This year’s UK X-Factor was won by 27 year old former painter and decorator, Matt Cardle. The Essex born singer took the crown after hot competition from Rebecca Ferguson and boy band One Direction. Cardle now looks likely to hit the UK Christmas number one spot with his single ‘When We Collide’, a cover of Scottish rockers Biffy Clyro (originally titled ‘Many Of Horror’).
Now the real challenge for the singer is whether he can reach the heights of former winners Leona Lewis and Alexandra Burke, or tread the less enjoyable path of the soon forgotten Leon Jackson and Steve Brookstein – who is currently completing a tour of a chain of coffee shops across the UK.
One thing that’s for certain is X-Factor continues to be a huge draw, with a record breaking 19.4million viewers tuning in to watch last night’s final. However, the future for the UK show seems unclear now that Simon Cowell will be focusing his attention on X Factor USA - which launches in September 2011.
Jon Davies News X Factor
The annual race for the Christmas number one spot in the UK singles chart used to be as much a part of a British Christmas as the Queen’s Speech or watching repeats of Only Fools And Horses on the television after dinner. Excitement surrounding who will hold the coveted number one spot over the festive period used to raise the event to a level of national importance. Bets would be placed, daily newspapers would dedicate entire pages to Xmas novelty records and popular bands would shamelessly add sleigh bells and angelic choirs to their records in order to give them an extra festive advantage in the Yuletide sales race.
Unfortunately, the excitement surrounding the Christmas number one seemed to dry up in 2005 when it was decided the winner from Simon Cowell’s X Factor talent show would release their debut single over the Christmas period: almost guaranteeing the X Factor winner the Christmas number one spot thanks to the show’s 19 Million + viewing figures.
Since 2005 the Christmas number one spot has been held by 4 successive X Factor winners who have all remained totally unchallenged for the top spot; somewhat sucking the fun out of the entire event.
However, this year that all changed. Thanks to a well co-ordinated digital campaign that was largely driven by people on Facebook, it looks as though Rage Against The Machine’s ‘Killing In The Name Of’ may well pip Joe McEldery, this year’s X factor winner, to the Christmas number one spot.
The raucous, downtuned metal of ‘Killing Of The Name Of’ may well be about the least Christmassy record imaginable; but it seems to have struck a chord with those bored with Simon Cowell and co. waltzing off with the Christmas number one spot year in year out.
Rage are currently edging it in the midweek singles sales charts and whatever your thoughts of ‘Killing In The Name Of are, it’s clear that there’s a proper race to the number one spot this Christmas.
Even if RATM aren’t successful in beating Cowell to the pole position this year, what is clear is that UK Shazamers are definitely backing the metallers to the top with ‘Killing In The Name Of’ scoring an amazing 570% more tags than ‘The Climb’ during the last week.
The people have spoken!
Stephen Titmus News Christmas Number One, Rage Against The Machine, X Factor
In spite of the huge commercial success of her first single ‘Hallelujah’, Alexandra Burke still managed to draw heaps of criticism from across the board. Fans of Leonard Cohen and Jeff Buckley bemoaned Burke’s super emotional rendition of the melancholy classic; and the inclusion of a Mariah Carey-esque gospel choir was just too much to bare for many lovers of the original versions. Meanwhile, Alexandra Burke also faced criticism from some X-Factor fans for being too similar to Leona Lewis whilst others took fire at the X Factor itself for effectively ruining the race for the Christmas number one in the UK.
However, Alexandra Burke’s latest single is already being met with widespread acclaim. Coming more from the Girls Aloud school of past reality show winners rather than the Shane Ward or Michelle McManus, ‘Bad Boys’ is a stomping mix of Britney Spears’ ‘Womanizer’, four to the floor euro pop and catchy rap lyrics delivered by international chart topper Flo Rida. With its super strong melodic top line and thumping 140 BPM pace the record is about as far away from ‘Hallelujah’ as possible. With a much hyped album already in the can, ‘Bad Boys’ seems to be just the tonic needed to set her detractors straight and pave the way for a Leona style invasion of the US.
Stephen Titmus Tag Of The Day Alexandra Burke, Flo Rida, X Factor
JLS – Beat Again (Syco)
Despite being piped to the X Factor crown last year, it looks as though cheeky R&B boy band JLS could still be headed for pop stardom. Although the band couldn’t match the vocal gymnastics of eventual X-factor winner Alexandra Burke, the group’s youthful charm and colour coded outfits still managed to win them plenty of fans. In the early weeks Jack The Lad Swing, to give JLS their full name, found themselves in the bottom two of the competition but by the semi finals the group had turned it around, gaining the most votes in the penultimate week of the competition.
Whilst Alexandra Burke will have to compete with a plethora of female acts to gain attention of the music buying public, Leona Lewis, Duffy, Adele and La Roux to name but a few – JLS are probably the only ‘proper’ boy band around at the moment. This is especially odd when you consider it was only a few years ago that boy bands were the dominant force in British pop and you can bet Simon Cowell has already spotted the potential for JLS to conquer the profitable teenage music market. With this in mind, JLS go for the pop jugular on their first single, ‘Beat Again’, which is reminiscent of a Blue single with touches of Lady Gaga-esque production. Fresh from a recent tour with Lemar and the X-Factor winners, expect JLS to launch a full on assault on the charts in the next few weeks.
Stephen Titmus Tag Of The Day JLS, X Factor
