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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www.jenkin7.co.uk

X Factor 2008 - Week 3 - More Help for Louis Walsh ?

The X-Factor is only just into Week 3 of the Live performances and mentor Louis Walsh has already lost two of his group acts. First to go were Bad Lashes and in week 2, he then lost Girlband.

So... with the Week 3 performances happening this Saturday and Louis just having boy band JLS left, he perhaps needs all the help he can get. The situation seems hopeless, who can help?

Enter Ricky Gervais on the Graham Norton Show...

"... this is Graham Norton, big viewing figures, people who watch this love the X Factor, why do you think, your act should win?"

Oh dear. In fairness, JLS should survive this week at least to save Louis blushes, but it would surprising if they could progress much further.

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www.jenkin7.co.uk

X Factor 2008 - Week 2 - Lorenzo, Performance of the Week

As the ITV's exciting 2008 X-Factor competition hit Week 2, it was Michael Jackson song night. The best performance wasn't from a Michael Jackson song though.

Talk about doing it when it really mattered. After the Public vote was announced in no particular order, Spanish diva Ruth Lorenzo found herself in the bottom two sing off with Louis Walsh's Girlband. Here was her response,

Wow!

After that Girlband didn't stand a chance. Incredible from Lorenzo. If anyone can threaten Cheryl Cole's category dominance of the contest then surely it must be Ruth Lorenzo.

Purple Rain, the performance of the Night in Week 2. It was unfair that Ruth was in the sing off, but if she hadn't have been, we never would have seen that fantastic performance. The standard on X-Factor in 2008 is extremely high.

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www.jenkin7.co.uk

X Factor 2008 - Week 2, Goodbye to Girlband

As I predicted in a previous blog, Louis Walsh, this week, lost as many acts as there have been weeks of the Live competition.

After the viewers votes were revealed, of course, in no particular order, the bottom two were unveiled as the group, Girlband and over 25 performer, Ruth Lorenzo. Ruth perhaps didn't deserve to be there, but Girlband... below is their performance of Michael Jackson's Heal the World.

In the bottom two sing-off, Ruth Lorenzo performed an amazing version of Prince's Purple Rain that was one of the best performances of the entire evening. Despite this, the four Judges somehow managed to make it a draw between the two acts and the decision was referred back to the viewers votes.

Thank goodness Ruth Lorenzo went through. She was far superior to the woeful Girlband, but this week she came dangerously close to going out. When it come to relying on X Factor viewers votes, you are relying on Random at best.

Mr Walsh now has just one act left which is Boy band, JLS. It would be a major shock if they were to win, but at least now have the advantage of having all their mentor's time.

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www.jenkin7.co.uk

The X-Factor 2008

And so, with the proper First live round complete, The 2008 X-Factor Competition is at last underway. Even at this early stage, it seems as if new mentor, Cheryl Cole is going to have easy victory on her hands. She has three of the best acts by far in the contest and is quoted at odds-on with the Bookies to get one of them the golden prize.

This year the mentors and their categories are as follows,

Simon Cowell - The Boys
Cheryl Cole - The Girls
Dannii Minogue - The Over 25's
Louis Walsh - The Groups

The Groups this year are particularly poor in comparison and Louis hasn't got a hope in hell of winning this years X-Factor. Two of his acts, Bad Lashes and Girlband found themselves in the bottom 2 of week 1 and Bad Lashes were voted off. In a poor category, Bad Lashes were probably Louis' best act. It would not be surprising if he lost all his acts within 3 weeks, but... something strange may happen to keep one of them in of course.

Here is Bad Lashes last performance which saw them booted out.



I personally thought they were better than Girlband and deserved to be kept in. Their first performance was not atrocious by any means and it is very likely that they would have improved.

This Saturday it is Michael Jackson night. This should favour Louis' groups, in particular JLS, but one suspects Mr Walsh will end up one act lighter again.

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www.jenkin7.co.uk