From thousands of hopefuls the contestants were whittled down to just 32 who were lucky enough to be sent off round the world to judge’s houses. The thirty-two swiftly became the final 12, who were then joined by four wild card contestants, giving us the 16 contestants who made it to the live shows. After waving goodbye to numerous acts, some liked and some not so liked, we are now down to the final four.
From her very first audition Cher Lloyd wowed the judges when she performed the Keri Hilson version of Turn my Swag on by Soulja Boy. The 16 year-old showed stage confidence as if she had been in the music business for years and has continued to dominate the limelight right through the live shows. For the first few weeks of the live shows the youngster had a full stage production including dancers and props, however, she later showed that she could also handle a big ballad when she sang the John Lennon classic Imagine, with only stairs and smoke for company on the big stage. It’s fair to say that Cher is like marmite. You either love her or hate her.
Both Cher Lloyd and Rebecca Ferguson are mentored by Cheryl, who has been the winning mentor for the past two years. On her first audition Rebecca, from Liverpool, sang mostly with her eyes closed and seemed a much more reserved version of the person we now see every Saturday. Over the last few weeks the 23 year-old mother-of-two has grown in confidence and was recently compared to Aretha Franklin by Simon Cowell.
The final band in the competition is boy band One Direction, made up of Harry Styles, Liam Payne, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik. The band, with an average age of 17, was formed by the judges at boot camp, after the boys originally auditioned as solo artists. Considering they were only put together a few months ago the band has been fairly successful, never having appeared in the bottom two. However, the ‘groups’ category, this year mentored by Simon, is notoriously unsuccessful, so the boys will need to break the norm in order to win the competition.
Painter and decorator, Matt Cardle, was told he was awkward on stage at his first audition, but here he is in the final. The 27 year old is currently the favourite to win the competition. This week Matt became ill with chronic tonsillitis and was advised by doctors not to sing in this weekend’s live show at the risk of causing long term damage to his voice. After ignoring both the doctors and mentor Dannii Minogue, Matt performed his two tracks without rehearsing.
It’s difficult to draw comparisons between the four remaining contestants; Cher’s rapping is the complete opposite of Matt’s acoustics, while Rebecca’s lung power is a far cry from One Direction’s harmonies. But whoever wins is likely to have a battle on their hands for the Christmas number one if last year’s Rage against the Machine campaign is anything to go by.
Rachael Patan
Tagged in The X Factor