Which singer wannabee has that special X-Factor?
The X-Factor is the special quality you need to make it big. Its also the name of the latest reality music TV show to take the UK by storm. X Factor recently launched its fourth series on ITV1 on 18th August and is due to run until late December. Judges Simon Cowell, Sharon Osbourne, Louis Walsh and Dannii Minogue (yes, sister of Kylie Minogue) are scouring the country, looking for the next new pop star and squeltching all those who dont have the right stuff.
An interesting twist is that the judges also compete against each other. The acts are put into categories Boys 14-24, Girls 14-24, 25s and Over, and Groups. Each judge is assigned an act and tries to train it for success in the live heats, when public votes step in. Which judge has the winning eye? Present odds rank Simon Cowell first at 11/8, then Louis Walsh at 12/5, Sharon Osborne at 10/3 and Dannii Minogue trailing at 7/2. Well, after all, Simon did create Pop Idol, Britains Got Talent, Americas Got Talent and American Idol.
What are the contestants like? Theres certainly enough enthusiasm around, with around 150,000 acts signing up to chase the dream of the cool £1 million recording contract. If they win, like Shayne Ward and Leona Lewis, their first single is likely to shoot to Number One. But most will probably end up amusing us all for a few minutes and making prats out of themselves. Take the current bunch.
Colin belted out Blockbuster which fizzled almost immediately. Leon wasnt bad with Home, while primary school teacher tried Respect without quite hitting the high notes. Ouch. Vivienne, the 14-year old with Shirley Bassey as her idol, gave as good as she could, but was betrayed by her young age. Toshiko came all the way from Japan to give her rendering of My Way, which was amusing but painfully out of tune! Richard made quite an impression with Ain't No Sunshine and to think that he never had a singing lesson. Finally, the girl band Fallen Angelz with Good Enough jumped onto the stage, gave an upbeat performance of Good Enough (or something like that) and did well enough to move up to the next level.
