[Matt F]

Me - I love every minute of it. Here are my thoughts on the remaining acts:

Leona is just outstanding - her rendition of Summertime a few weeks back was one of the best live performances I've ever heard from ANY singer. Whether she wins or not she will become a singing star and I think Cowell will make sure of that - see how he mentioned that America was really interested in her.

Ben is also worth a recording contract - a young Joe Cocker/Rod Stewart although I also think he'd do well fronting a rock band.

Eton Road - interesting but not really good enough vocally - I'm sure they could possibly sell a lot of records to young girls though.

Ray is an interesting one - I think he'd be great on the stage - in Blood Brothers or something but then why not a modern swing album in the way Jamie Cullum has done with Jazz.

As for the McDonalds - lovely lads but cruise ship material really - the passengers would love them as they aren't bad singers. They just haven't got enough attitude next to say The Proclaimers. Cutting down on the smiling would help.

Back to Leona though - she is so much better than anyone produced by any of the talent shows over the years it's untrue. Other than Karen Carpenter I'm struggling to think of a female with a better voice.

All IMHO of course.

Matt.

[P-E]

I've never watched it Matt

[fionaB]

although i dont like the style of songs leona sings she has got by far the best voice in the comp.....
eton road i like for entertainment value. macdonald brothers should go back to weddings although i would like to hear them sing an everly bros song.......
ben should go.. can only sing a song one way has no versatility...... and ray. should go back to school or a panto as sharon says

[Sonsey]

I only watch the audition's to see all the idiots... the rest is just panto

[Dave]

Watched it for 1st time this series, this weekend......& wasn't really impressed with any of them. The bird has a great voice, but looked unsteady.......the rest ...X factor...more like B factor

[Gary Bagshawe]

My mrs watches it which is just another excuse to go to the pub,
Where I can watch all kinds of talentless idiots make fools of themselves in public

[jeffg]

And watch acts being sacrificed on the alter of the judges egos - no way. . I don't watch any "reality" TV I think it's exploitative cheap TV

All in MHO, of course.

Jeff

[jinxy]

We had X factor on here last year in australia, it was a real flop. the group that won it havent been heard since i think. they never put it back on this year cause it was just crap.

[Markulous]

Originally Posted by jinxy

We had X factor on here last year in australia, it was a real flop. the group that won it havent been heard since i think. they never put it back on this year cause it was just crap.

Never thought I'd say this, but you Australians have such good taste and judgement!

[Rob Barron]

This year the X factor actually stands a chance of producing three stars who could go on anmd make true careers, not just become one-hit wonders.

Two who should definitely not be there are the MacDonald Brothers who frankly I wouldn't pay to sing at my funeral. Even if they are good enough to sing in pubs and clubs, would any of us honestly go out and pay for a CD of them singing? Not a chance! The other group are an embarrassment: Eton Road. They are truly cringing, especially that weird lead singer of theirs, Antony I think they call him. Because he has a 'different' voice, he was first labelled as 'unique' but he is now being seen for what he is: a bad falsetto who sings out of tune and who hasn't got the power in his lungs to sing proper high-registered songs. Actually the other three are passable and could probably make it to the lower reaches of career stardom if they ditched him (a very short-term novelty factor who people are already fed up with) and replaced him with someone else of mid-register tonal range.

Ok, three who genuinely could do well with the right management:
3rd: Ray: he has the ability to be the next Harry Connick Jnr but with his own unique look. Yes he is a baby-faced swing singer but there is nobody aroundlike him and there is plenty of market for his type of live performance. Not a huge star but enough to make a decent career out of.

2nd: Ben. Best gravelly voiced rocker since Joe Cocker. He has to learn to use hiw body to better effect and not just do the heavy rocker crouch every time he gets into it but he does have a voice that will sell and sell and plenty of people will go to see him in concert, especially with a couple of others on the bill.

1st by an absolute million miles: Leona. Now there is a star in the making if ever I saw one. I will personally guarantee she will have sold 5 million records in the next three years or I'll give you my Canon 20D! She has absolutely everything she needs to be an absolutely huge star: a fantastic voice that has performed better than the rest put together, she has the uniqueness of touch that makes every song her own even though they're classics mostly linked to other stars, she is extremely beautiful which makes her very marketable indeed and she is extremely likeable, not in the slightest big-headed. She has the X y and Z factor by the bucketload and the best thing about her is she doesn't know it!

If Leona doesn't win, then the British voting public should hang its collective head in shame. It should already do so for continually voting the Big Macs in week after week based only on their nationality and nothing to do with their performances. The worst thing about this show is that pre-pubescent girls all phone like their dialling finger is going to wear out to vote for pretty boy Antony who they seem to think is 'cute' and the final could end up looking stupid with Leona being voted off because teenaged girls don't vote for her.

I absolutely adore good music and good singing and am more than happy to watch the show to see if there is some genuinely good talent that might break through. We all know that most of them fade away very quickly. Steve, the last winner has had a couple of reasonably well selling albums but not much else. Alex who won Pop Idol with a genuinely good voice that was distinct made an album which now sells in bargain bins for £2.99 all because she made the big mistake of thinking the record buying public doesn't care if you are gay or not. Come out before you have made it really big and tell everyone you are a lesbian and you are cutting the throat of your career before you start, however unfair that may seem. People vote with their wallets and nothing the PC brigade can do will change that. Gareth Gates is now devoting most of his time to a new self-help group he has started for people with a stammer. I am delighted for him but his pop career has gone nowhere. Will Young has gone much the same way though he might just make it if he can add to his acting repertoire. Again made the mistake of telling the world he was gay before he had earnt the right to be famous entirely on the basis of his singing voice. It's a tough world we live in! Girls aloud are doing ok, still going and having reasonable success. One Voice, the male band formed at the same time, split before they had even started and didn't make a name for themselves at all.

Will Leona be different? Yes, I think she will: win or lose. She will get a good contract and will make it big both sides of the Big Pond. But whether she will win the X factor is sadly down to people not voting purely on being a teenaged guy and not voting based entirely on nationality rather than talent.

I actually avoid most of the early rounds of X factor because the idiots who just want their ten seconds of fame despite it being by going on national TV and looking a complete and utter prat really bug me. At least when we get to the final 12 we have a reasonable chance of being entertained.

Cheers,
Rob

[LadyVengeance]

I stopped watching it after Ashley left

But hopefully Leona or Ben will win

[Rob Barron]

I agree LV about Ashley. He had the most unique voice out of all of them, very distinctive indeed. He did tend to suffer from off key pitching at times but I'd buy a CD of his tomorrow. I am sure he'll get a contract anyway, record companies would be fools to let a talent like that slip through their fingers.

Cheers,
Rob

[fionaB]

to be honest although leonas is probably the best voice frm all the xfactors, taking her out of the equation and i think that the rest are a bunch of wannabees and the worse finalist there has been in the show

Fiona

[Rob Barron]

Originally Posted by fionaB

to be honest although leonas is probably the best voice frm all the xfactors, taking her out of the equation and i think that the rest are a bunch of wannabees and the worse finalist there has been in the show

Fiona

Of course they are wannabes Fi, that's the point of them entering the competition in the first place :o)

Not sure I agree that they are the worst we've seen. I think Ben and Ray both have enough going for them as well as Leona. The two groups will not have a recording career. McDonald Brothers, putting aside the fact they are Scottish (I don't vote for Ben because he's English!) they are desperately average. Stick em on a cruise ship with a lot of old fogeys and they'll get mothered from embark to disembark but no way will they sell CDs. The other group, Eton Road only ever got on because of their weird lead singer and the novelty factor there has worn off before the show even got the finals.

But let's be honest, Ben Ray and Leona are definitely not worse than Steve whateverhisnameis that won or Journey South (talented enough but nothing to get excited about) etc. I still say though that Leona is the only one I can see still selling CDs 5 years from now.

This competition has lost its way a bit as it is not looking for a recording artist. The emphasis is all wrong for that. If you want a top selling artist, what is the point in getting a Joe Cocker soundalike to sing Abba? What is the point in discovering the potential answer to Harry Connick Jnr and then whing that all he does is swing? The best recording artists are those who have a definable genre, not those who sing anything that is put in front of them. Uncovering people who already have a specialist sound should make their lives so much easier as they can produce a polished and defined album that fans of that genre will all go out and buy.

Only a couple of weeks to go so hang on in there. :o)

Cheers,
Rob

[fionaB]

got to disagree with you about ben and ray....... ben cant sing anything but rock. and i heard plenty just as good as him if not better that were thrown out fo the auditions....... yep he can sing a "type of song" but he is not an entertainer and you have to be both,.... listen to an album of his would be a good way to cure insomnia.......

ray........ is just a baby hardly out of nappies and he is the opposite of Ben in the fact he has good stage presence but cant sing! Have to agree with what sharon osborne said...... stick him in a pantomime! buttons has his name on it i think! lol he would look good next to ben as widow t****y!

Fiona

[Rob Barron]

I don't agree about Ben, look at him this week: did 'Live and Let Die', all very dramatic and raunchy, then he did 'Your Song' and made it his own again. Those are very different songs but he did them very well.

I am also delighted that le freak has gone at last! I wanted Eton Road out even before the McDonalds Little Macs! They are distinctly average but have to say they handled the Proclaimers Song really well.

Getting tough now but Leona is still a million miles better than anyone else and if she doesn't win then the voting public will have gone completely mad! :o)

Cheers,
Rob

[Rob Barron]

Well my prediction proved correct and the wonderful Leona won so many congratulations to her.

I was one of the 60,000 people who downloaded the new single in the first half an hour of it being released at midnight last night. It is a simply superb version of the wonderful 'In Moments Like This' which is absolutely certain to be the Christmas Number One (has over a million advance sales for a start!) but this lass will definitely not be a one hit wonder. There is huge interest in her Stateside as well and it looks as though she is going to be cross-marketed right from the outset so she could easily be as big as Whitney Houston or Mariah Carey within a couple of years or so.

About time we came up with a real class diva this side of the water :o)

Cheers,
Rob

[fionaB]

have to agree with you when u say she will not be a one hit wonder, while her voice is not to my taste there is no deny that the girl can sing! She is by far and away THE best singer that they have ever had on the show and if Ray had won it it would not have mattered one iota cos she was still gonna make it big.
All credit to Ray for the way he handled himself in disappointment!
I wont be downloading nor buying the song cos i just dont like it. but i loved the way she sang the body guard one. i just hope they dont have her doing covers of mariah carey (argh), and celine dion and give her some decent songs of her own to sing.

Fi

[Rob Barron]

Originally Posted by fionaB

have to agree with you when u say she will not be a one hit wonder, while her voice is not to my taste there is no deny that the girl can sing! She is by far and away THE best singer that they have ever had on the show and if Ray had won it it would not have mattered one iota cos she was still gonna make it big.
All credit to Ray for the way he handled himself in disappointment!
I wont be downloading nor buying the song cos i just dont like it. but i loved the way she sang the body guard one. i just hope they dont have her doing covers of mariah carey (argh), and celine dion and give her some decent songs of her own to sing.

Fi

Her first CD will almost certainly be covers, it always is because people want to hear her voice, not find out whether people can write good songs.

You might get a couple of new ones on there but that will be it. However, top songwriters are queueing up as we speak to get a song recorded by her (they'll make a fortune as soon as she records it and takes it to Number One!) so the second CD will definitely have new songs.

The great thing about Leona that has impressed me all the way through is that no matter what song she sings, she makes it her own. Most other people do 'karaoke copies' where they sing it the same way as the original without any vocal inflexions to make it unique. I have to say I LOVE her voice, but that is probably because I love the voices of Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey as well as other top ballad singers like Celine Dion. I used to say nobody can belt out a belter like Mariah Carey but now I am convinced there are two.... and she's British! At last we have our own :o)

Cheers,
Rob

[fionaB]

celine dion is fabulous........... whitney houston is good......... but Rob! i always credited you with having some taste! lolol mariah carey............ argh..... what a screamer. but hey if u can scream to as high a pitch without being actualyl able to sing a not why not rake the money in on it........ i cannot abide her voice it literally makes my skin crawl........ and the way she warbles............ewwwwwwwwwwwww my god !
lolol

Fi

[Steve]

Don't hold back Fiona..go on say what you really think

[Dave]

So has the X factor finished now .....didn't feel a thing

[fionaB]

awww Steve and i was trying to be subtle!

Fi

[Matt F]

Based on her amazing rendition of Summertime earlier in the series, I'd say an album of Gershwin songs would be just the ticket.

Personally I can only think of one better (non classical) female singer than Leona and that is the late Karen Carpenter who had everything vocally and did it all without even trying.

Matt.

[Rob Barron]

Originally Posted by fionaB

celine dion is fabulous........... whitney houston is good......... but Rob! i always credited you with having some taste! lolol mariah carey............ argh..... what a screamer. but hey if u can scream to as high a pitch without being actualyl able to sing a not why not rake the money in on it........ i cannot abide her voice it literally makes my skin crawl........ and the way she warbles............ewwwwwwwwwwwww my god !
lolol

Fi

ROFL, you knowFiona, she speaks so highly of you! LOLOL