X Factor 2008 - Week 7, Eoghan Quigg to win?

Can Eoghan Quigg win this years X Factor?

As each week goes by, it's looking like he could.

Cheryl Cole's original acts of Laura White, Alexandra Burke and Diana Vickers were so strong in the betting market it was very hard to look elsewhere for the eventual winner. But, Laura White is gone, Diana Vickers is still recovering from illness and Alexandra Burke is now joint second favourite with the improving Eoghan.

Louis Walsh has always maintained that Eoghan would reach the final, but I seriously had my doubts... until now. He doesn't have the most powerful voice in the world, but a quality pitch and smooth tone. You could imagine him selling records and having Number ones.

I'm still behind Diana Vickers to win, but a final between her and Eoghan Quigg would be quite exciting to see. Down to just the Public Vote, guessing the winner would be extremely unpredictable.

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BBC Strictly Come Dancing 2008 - Week 9, Can John Do it Again ?

John Sergeant danced the American Smooth this week on Strictly Come Dancing. Although, he did show some improvement over previous shambles, John predictably finished bottom again after the Judges scores.

Not embarrassing this week, Mr Sergeant scored a credible 25 points.

But... Can John defy the odds once again and survive yet another week?

Well, it's certainly possible. Very impossible in fact. If he were to finish top of the Viewers votes, this will average him to finish mid-table and free of the bottom two placings and the subsequent dance off. I think this is very likely to happen.

As John Sergeant himself puts it. Himself and professional dance partner Kristina Rihanhoff are a team... she does the dancing, he does the jokes.



In just a few hours we will find out the results (in no particular order of course). Tune in to BBC1 this evening. It could be a shock result!

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BBC Strictly Come Dancing 2008 - Jodie through with Entertaining Samba

A very fun entertaining Samba from Jodie Kidd I thought, but a bit underscored from the Judges who deemed it to be worth just 23 points. Judge Craig awarded the performance a measly 3 out of 10.

None of the Judges were very complimentary, but as usual, good old Len Goodman came to the rescue.

Bruno said, "Jodie you're like the stock markets, up and down, but here we crash again... you were never quite on it. You really have to focus on those latins.. get into the rhythm."

Craig said, "You crucified that Samba, no real bounce action... limp.. very sticky rolls."

Arlene commented, "it wasn't good, but it wasn't that bad. You have an easy bounce, you just lost it, it wasn't a carnival in Rio, it was more like a birthday party in Bournemouth."

I think Arlene had been working on that comment for quite some time before the show even started. For comedy value, I will score her a 2.

Len Goodman finished on a much needed positive, "it had a fun element, you moved nicely, but it doesn't suit you, its a small person's dance...but that doesn't mean your not a good dancer... it doesn't matter."

Jodie Kidd thankfully escaped the bottom two this week and lives to dance again. Congratulations to Jodie. She and Lisa Snowdon are the Strictly Come Dancing's strongest improvers from where they started.

3 out of 10? Ridiculous! This week Jodie Kidd and Ian Waite are training for the Quickstep.

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Formula 1 2008 - Lewis Hamilton World Champion !!!

He's done it !!!

Lewis Hamilton is the new Formula 1 Champion of the World !!!

Felipe Massa won the race which meant Lewis just had to finish 5th or better to take the title. It was far from plain sailing.

A short spell of rain delayed the race by 10 minutes, then stopped. All teams were now in a quandary as to which tyres to use. Not ideal, when Lewis just wanted a nice boring race.

Starting fourth on the grid, Lewis was far less aggressive in turn 1 than last year and focused on keeping the car on circuit. Team mate Kovalainen was able to give him some protective cover.

For most the race, Hamilton concentrated on remaining in the top five, taking as little risk as possible. This was a good plan had it not been for more rain.

Pit stops threw the race up in the air as everyone pitted late on to change to Intermediate tyres from slick low grip. Everyone that is except Toyota driver, Timo Glock. Glock gambled on slicks. This put him way ahead of Hamilton on the track.

Hamilton came out in fifth, the minimum position he needed, but he had, young gun, Sebastian Vettel all over his gear box in the Torro Rosso. Lewis couldn't afford for him to overtake, otherwise the Championship was gone. Vettels car was dealing with the wet conditions a lot better than Hamilton's Mclaren and he struggled to keep ahead.

This was high drama.

Then disaster. Hamilton went wide coming on to the start finish straight with just a few laps to go. Vettel passed by on the inside and heads went down in the Mclaren garage. Lewis tried desperately to keep up with Vettel, but he was slowly edging away, the position had gone. 6th was no good. Meanwhile, Felipe Massa's Ferrari was way ahead of the pack and the title was surely his going into the last lap.

Massa crossed the finish line and all the Ferrari pit crew and Massa's father started to celebrate. He had won! But wait....

Struggling badly on slick tyres, Timo Glock lost 18 seconds on the final lap. Lewis surely couldn't have believed his eyes. Glock was in sight travelling extremely slowly. As they hit the start/finish straight for the last time, Hamilton passed him to retake 5th place and become the youngest Formula 1 World Champion of all time!!!

It was probably the most exciting finish to a World Championship ever. It was absolutely unbelievable. Massa had it, then Lewis came back from the dead within the last quarter of a mile. Championship battles surely can not get any closer than this. Lewis Hamilton wins at the season end by just 1 point.

Next year he races with the coverted Number 1 on his car. One suspects there will be more Championships to come.

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www.jenkin7.co.uk

X Factor 2008 - Week 4 - Diana Vickers 7/4 Favourite to win

Big Band week on the X Factor was perhaps going to be a week when favourite, Diana Vickers, was going to struggle to match the style of the genre to her voice.

Think again,

Smile was a fantastic song choice for her. One of the more gentler of the Big Band style numbers, this slower tempo song was one she could really get hold of.

Another great performance saw her favouritism in the betting market strengthen even further down to 7/4. When Vickers sings, the sound is just magical and there is no one in the pop industry today that is quite like her.

Her biggest threat on Big Band night was perhaps not being knocked out the competition, but instead, falling off that swing! If Ricky Gervais stunt double, Daniel Evans, had been on it, the whole thing surely would have crashed into the audience. Thankfully there was no swing in Daniel's performance whatsoever.

Easy to like and hard to oppose, I can't wait to see what she performs for this weeks Disco night, another one that in theory does not really suit her unique singing voice.

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X Factor - Week 3, Relief for Louis Walsh, JLS through

Mentor Louis Walsh must be breathing a huge sigh of relief this week as he, at last, manages to keep one of his acts in the X Factor 2008 contest.

Week 1, he lost Bad Lashes, week 2, he lost Girlband. With both his girl groups gone, mentor Louis Walsh was just left with boyband JLS.

It was Big Band night and JLS performed the 1960 Dean Martin classic, Ain't That a Kick in the Head? Martin performed the song in the original film version of Ocean's Eleven.

The boys performance was credible. Entertaining, if not completely blowing the audience away and they deserved to survive another week.

JLS are not the best act left in the competition, but they are by no means the worst and now they have that added uniqueness... they are the only group left in it. In a year where the voting public may be numbed by act after act of fantastic female singers, JLS may be hoping they offer a refreshing alternative.

This Saturday is Disco week and that should suit them again.

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X Factor - Week 3 - Scott Bruton out

Scott Bruton has become the third act to be voted out of X Factor 2008.

This week was Big Band night and it is only when you see acts having to face the bottom two sing-off for survival, you can see how much that this contest really means to them. This competition is tough. Very tough.

Scott's performance of "That's Life" saw him fall into the bottom two against Daniel Evans. Evans gave a very emotional and heart-felt performance of his survival song which was enough to see him go through.

Louis had the final judges vote on the matter and you could tell it was an extremely hard decision for him to make. In a week where the performances have been arguably the strongest ever, it was always going to be tough deciding who would be the one to go.

Simon Cowell said it, in other years, Scotts performance would have been strong enough to go through.

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