Thanks for the link! I was surprised to see the suggestions listed whole episodes of S7. I’ll probably give it a try, in spite of my extreme dislike for Simon. ;)

I’m actually glad Christopher wasn’t in the bottom b/c the judges / producers keep trying to sabotage him and treat him unfairly.  And that type of attitude get’s on my nerves.

I agree, and I’d be willing to bet that it’s part of the reason why Christopher is still on the show.  It’s just stupid for the judges to tell him that he’s too cabaret, but then not say the same thing to Ryland.  And the truth of the matter is that on this show and the US version, the over the top production makes every performer, no matter how good they are, come across like a cheesy low rent Vegas act.  I think that Slezak mentioned this on the show that he does with Melinda Doolittle, as he said, the criticism that Simon heaped on Demi for the stage production of some of her acts made no sense, since that’s pretty much the cornerstone of the show.  Ella was a great singer, but they had to give her the X Factor treatment, which mean that she often performed songs that weren’t in her style or range.  

Getting back to Christopher, the show isn’t enjoyable, when it’s obvious that the judges are only saying some things because they want to ensure that an act is eliminated.  At that point, it doesn’t matter how good the performers are, because this type of behavior sucks a lot of the fun out of the show.  The same thing has happened on AI.   

He wasn’t even that entertaining.  His stage presence did get better as the season wore on, but at the beginning, except for his audition, he was just lazy.  His entire performances would just be about the dancers, lights, smoke, etc, and he wouldn’t do anything to sell the performances.  Maybe he was upset because he new that the staging made him look like a joke, and just highlighted the fact that he’s not a good singer.  It seemed like this was something that he had to address several times during the season, and he even gave an acoustic performance on the Xtra Factor in an attempt to show that he’s not as bad as his XF performances indicate.

Have you observed how the judges praise Jahmene, who has some creative vocals, more much more soulful than Chris, but has a style and a personality that aren’t marketable at all these days, just like Chris? that’s obviously because Jahmene work as an antidote against Chris. Maybe he’s the only one who has a chance to defeat Chris. He’s a lesser evil to a show that’s obsessed with marketability.

I’m in the US so I completely forgot about the time difference and missed the results. Anyways, I guess I will never get the appeal of James, Christopher, or Jahmene. They all bore me to tears and at least 2 of them have no current musicality in their body. I will give it up for James though. At least he can twist ‘n turn a song to make it his own. Still don’t like him though. Now, on to the bottom 2…Rylan and Union J. Before either act sang, it was a no brainer who was going home. Rylan does not have the best voice but he sure does entertain. He was a lot of fun to watch this season. Union J, what can I say about them? For me, at least, they are everything that One Direction wasn’t while on the show. Union J actually can sing and are great in my opinion. They are actually more ready in my opinion than ID was at this point. Is it too soon for X Factor to crank out another boy band or can they coexist? Personally, I can’t wait to see what Union J comes up with after the show.

Union J is by far my fav this season, which has been otherwise so boring that I can’t get through any of the posted vids (except UJ & Ella), and that’s never happened to me before in years of watching reality singing show vids.

But another key diff btwn UJ and 1D is that, even though they are of similar ages, 1D looks like boys whereas UJ looks like young men. Maybe it’s something about their styling (hair, makeup, clothes), but they’ll really have to “dumb down” UJs look if they want to market to the tweens.  OTOH UJ could have broader mass-market appeal as is, ala The Wanted or JLS. 

Actually UJ’s wide-open sound, chiseled looks (makeup included), and stylized hair is a throwback to the ’80s Brit/Commonwealth singers, like George Michael or Tears for Fears, maybe even Rick Astley.  Unless the old adage of everything-old-is-new-again comes into play, they’ll want to grunge up their look and sound just a bit to be relevant in today’s marketplace.

However, Cher has sold many times more than what Matt did internationally. Also, Jahmene may not be more relevant than Chris, but he doesn’t have a strong group of people who DESPISE him, which tends to help.