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X-Factor recap (UK) - The Final Saturday Show

By Ian Cullen Dec 12, 2011, 0:17 GMT

This weekend saw a highly charged final of X-Factor with the final three acts vying for the once in a life time opportunity to win a one million pound recording contract.

This weekend saw a highly charged final of X-Factor with the final three acts vying for the once in a life time opportunity to win a one million pound recording contract.

The three final acts were made up of Little Mix, Marcus Collins and Amelia Lilli.

All were fantastic and it was bloody difficult to choose based on the fact that everyone was giving their all.

Though as a trained singer, I kind of sided more with the solo acts than I did with Little Mix, who are entertaining, but I am not really big on Girl or Boy Bands.

A first happened last night. Usually in X Factor each act gets to sing with a vocalist or an act that is brought in. This year however we saw the three mentors of Kelly Rowland, Tulisa and Gary Barlow singing with their respective acts and it was really cool to watch.

Gary Barlow sang ‘She’s Always A Woman’ with Marcus while Tulisa became a fifth member of Little Mix to sing a medley of Alicia Keys' songs. Kelly Rowland sang a duet with Amelia Lilli and the song they chose was River Deep Mountain High, which was originally done by Tina Turner.

Out of the three I think it was a very close call between Kelly Rowland with Amelia Lilli and Gary Barlow and Marcus, but it is fair to point out that Gary Barlow and Marcus got to sing together earlier in the week, which gave them a bit of an edge.

The fact that they were doing everything live in Wembley Stadium really gave this years final a certain oomph factor over previous years when the final had usually been in the studio.

Of course on the Saturday night one act had to exit, to allow the final two acts to face off again in the Sunday show. The act that didn’t quite make the grade with the viewing public on the Saturday was Amelia Lilly, which was sad.

In a way you had to feel for the girl because overall she’d had the toughest time on the show - having been passed over initially by Kelly Rowland in favor of Sophie Habibis in the first live show when all four judges had to dismiss one of their acts. 

She got a second chance when she was voted back onto the show by the audience to replace Frankie Cocozza, who has recently been charging night clubs £3000 appearance fees according to various tabloid reports here in the UK.

Either way, its disappointing to see Amelia Lilly go, but am pretty sure we will not have heard the last of her.

Sunday Show

The second night was the final stand off between Little Mix and Marcus Collins.

Each act sang three songs because the producers had to find some way to justify having the venue, but proceedings were filled out with two songs from Cold Play and numerious other things to fill the time.

On the night much like last night. I felt it was Marcus that edged it, but sadly Marcus didn’t quite make the grade with the viewing public who ultimately voted for Little Mix, who is am honest haven’t really been quite as good in the last three weeks of the series than they were in prior weeks in my opinion.

The result was kind of predictable in so many ways given that X Factor appeals more to the teeny bopper audience that would vote for a Girl Band like Little Mix, but to give credit where its due. They have made X Factor history by being the first Girl Band to get as far in the competition as they did and ultimately win.

In the final analysis all four of the finalists from the last two weeks will likely have promising careers ahead of them. So we can expect to see a lot more of Marcus, Amelia Lilly and Misha B in years to come and Little Mix will probably be around for awhile as well. At least until the next big Teeny Bopper band of vocalist hits anyway.

So that sums up X Factor here in the UK for another year and they’re already accepting applications for the auditions process, which begins next year.

But the question is: Will we get the same four judges or will the judging panel change again?