Saturday 12 December 2015

Two acts join Adele, One Direction and Coldplay in the Final

The three finalists come in from the aisles through the audience. Some dancers follow them, carrying letters - just in case we've forgotten their names. Ché gets three, Reggie & Bollie get three (RNB) but Louisa gets six. There's a sign to start with. Luckily, they stay in the right order and nothing embarrassing gets spelled to the several thousand present and few million watching.

Ché seems a bit breathless and whoever dressed him ought to be fired. Louisa is very fired already and, once she hits the stage, she is putting on the sort of show I would have expected her to reserve for the last song. Impressive. Reggie & Bollie do what Reggie & Bollie do and all's well with the world. A nice final tomorrow would be Louisa and Reggie & Bollie. Ché has a good voice but I just don't see him as a big name at concerts and on future TV shows. The other two could well be there, as will be lots of acts from old X Factor series over this weekend.

Ché is first to perform. We see him on the bus and visiting Essex. Now there he may have an advantage, Essex people being good supporters generally, happy to plug away with the tablets and phones and, as a young chap there will be a decent girlie vote for him. He seems to have got rid of a silly three quarter length shirt which he had on when he first appeared. That'll help. Valerie is a good track for him, cheerful and bright and comparatively stress free to perform so that has to have given him a good start. Neither Simon nor I understood the hamburgers on the stage. He makes the point that he looked nervous and does start off the least favoured to win. Having said that, how often have the bookies been proven wrong!!

I haven't placed a bet this year, mainly because the odds on Louisa have been so short since day one. I should have put something on Reggie & Bollie getting this far if I could have found a bookie offering odds for that.

Reggie & Bollie spend time in Newcastle and they have got a pretty widespread support across the nation. Cheryl is also a popular mentor and she'll gather a few extra votes for them. I can see them winning, just because they exude so much fun and they really do entertain every time. they may not have a few schools to bank votess from but I still see them doing well.

I suppose one day they might run out of tracks they can mash together effectively but they should manage to last a couple more. They have a bit of a random thing going this time. No idea what the track(s) are called - it's all a bit mad and the dancers seem to have absolutely nothing to do with anything but they're all having fun so who cares? You have to hand it to these guys - so professional and the crowd really do love them. Compared to the reception for Ché this is impressive.

Simon says it was a weird mash up - like a strawberry and liver mix! That reaction could be a sign that they could win. Rita says they were a bit 'cruise ship' and I can see that too. It was one of those performances that you may well see again and again but after a few years not necessarily remember who did it.

A lot hangs on what Louisa does to start with. she needs to get people voting and not just assuming that, as the shortest odds-ever favourite, she is just going to win whatever happens. She will need those votes and with Reggie & Bollie pulling theirs in big time she is not at all guaranteed to beat them, or Ché for that matter. We can all remember Ella not even making the Top 5 and One Direction lost out to Matt Cardle and Rebecca Ferguson.

Now it is Louisa's turn. I had forgotten that she is also from Essex so will amost certainly pinch a large number of Ché's votes from that part of the world. I Believe I Can Fly is a pretty tedious number. Not the best of starts, in my view, but Louisa throws so much at it, treating it like a final song again, that you have to sit up and take notice. Sometimes I wish she would be a bit gentler and maybe rise more gradually towards the loud bits but she gets very good reviews. The audience didn't quite match the R & B set but it certainly made an impression. She has an ability to put a huge amount of emotion into everything she does. That is quite special and, controlled, she could become quite a successful British #1 act.

Talking of #1 acts, Leona Lewis is next, with last year's winner Ben Haenow. Ben hasn't had the best of years with little activity since winning. His duet with Leona is a bit laboured. She finishes that and then decides that the audience deserve something better and starts her classic Run. Fabulous and Ben helps out quite nicely. That really did show the impact of a quality song, though. Simon will be pleased as he'll still get some money from that, even though Leona left SYCO and hasn't been particularly quiet about that either.

That was an introduction to the round in which they each sing with someone a bit special. So who will Ché get to sing with? Nice song The First Cut Is The Deepest. Hmm. Could it be Rod Stewart? Yup, The 70 year-old is still going strong. The problem with someone like Rod is that comparison's can go wrong for you and, whilst Ché has a great tone, Rod really steals the stage from him, even when he is not exactly giving it his all. And there lies quite an important difference - Rod doesn't need to give it his all. He can pick up a decent cheque for just a bit of crooning. Ché needed to do a bit more, I feel. Nice though it was, it may not have made lots of people open up the apps and vote.

Reggie & Bollie still have the middle slot. So who will they get? I thought they had someone called Tina - at least that's what was on the hat - but it's Craig David who eventually appears. the first half was great and had everyone grooving but the Craig David bit sort of put them in the shade and it was also a complete shift of gear and tempo. Ah - the Tina guy was called Fuse and he flew in from Ghana so must be someone they knew as well. All good stuff but I am not so sure that the Craig bit worked as well as the other guy.

Louisa gets the good last slot again. I'm Not Living Without You is a good song. She is singing with her mentor, Rita. Apart from Rita's much flashier dress, there isn't much to choose between them. They clearly get on really well and that comes across well. A bit shouty for my taste but I do like this girl and she really does deserve to get through to the final and get some more of what she enjoys so much. She is a natural on stage and Rita says that there have only ever been two people who have made that impression on stage and that is Leona and Louisa.

She might have included Little Mix and One Direction but maybe she was just thinking of solo acts. In fact, Little Mix are on next with Fleur East, last year's runner up but possibly the more successful from that series. They start with Fleur doing Black Magic then Little Mix do Sax. All good fun and quite a lot of flesh on show. Cool. And hot.

After a bit of a cock-up on the VT front, they eventually get the reprise tapes in order and there's a quick look at the three acts again. My guess is that, based on audience feedback, Ché will get the 3rd place this year.

Rod does his Stay With Me Tonight hit and adds a quick plug for Ché in his chat with Caroline. Luckily there's a break between then and when the results are announced so they can move him off stage just in case it isn't Reggie & Bollie that get sent home.

In the final is Louisa! Now for the other one through. It's Reggie & Bollie. Well done to them. So that's it for Ché. Good result. Should be a fun final.

You have to go back to 2008 for the last girl winner, Alexandria Burke and 2011 for Amelia Lily as the last girl finalist when Little Mix were the last group in a Final. They also won, of course. It could be close tomorrow.

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