X-Factor Surprise

Well, last night was the X-factor semi-final show - 4 acts had to be reduced to 3 in readiness for the [american mode on]season finale[/american mode off] next week end.

Each act performed 2 songs - Brenda did "Respect" and "Without You" and I thought that she was simply amazing. Shayne did a couple of ballads - one a non-descript Ronan Keating song that I can't even the remember the title of and "Unchained Melody" which the judges described as spine-chillingly good - goose bumps etc. Frankly, I don't like the song so it did little for me - although I can see Shayne is super talented. Journey South did Rod Stewart's "You're in my heart" and a very powerful version of "Let It Be" - neither song is a favourite of mine but I do like Journey South, a lot. Andy did a really weird arrangement of "Everything I do, I do it for you" including a huge bit of cheesiness where he sang the final lyrics to his kids ... awwwww (quick someone pass the sick bucket) and for his second song he did another one of his power ballad, super smooth numbers but the precise title escapes me.

The comments from the Judges were not too helpful because they were all generally praising the acts quite a lot - which to be fair to them is not too surprising at this stage of the competition. However, at the end of the show, those of us that watched it Chez Gled were agreed that this week it would be "Adios Andy". Not because he's bad at all - but the other 3 acts just seem to go from strength to strength each week.

Anyway, with an hour to wait until the results show, I watched the results of the record of the year - Westlife won, again - they've won a couple of times before I think.

Back to the X-factor. Kate Thornton announces who is through to next week's final ... "and the first act through is ...." ... [dramatic pause] ... "Andy!".

So much for that theory then. Shayne is announced as being through next. And after the longest dramatic pause ever "and the third and final act going through to next weeks final is ... Journey South".

So it is not "Adios Andy" at all, but "Bye bye Brenda". We here at Chez Gled were absolutely gob-smacked - which may be a colloquilism for speechless, but we're never quite that !!

I fail to understand how Brenda could possibly have polled the lowest number of votes - do male acts have an edge in these competitions? Or are the public voting for the judges to some extent - I am not suggesting that it represents the whole of the vote by any means. But let's suppose for a moment that even just 0.5 percent of the vote is influenced by which judge is representing which act and a million votes are cast - then that's 5000 votes to swing the result by - and if one judge has 2 acts that might get split. And Kate Thornton, that at one point the votes between the bottom 2 acts was as close as 24 - yes that's right TWENTY FOUR.

And we must remember that just because the producers told Kate to announce the results in the order Andy, Shayne, Journey South and Brenda - this does not mean that the 2 acts with the lowest number of votes were Journey South and Brenda.

Let's just suppose that the judge-factor is far greater and Sharon's vote was split between Andy and Brenda - then next week that might be enough for Andy to win the show. Heh, who knows.

Next week I expect the result to come out like this:

1) Shayne
2) Andy
3) Journey South

The only possible upset I foresee is Andy pipping Shayne due to Sharon's popularity. Of course, my heart wants my brain to be completely wrong and I want Carl and Andy, Journey South, to win.