘Who Let The Dogs Out’, to a more muted judge response: no dancing, and only Cheryl standing to applaud. It appeared to shove them firmly into novelty territory, and their win market odds drifted accordingly.
However, in week four the accelerator was pressed flat down again. They got another kidtastic VT and their first pimp slot for the ‘Shut Up and Dance’/’Dangerous Love’ mashup, which again had Cheryl, Rita and Nick dancing along and Simon joining them for a four-judge ovation before namechecking them as potential finalists.
The accelerator stayed down in week 5, with their kids and Cheryl joining them on stage for ‘Watch Me (Whip Nae Nae)’, after which Cowell called them “credible recording artists” (translation: “not a novelty act”). The foot lifted off the accelerator just a little for ‘Dynamite’, which had questionable staging, Rita pointing out their ropey vocals and only two judges standing to applaud, but still had Grimmy anointing them “national treasures”.
Their first song in the semi-final, ‘Locked Away’, also had questionable staging, with a backdrop of silhouetted prisoners. Cowell jokingly linked the “creative” to his recent burglary before saying the vocals “weren’t great” and you’ve “lost your sense of fun”.
As often happens in the two-round shows, though, this was merely a setup for the second song – a return to the usual for their pimp slot performance of ‘I Gotta Feeling’/’I Like to Move It’, complete with colourful backing dancers and confetti, which had all four judges standing to applaud before practically begging the public to put them through to the final.
It will be fascinating to see how this whiplash-inducing journey translated into votes, when the statistics are released after Sunday’s show. In particular, we’ll be intrigued to see if Reggie N Bollie’s week 2 vote was high enough for producers to have been alarmed by it, and if week 3’s vote was low enough for them to have felt confident they could bring the pair’s vote under control at any stage.
Another fascinating question, to which we may never get an answer, is at what stage producers conceived the plan – which they have executed so masterfully – of aiming for Louisa and Reggie N Bollie to be the two frontrunners going into the final weekend. The absence from the bootcamp edit makes us suspect it wasn’t a cunning plan from the very beginning, but took shape in the early weeks of the lives.
One possible explanation is that analysis of the app vote data helps producers to understand which acts share admirers; giving five free votes rather than one allows them to see which acts get votes from the same individuals, and votes being traceable to a device allows them to track how voter favour shifts as acts are treated differently from week to week. This is pure speculation, but perhaps they saw that Louisa and 4th Impact shared some admirers, hence deciding to elevate Reggie N Bollie to alpha group; and that Louisa and Anton shared some admirers, hence the brutally swift nature of the latter’s downfall; but that Louisa and Reggie N Bollie were fishing in different pools, making them ideal candidates to be the last other act standing.
Until Sunday’s statistics reveal, we can also only speculate about the relative vote performance of Louisa and Reggie N Bollie over the series, and especially last weekend. The natural assumption is that Louisa must have been well clear at the top, but it’s worth remembering how we all assumed the same was true of Sam Bailey in the 2013 semi, when in fact only 2.9% separated her from Luke Friend in third.
Sam Bailey still won the 2013 final comfortably, of course. And even if last week’s vote was closer than we imagine, there should be plenty of ways producers can make sure Reggie N Bollie aren’t allowed to mount a serious challenge for the win this weekend.
For instance, while praising Reggie N Bollie for bringing the fun to the final, judges can respond to Louisa’s songs by claiming that this is a singing competition, and guilt-tripping the voting public into doing the “right thing”. They can imply that Louisa needs the win more, by portraying Reggie N Bollie as already having succeeded in changing their lives by reaching the final, and saying that “whatever happens now” they’ll have a great career.
We might hear more about Reggie N Bollie’s previous in the music industry in Ghana, in a way that implies they’ve had their chance already. After 4th Impact were filmed visiting the Filipino embassy the week they exited, we’d been wondering if the battle bus might roll up alongside the Ghana High Commission this week. It seems they were involved in the entertainment at this week’s homecoming, footage of which has been popping up on social media.
As we wrote about 4th Impact when speculating about the “embassy deramp”, we suspect it doesn’t motivate votes from Middle England to emphasise a foreign act’s foreignness. We wonder if we might see constant reminders of the duo’s Ghanaian heritage, while comments to Louisa include lines like “I’d be proud to have you representing Britain on the world stage”.
Producers may need to tread somewhat carefully with any such tactics. One reason we were initially sceptical that producers would push Reggie N Bollie to the final is that we wondered if they’d fear a mischievous social media campaign to get the pair to the win – especially now that voting doesn’t cost money. However, that would require awareness of their Louisa favouritism to spread among enough mischievously-minded people to outweigh other voters’ sense of fair play. And producers have so far done a good job of avoiding any hint that a Reggie N Bollie win would be unwelcome, so it seems unlikely.
For the sake of playing devil’s advocate, we should also question the assumption that producers wouldn’t welcome a Reggie N Bollie win. The main reason, of course, is the obvious favouritism shown to Louisa throughout. One could also make the argument that Reggie N Bollie – for all their likeability and other talents – are not the best of singers, so producers may worry that victory for them would expose the franchise to some degree of mockery.
That said, the franchise has seemed a low priority this year – it’s been all about launching Louisa’s career. And while that’s spelled an uphill struggle for other acts, we reckon it’s also the reason why Reggie N Bollie have found themselves in an unlikely final.
X Factor stills/clips ©ITV/SYCO/TALKBACK THAMES
So many good points in this article, particularly the one regarding vote share on the app. I am particularly interested to see how their votes have gone over the weeks.
A point on here was raised at some point in the past as to whether mentors are given the illusion of freedom when putting through certain acts. (With particular reference to Sophie Habibis in Kelly Rowland’s category) – I don’t think it really applies to Cheryl – with her new found “producer” status she seems to know the score now and Simon does as he pleases but I do think it may have been Cheryl pulling the strings for Reggie n Bollie’s inclusion this year. They arguably had the least coverage pre-lives of all the acts at six chair challenge and if they were considered early on, I think we’d have seen more of them. Much like how Fleur had her moment at judges houses, I think something similar happened with Reggie n Bollie and it snowballed from there.
I’m really glad they were included to be honest, they’ve been the absolute highlight of the live shows for me and pimping or not, vocal talents or not, they’ve been a welcome relief in a particularly harsh series.
A producer credit means next to nothing. It’s a negotiating point to get more money or more status, it almost certainly doesn’t involve any work or thinking.
However as you say she knows the score. Mrs FV plays an incredibly astute game when/if her full story is told it will be a masterclass in how to get ahead and stay ahead.
Hah!
Well, I was wrong on most things on my prediction list, I think the only two that I got right (that seemed quite random compared to other predictions…) were Alien Undercover leaving first (i felt they were messy, complicated and niche and not’nice’ enough for average viewer) and Reggie and Bollie doing well.
Last year I was quite bored of XF, didnt even properly watch the last few weeks, so I didnt watch much of the pre-lives this year either.
But, as sofabet(ting) is so much fun I quickly tried to catch up and last minute before predictions closed. And maybe not getting in too deep into thinking about it does help sometimes.
Re. Reggie and Bollie I remember that I saw their judges houses performance and thinking it was fun, it sounded good and I thought they are easy on the eye too and found that Cheryl was genuinely into them. I felt that these were enough to take them to the latter stages of the competition, I thought they would fight for the ‘top fun act’ with Seann and that Seann would be favoured by producers.
I honestly think RnB weren’t meant to go very far, but they lucked out that they had great chemistry with Cheryl. She is quite fake most of the time and you can tell she always acts on agenda, but I see genuine sparkle in her eyes with these two.
And whatever anyone tries to sell, 4th Impact with all the pimping never managed to truly get into people’s heart or get along naturally with Cheryl. My perception, that is.
I think they will throw e v e r y t h i n g at Louisa to win.
I’ve commented before, it’s common knowledge that you don’t have to win to do well, but the show does need a successful winner from time to time to justify the format….and although I’m not that into her I do believe she does have a genuine chance to do well.
I am unsure how well Reggie and Bollie are polling, but everything will be done to get their votes down and get them to a second place finish. They will take the Marcus Collins recipe for the final. I am sure we will be able to tick off all those tactics we identified being thrown at Marcus post show on Monday as the deramp of Reggie and Bollie, if there is need for that.
Up to last week my problem with Louisa was that she lacked that certain sparkle, she was a bit grey behind her lovely eyes. She said all the right things, sang all the right songs, looked the part, but that unknown, precisely the X was lacking, when she was singing too, but mainly between songs, interviews. Couldn’t capture my interest or imagination. I can’t quite explain exactly what I mean, but I think you get it.
Well this week end I really wasn’t that into her songs/singing but I suddenly felt some of that sparkle, in interviews and everything, a seed of what I’ve been really missing so far. Throw in there the Leona duet…. Tears will flow and nothing’s gonna stop her.
sorry for writing novels…
Just wanted to add that the only reason I can see a tiny gap for a Reggie and Bollie win is the app.
More people tune in for the final than ever before and the app enhances the power of multiple voting. If those who tune in on saturday/sunday do warm up to Reggie and Bollie (vote for the underdog compulsion…) then they will surely powervote more than those who feel they like Louisa.
Louisa will feel like a safe ‘surely she will win’ candidate, whilst Reggie and Bollie ‘do need all the help the can get’.
Social media shows they have grown a great deal in following and they have passionate fans who don’t spend much money on them (iTunes) but with a free app they might as well….
And I do think most people are past that ‘X factor is basically a singing competition’ and won’t vote for Louisa just t stop competent and entertaining Reggie and Bollie from winning….
Sofabeting!!! Wow!!! Love it!!!!!!!!
Plenty coverage in Mirror and Star tomorrow about RnB , talks of Cheryl health fear going back to Africa, they never going to do that this week for VT? Would be taking embassy visit to new level. They hardly that afraid of them for win?
Other story Mirror is family dispute on RnB bus.
Oh and Louisa is ill again. Cancelled Liverpool tonight.
I think Reggie is the biggest natural star in the series this year. That’s the main difference between them and prior novelty acts, the reason the show is willing to risk a bit of credibility putting them in the final. I do agree that they were intended for the gamma slot before lives, or perhaps beta novelty with the loser of Alien/4I going out ahead of them and the winner taking the alpha slot. I thought at the time that their first live performance was a bit color vomit-y and scattered.
I’m still curious what moved 4th Impact out of alpha status. Was it purely the need to get Louisa over the line, and a clear sharing of votes between the two acts? Celina’s fainting? A lack of space for them on the Syco roster? They seem to have done fairly well attracting a passionate fanbase for a midtable XF act.
Apparently Che’s duet has changed. He’s doing “Opposites Attract” (the old Paula Abdul song) with Blonde Electra.
It is interesting that there has not been a single story about Che in the papers this week. Not a sausage. R&B in Newcastle and Farnborough. Louisa at her primary school, then going to Liverpool, then not going to Liverpool. Che? What’s he been doing? No-one knows.
Props to you Andrew – I didn’t even think of the free vote splitting on the app. It could very well turn out that Louisa and 4th Impact had the same fans – not that we’d ever know. There has to be some reason why producers suddenly went cold on 4th Impact and I think that could be it.
Another angle to consider on the elevation to alpha, that some commenters have already touched on briefly – it’s not necessarily that a particular act suddenly develops a strength, but it can be that their co-competitors suddenly reveal a previously unforeseen weakness.
What happened with gospel this year is a question I’d ask. An unusually strong focus on three gospel acts out of 24, only to put none of them through to lives. Who went off gospel? That in itself knocks out two groups that may have competed with Reggie n Bollie.
I suspect their casting was a little off this year, as it was when they miscast Janet Devlin and cocaine Frankie, or in Little Mix’s year when Tulisa’s Risk were set up to be the alpha group. One thing that we have discounted to an extent with 4th Impact is that yes, they were seasoned professional performers. With that in mind, a) considering the language barrier, they might not have known exactly what they were letting themselves in for with UK X Factor and how little control they actually would have, and b) behind the scenes, they may have had much more personality and ideas than we saw of them on stage. The illness of one of them aside, as with Janet Devlin, it would have been all too easy to baby them and cast them as ‘cute naive girls’ when they may actually have had very different ideas of the act they wanted to be – weren’t they pushing for a ballad for weeks?
All I’m saying is, it’s possible that rather than RnB capturing people’s hearts from week 1, its entirely possible that Alien were too hard a sell and 4i were demanding behind the scenes, but Cheryl wanted an act in the final and so they switched horses for that reason.
I agree with Annie that Cheryl and 4i never seemed to completely connect. In a group of 4, all it would take would be one of them being difficult and having her own ideas and plans to mess up the intended dynamic of Cheryl, Simon, and TPTB being ultimately in control of every aspect of the acts and the songs. Maybe they just didn’t want to have to deal with a complication like that.
You’re talking as if there is a reason other than tptb’s desire to push Louisa to the win. I don’t think there is. FI’s videos on youtube and their first audition sound much better than the live shows. They’ve been nobbled pretty much since then. It can be fun to speculate about personality clashes etc but there’s no evidence of them, no stories have come out about people being difficult.
How about this? They wanted Fourth Impact there to give some variety and quality as an act but they didn’t want them to win so they got rid of them before the final.
Their styling and song choices have always been “adequate” rather than looking like stars and winners, and adequate is where they ended up.
I agree. From their youtube performances and audition, 4I had a lot of potential. They are fantastic both at harmonizing and dancing. They personalities may come accross as one dimensional due to language barrier, but there was a lot to build on there. Tptb weren’t interested in buliding anything with them. Or anyone really other than Louisa (and R&B to smaller degree but you can’t really do more with them than make them fun with a ton of production around them). That’s why we had next to no moments this season. Louisa was unable to create them due to her age/lack as a performer, and everyone else was forbbiden to have them (they’d be given unsuitable songs, production, staging etc.). Also they removed any possible rivals for Louisa at the judges houses stage. No younger cute boys or fit girls (both from girls and overs category) were allowed through. So that made for an interesting show from a manipulation standpoint but the performances were extremely dull.
I honestly doubt that 4I were difficult, in a sense that they had bad attitude/strong will.
I much rather expect that difficulties could arise from cultural difference and language barrier… most of their career so far was around Asian wasn’t it? they haven’t worked too much in a western culture, have they? There are many things which simply are different. not bad/worse, simply different, they emote, express differently. I’ve worked with many Asians through my job. love many of them do bits, but sometimes I do feel certain the deeply rooted differences, the way we express ourselves verbally, through body language, simlpy our most basic flows of thought.
that’s how I thought maybe cheryl and her team had difficulties connecting….
and (as I already touched on the subject at one point after everyone got way to excited about them after their first audition…) these differences are in my opinion at the basis that many songs performed by 4I (and similar asian acts) are a bit like acting, there is discrepancy between performance/true connection to songs, They perform like pro’s, but there is a disconnect between performance and what they perform … I’m not sure if I can properly explain what I mean, but nevertheless, I think these tiny details can put enough, unexplainable barrier between an act and the public that is supposed to warm up to and vote for them…
I can’t really buy this annie because the implication is that if cheryl and her team had “connected” with Fourth Impact then they would have stayed top group and would now be in the final. I don’t think that’s the case.
I think it’s more likely the decision to go with R&B was strategic. They’re less of a threat to Louisa while still being entertaining for the viewers.
@annie
I can’t say for other Asian acts. But I think 4th Impact’s ‘disconnect’ has a lot more to do with wanting to win and taking performances too seriously.
Here’s something they did for the heck of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1stxogJ2M0w&feature=youtu.be&t=7s
They connect a lot more than they did during the lives.
I also agree with @Andrew’s split-vote theory. The popular combos in the community are 4i-Louisa and 4i-RnB (although many fans are now scratching their heads and asking, why them and not 4i).
I finally found the Che Chesterman news stories.
http://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/14130601.Basildon_greets_X_Factor_star_Che_Chesterman/
http://www.theenquirer.co.uk/che-takes-battle-bus-to-basildon-for-home-visit-ahead-of-x-factor-final/
http://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/14129380.Che_Chesterman_will_be_bringing_his_X_Factor_battle_bus_to_Basildon_on_Tuesday/
… all the big national papers, I see…
There’s a 30 minute Strictly cross over at the start of the final.
*waves at Che*
Guess what time you’ll be singing on Saturday mate!
And be grateful they haven’t got you duetting on Do You Wanna Touch Me (Oh Yeah!) with Gary Glitter.
A 30 minute Strictly crossover is clearly enough for two acts to be thrown under the bus with VTs and ad breaks. Now, if only we could work out which two acts those will be…..
Don’t read too much into it – I don’t think anyone who has performed in the Strictly overlap this year has ended up bottom 2
IIRC isn’t that how they got Che into the bottom 2 the first time?
You would be right – however over the course of the series he’s the only act to go first and end up B2.
Statistically every act who’s been on second, bar one, this series has gone B2.
I shouldn’t laugh at that Gary Glitter comment but I couldn’t help myself!
Great article Andrew – I think the thoughts around data gained from the app vote is incredibly insightful.
And congratulations to Annie for spotting they’d go far. I wonder if they didn’t get shown on bootcamp footage because it had been shot with a ‘joke act’ narrative in mind but after bootcamp they decided that wasn’t the road RnB were going to go down.
There’s certainly never been any traditional joke act story spun around them – no judge that dislikes them, no deep insinuation that they’re taking the place of someone who can actually sing, no high camp jokey staging.
There are four possible reasons I can see why they’d make the decision to make RnB ‘credible’ rather than joke
– They think the public (especially younger viewers) will think RnB are now and contemporary, giving the show some “cool”
– They realised that RnB continuing would not be at Louisa’s detriment
– They realised that they add much needed entertainment and fun to the overall show
– RnB come across so well that attempting to run joke act narratives around them wouldn’t work well
As with most questions around the show this year I suspect the answer is Louisa.
Incidentally I was speaking unprompted to a “regular” X Factor viewer this week. She’s someone totally unaware of this world and doesn’t even read newspapers (she thought she was watching the final of I’m A Celeb live on ITV2 on Monday evening and asked who I thought would win!). She said “X Factor is good but it’s so fixed for Louisa to win this year, I’d much prefer Reggie and Bollie to win it”.
There boot camp performance was show on xtra factor. I can’t remember what they sang but it was awful then I can remember the judges saying that they are good but we need to forget that performance or something along them lines.
And finally from me watch for the overuse of the words “crown” and “crowned” this weekend.
Who will wear the X Factor crown?
Who will be crowned the X Factor winner?
Trust me on this one !
Interesting to read all the theories about RnB’s progression through the competition,and whether TPTB supported them from the outset,or switched horses halfway through.
It’s my firm belief that RnB were a favoured act from the outset.Their audition was the first big clue….if you watch it again,particularly the judges comments at the end,you have almost a prophetic narrative of their journey so far.
They was actually shown at Bootcamp…..however this was on the Xtra Factor rather than the main show.They were given a very large section (approx 15 mins) where they had good interaction with Rochelle & Marvin.A brief clip was also shown of them performing….they were awful,and it’s my belief TPTB decided to bury this part of their XF story owing to the paucity of the quality of performance.
If you look at all the YouTube clips of their live show performances,it’s very noticeable that they are a favoured act.From production,to judges comments,to RO slots everything has been in their favour…..I appreciate this is predominately interpreted on this site as evidence they are struggling in the vote,however an alternative view could be that they are possible winners and the show is quite happy for them to win.
Worth also looking at the end of each YouTube clip….Simon seems to genuinely like them,and also interestingly nearly every clip is extended by approx 30 seconds in order to show judges appreciation and crowd reaction.
I’m not for one minute saying that they will win,but I do think it’s a possibility and perhaps most people on this site have underestimated the possibilty since the outset.
Didn’t they also audition for BGT and get told to audition for X-Factor?
Yes afaik both RnB and Louisa auditioned for BGT ….looks like both were held back and considered suitable for XF instead.
Adele is appearing on the show on Sunday.
Here we go.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-3354009/Reggie-N-Bollie-feel-pressure-ahead-X-Factor-final-clash-wives-causes-bicker-homecoming-trip.html
The DM calls it bickering, The Sun calls it a huge bust up.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/6795701/X-Factor-finalists-Reggie-n-Bollie-stunned-as-wives-have-huge-bust-up-at-homecoming-bash.html
I realised why they got upset. They had a moment of clarity and realised the future Syco has planned out for them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_-isKzt4O4
Confirmed now that Leona Lewis is duetting with, err, Ben Haenow. http://www.itv.com/xfactor/news/ben-haenows-big-x-factor-final-surprise-revealed-leona-lewis
So maybe the Louisa and Rita duet is still on?
Xtra factor just confirmed Louisa & Rita. Ben & Leona is such a bizarre combination. Looks like Louisa is reprising it’s a man’s world.
Little mix and fleur is another bizzare duet
Anything to have Fleur in the show 🙂
Louisa singing this is a mans world again in the final. Must have polled very well last weekend then.
Who is doing the captioning on the show this year?? SO MANY grammatical mistakes.
I wonder if they will pull the same trick they pulled on marcus collins to reggie and bollie by making there favourite performance of the series the one they polled the lowest with
i bet they will.
RnB are doing 1D again so looks like they aren’t pulling that one. But the ‘diner’ themed production of Che’s Valerie (complete with woman dressed as a burger) seems like a classic Nick MacDonald does Candy/Marcus does Hey Ya deramp.
Yes strangely enough che seems to be the one getting thrown under the bus this weekend. My thinking behind this is too make sure Louisa gets the lion share of the essex vote
” ‘diner’ themed production of Che’s Valerie”
What do you mean by this btw?
They said on Xtra Factor that Che’s performance of Valerie is going to be a big 1950s diner themed production.
They really seem to be going for him. I wonder if they’re more worried about casual voters who only tune into the final taking to his voice?
1950’s diner? Bring on the colour vomit!
There’s some film of Che’s rehearsals on youtube. It’s going to look like this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pgPq4FGWfk
I thought Valerie was a new song for Che, what’s this about diner staging? Just a joke / an idea, or has there been pictures/talk about it?
Sorry, somehow missed that this question had already been answered!
Lauren bringing some much needed personality to Xtra Factor.
Ché’s “Song of the series” is Tears Dry On Their Own / Ain’t No Mountain High Enough, is one where he didn’t even poll in the Top 5, according to that Star leak. I would guess around 7th as well behind Lauren’s I’m Every Woman. Not that he’ll make it through to the Sunday to perform it, but y’know.
Apparently for his duet he’s blacking up and singing Ebony & Ivory with himself. He recorded the McCartney part earlier in the week.
In fairness, I thought that probably was his song of the series though. Certainly the one I enjoyed the most! Presumably we won’t see it anyway because he won’t make it to Sunday.
Louisa has an orchestra and a choir and may be flying at Wembley for one song. Now there is pimping. It will be fun to watch how far they carry pimping. Bet it will be totally OTT.
Simon said tonight they has best of British acts appearing, Adele, 1D, Coldplay, they lining it all up for comments also.
Is there another Star leak???
No. I made it up.
Che is actually doing “Shaduppa Your Face” but with Joe Pasquale instead of Joe Dolce.
The stories continue.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/tv/x_factor/6797045/X-Factors-Louisa-Johnson-strikes-up-relationship-with-Premier-ace-Reece-Oxford.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-3355003/Rita-Ora-puts-ladylike-display-floaty-pink-frock-admits-wouldn-t-shut-Louisa-Johnson-won-X-Factor-final.html
Enjoying the trolling on here this week so much!
Both Che’s songs are poor choices IMO – “Valerie” is the third Amy Winehouse song he’s done, and with him repeating “Tears Dry On Their Own” this week, that’s three in two weeks! Imagine if this was a full ten week run? He’d have fit the whole “Back To Black” album in.
Repeating “Tears Dry On Their Own” is a deramp – if anyone thought he was in with a chance, that should put them off. Far from his best performance, and as previously mentioned he was absent from the week one vote leak and if they truly wanted to give him a fighting chance he’d be doing “You Can’t Hurry Love” or “Would I Lie To You?”.
Also slightly worried for “Spice Up Your Life” with Reggie & Bollie. Straight out of the Rylan songbook, and puts them firmly back in the novelty box of week 3. Certainly not final material. And WHY THE HELL have they not done “Turn Me On” by Kevin Lyttle?!?!
Trolling? I’m bringing the news AS IT HAPPENS.
The latest on Che is that he’s doing Milennium Prayer with Cliff Richards. Cliff Richard is not available but they found a window cleaner with a similar name and a bad case of emphysemia to help in out.
Well we know Che reads this site so I hope he’s seeing the funny side of some of the remarks being made.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIyXJxPFVz4
Just a thought, not really gone deeper into it, but could the reason for R ‘n B not receiving the full novelty treatment be that it may have been received a slightly/wildly racist ? Knowing the production team, they probably would have sent them out in grass skirts, singing ‘the lion sleeps tonight’, complete with ongo bongo drums…
To be honest, I already found both ‘it wasn’t me’ and ‘who let the dogs out’ a bit borderline; it put them into the ‘player’ corner, while they were portraying them as family men otherwise.
The one time I felt it reached that level was their week three VT when they were in those awful money printed suits with money raining down around them. I think, had the two performances you mentioned not been bracketed by complimentary VTs with their family around them, it would have come across that way – particularly with some of the choreography for “It Wasn’t Me” being slightly sleazy, but their sense of fun throughout has always trumped the sleaze.
It would have been quite easy for them to go down the novelty reggae root, but whilst they have been given the backing track and sound which plays up to that, cleverly mixing up songs quite far away from that genre like One Direction and “Shut Up and Dance” evened it out a bit. If they wanted to nuke them, they could have quite easily lumbered them with “Here Comes The Hot Stepper” complete with chants of “MURDERER!” all the way through, or even “Murder She Wrote” which could have been a bit close to what you mentioned.
This weeks song choices http://www.itv.com/xfactor/news/the-final-song-choices-revealed
great shout to whoever said about Christina Aguilera for Louisa earlier this week, if only you could bet on song choices.
Haha – that was me. Seemed like an obvious follow-up to last week, and I guess the producers agreed!
Looking at the song choices they might as well have literally thrown Che under a bus.
RnB’s choices are interesting – popular songs, nothing that too obviously shows off their weak vocals… interesting.
Louisa’s songs strike me as pedestrian and staid compared to RnB’s crowd pleasers – although I’d guess the thinking is to position her as credible artist with a great voice and RnB as fun dudes but without the shining talent.
Poor old Che. Even Sofabet can’t be bothered to review his journey, which is a review of sorts, I suppose.
In other news he’s been given I Wish I Could Fly by Keith Harris and Orville. According to The Sun Che is “looking forward to dressing up as a duck”.
http://youtu.be/795ZcTlIH9Q
I wonder if youguv are bothering this year?
Also if we don’t get a vote leak in the next 24 hours Louisa wins easily
Why’s that stoney?
Che is currently available at 3/1 for second place and 22/1 for the win. You can also get 3/1 on R&B for third place. I expect R&B to be third and Che to be second but in common with my usual strategy I have taken a piece of him to win. I think it is still possible and worth a nibble at those odds. I haven’t bothered with R&B as I already have them at much better odds on an each way from weeks ago.
His duet has been announced. He’s doing The Cheeky Song (Touch My Bum) with Lembit Opik.
Jess, just to let you know I’m pissing myself with every comment!
Thanks babe. Btw, I’m serious about that 3/1. I think Che has a good chance of getting second – particularly if, as has been rumoured, he sings with Stevie Wonder. In my heart of hearts though, I still think it’s more likely to be Vanilla Ice or The Wurzels.
Che for a win is much more speculative but I’ve had a nice result from R&B hitting top 3 so I can afford a bit of speculation.
I honestly do think Reggie and Bollie have a real shot at winning on Sunday. If they don’t win they will definitely be in second place with Che out first. Louisa singing with Rita won’t give a moment like if she sang with Leona.
I must admit Louisa singing with Rita appears to be a damp squib compared to the other 2 who look likely to be singing with fresh singers who have yet to have appeared on the show, however this same scenario didn’t do sam bailey any harm
Or Little Mix when they duetted with Tulisa. Reggie N Bollie are duetting with Cheryl, are they not?
Not been confirmed I think they have Sean Paul for them but if they can’t get him they will sing with Cheryl which won’t be too bad because Cheryl can’t sing well either so they will need a big anthem plenty backing singers and a big dance routine which is what reggie and bollie do best.
Yeah but all the contestants duetted with there mentors the littlemix year. Think it was the first time it happened.
Rumours are RnB sean paul
I reckon che will be signing with phill collins
X Factor for the deaf?
Louisa absolutely miles ahead in the youguv poll who have che margin second. However there is a 29% of don’t know to play for
The people who don’t know there votes could go to Reggie and bollie because they will do a big fun Saturday night performance than someone who sings 6 Ballads.
See i beg to differ. But anyway they would need to clean up the whole of the undecided vote to win. I can’t see them picking up any of the grey vote whatsoever
Where do you get that info stoney?
Its in today’s sun newspaper. And unlike last year this is confirmed as a youguv finding
Thanks, can you also put the exact numbers?
And do you know what was the question asked:
Who do you think will win?
or
Who do you want to win?
Who do you think SHOULD win
Louisa 39%
Che 20%
Rnb 12%
Don’t know 29%
So Che a bit more than margin second.
Yeah I was working when I was typing that message. This survey stands to back up my belief Rnb have dodged the drop zone this series by a miracle