The X Factor Rankdown

[*Wallace]

2 minutes ago, Elliott said:

Two of my all time Top 4 is still in.

That's more than what I got left.  

[~Tom~]

Shayne Ward

 

 

 

Shayne Ward was the winner of the second series of the X Factor UK. He was more pop/R&B, and the only time Louis Walsh was ever the winning mentor. One of his most notable performances was Somewhere Over the Rainbow, which he sang at the final. Apparently he only won by 1.1% of the vote, which was kind of surprising considering he seemed to be very popular during his run. After the show, he released three albums with SyCo before getting dropped. Up above I posted his song Until You, from his second album Breathless, one of my favorites I've heard from him. He's also performed with Foster & Allen, one of my favorite Irish groups, singing Galway Girl. I do enjoy him for the most part but his cut was pure pettiness for Elliott and JC's questionable nominations. 

[~Tom~]

1 hour ago, JC said:

We all should have been better at making deals with each other LOL and then perhaps it would not have been such a bloodbath. I was keeping my love for Shayne under wraps but I did not realize some ho figured it out

 

It was pretty obvious to me that he was your #1.

 

As for mine....

[Zoey]

Good luck. 

[Zoey]

And whoever I’ve promised anything to. Sorry.

[1234567890]

15 hours ago, Zoey said:

 I’ll just nominate every winner, runner up and third placer from here forward.

Same.

[NGM]

if I had known how this round was gonna go I would have taken out someone different than Melanie for my first cut

[*Wallace]

16 hours ago, Zoey said:

Lol. So done with this ranknown.

 

 I’ll just nominate every winner, runner up and third placer from here forward.

Lol with how this game has gone now..... I can't hate on that. Might as well make this game even more messier than it is.  

 

29 minutes ago, NGM said:

if I had known how this round was gonna go I would have taken out someone different than Melanie for my first cut

Curious on who that would have been.

[1234567890]

Ray Quinn

 

 

I guess the only benefit of pitting Ray Quinn in a battle in order to get him eliminated was that Leona Lewis was at least able to get her rightful season 3 win. I have to look at the upside with how these battle rounds have ruined this game. Ray Quinn is an English jazz singer and he auditioned for Series 3 of The X Factor UK. Ray Quinn made it all the way to the final as part of the 16-24s category mentored by Simon Cowell. He was 17 years old when he initially auditioned. He was technically a child actor as he was best-known for portraying bullied schoolboy Anthony Murray on British soap opera Brookside. He performed a lot of standards and they were fine. He had a good voice but no one was going to touch Leona Lewis that year. Her voice was just next level and it was her season to lose. He finished as the runner-up to Leona Lewis who was in the same category as him that year. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[*Chris]

I need @Solaris's write-up on One Direction.

 

And @Elliott on Matt Cardle

 

And @NGM on Little Mix

[NGM]

Little Mix



Well... this was a round. And out go most of the frontrunners. I really like Little Mix, but I have no issues being petty and getting payback. Anyway, let's dedicate the write up to the only group that should have won.

They (Perrie, Jade, Leigh-Anne, Jesy) started out as as solo acts on the 8th season of XFUK. They all got cut during bootcamp, but in XF fashion, they got a second (actually third but who is counting) chance, but this time as a group (og name Rythmix). They started out well enough, and started to get better as the show went on, and they had a pretty good run all things considered (groups tend to underperform a lot, and the fact that a group that got put together managed to win highlights their talent). They also have a great career that the US has paid dust.  I would say their last album was a little bit weak, but that's leaving Syco for you (at least they are out of reach from their cheap production now). They have 5 albums (and released the lead single for the 6th), so only hoping for good things for them. Also the way they support each other is truly a joy to watch. I will throw my fave song from each era here:
 

(it's not letting me sort them but f*ck it they are there)

[*Wallace]

Little Mix!  Lots of great songs there - with Wings and Touch being my faves of those. 

 

I'm guessing you targeted them because of Reigan going?  

[Solaris]

One Direction

 

 

 

 

This 5 piece band consists of Liam Payne, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson and Harry Styles.  They were put together for the judges houses in X Factor UK Season 7.  I have made it clear from the get go that One Direction is one if my least favorite acts ever on an any X Factor show.  I knew from the moment they were put together they were going to get way further then they should because they were moderately decent singers but they were cute, and that is a defining factor for many people.  Their first performance together was Torn, and it was good.  But then the lives started.  Season 7 was a great season with many memorable contestants.  This group wasn't ready at the time.  Yet they made it all the way to the finals.  The problem was on the season, the delivered mediocrity to poor performances each week. I do think they performed better in the last couple of weeks, with their journey ending on their first song ever when they reprised Torn.  They ultimately lost out to Rebecca and Matt.

 

They had tremendous success after the show when Simon made it his mission to make them the next big thing.  They had hits like What Makes You Beautiful, and Story of My Life.  The group had 5 albums together before they split.  Since there split I have tried to listen to their solo music and I haven't cared for most of it.  The exception is Niall.  The guy who was shoved to the back of the group for years, turns around and has music I actually appreciate and like.  I would even say I am a fan of his as a solo artist.

 

Ultimately though they are gone because I weighed their x factor journey over their post show success.  Congrats to the fans for getting them here, but I won't lose sleep over them being eliminated.

 

[Solaris]

On 5/18/2020 at 6:42 PM, Solaris said:

Matt Terry

 

 

Matt Terry nominated?  Easy cut choice.  There is no way Matt Terry should have won against the vastly superior Saara Aalto.  Do we all remember the time that Nicole Sherzinger assigned Purple rain to him for their duet.  Doing this allowed her to thrust him into the background and her to steal the limelight.  Do you remember when he overtook Saara in the votes because in the final judges critique, Nicole told the UK to vote for their own, and basically to keep the title in the UK.  Doing this insinuated she did not want Saara to win because she was not from the UK.  We do not condone this.  So Matt Terry needs to gtfo.In terms of singing, he performed okay.  His best performance was Writing On The Wall from Movie week.  But we are bitter that he wins over someone who killed the whole season, only losing because a coach took low blows at the finish line.  Bye bye!

 

[*Chris]

Just need Elliott’s writeup for Matt.

[Elliott]

2 minutes ago, *Chris said:

Just need Elliott’s writeup for Matt.

You can’t rush perfection.

[aliasocfan]

Little mix is gone?

Please cancel this travesty.

[~Tom~]

5 minutes ago, aliasocfan said:

Little mix is gone?

Please cancel this travesty.

I was wondering when you would see that.  

[1234567890]

 

[Elliott]

MATT CARDLE

 

Matt Cardle is the winner of the seventh series of The X Factor UK, and led the vote for nearly the entire series. Though I'd been a ~casual viewer~ of X Factor for the few series prior, I remember looking through one of the audition recap posts, and Matt's audition seemed intriguing to me, so I watched it and the rest is history. I was instantly hooked by his voice and personality, and was glad that he was chosen to advance every round. On The X Factor, he had a very strong and consistent run; even in the last few weeks when he was sick, I still thought he turned in solid performances. Among his X Factor run, my favourites are When Love Takes Over, Just the Way You Are, Baby One More Time, an actual good rendition of Bleeding Love, The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, I Love Rock 'n Roll, Here With Me, Unfaithful and Firework.

 

After The X Factor, Matt was signed to $imon Cowell's SYCO record label and put out the obligatory coronation album. Titled Letters, Matt co-wrote nearly every song on the album (though he's often talked about how little of his input was actually used for the album). Though it goes without saying it's my least favourite of his studio output, it still has some solid bops on it. My favourites are Starlight, Run for Your Life, Amazing, Faithless, Walking on Water, Slowly and When We Collide (his coronation single, retitled from the original "Many of Horror.") Additionally, I was also a fan of the B-sides Chemical and Sparks. 

 

Thought Matt's tour dates were primarily UK-based, he did come to Toronto in the Summer of 2012 for the North by Northeast Festival, and Andrew & I were fortunate enough to get to see him perform live. He did a selection of songs from the album, as well as some new songs and a few covers. We also got to meet him before and after the show, and he was absolutely lovely.

 

Shortly thereafter saw Matt and SyCo part ways, though Matt's talked in the years since that he wasn't a fan of what the record label was pushing him to be and wanted to have a bigger hand in writing his music. That set up the release of The Fire, his second studio album. Its debut single was It's Only Love, the music video of which notably featured a gay couple at Matt's insistence - much to arguments with his label for that album over the mainstream appeal of it. Woke legend Matt Cardle, tbh  (And also a friendly reminder that Little Mix's music video for Secret Love Song was also supposed to feature exclusively gay couples but the label said no). My other favourites from the album are The Fire, For Every Heartbreak, Water, Anywhere, Anyone Else, Lately (I'm a fan of the music video tbh ) and the studio recording of The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face that closed the album. A deluxe digital edition was released later-on that also featured an acoustic version of It's Only Love, as well as three new songs that were left off the original album.

 

A year later saw the release of his third album Porcelain in October 2013. My personal favourite tracks from this album are In Chains, Loving You (a duet with Melanie C), When You Were My Girl, Hit My Heart, A Little Too Late, Mouth to Mouth, Your Kind of Love and Porcelain. For reasons I'm unsure of, his duet with Melanie C was later replaced on subsequent digital variants with the new song It's All Just Talk.

 

After three years of releasing studio albums, Matt took a break from recording new music and branched out in his career. He appeared on the UK-equivalent of Broadway for a while, and went on the Intimate & Live Tour afterward. The tour featured newly arranged versions of his existing songs, as well as new material he'd been working on, and some covers. In 2016, he released a live album of the tour. The digital version featured the highlights, but if you ordered the physical copy, you received the full track-listing packaged inside a collector's edition box set.

 

Most of the songs from this album would be found on his subsequent studio output, 2018's Time to Be Alive, which sounds like it was written exclusively for the gay club circuit. At any rate, the album was released under Sony Records, hold the SyCo this time around. My favourites from this album were Higher Power, Desire, Time to Be Alive, Hallelujah (not a cover), Hole in the Boat, Nobody, High as the Night (which was written about his struggle with pill addiction), Ten Ten, Don't Be So Shy and She.

 

The album was received warmly, and is easily my favourite of his studio albums. Since then, he reunited with his pre-X Factor band Seven Summers for several reunion concerts throughout 2019. Unfortunately, he hasn't done much outside of the UK since the appearance in 2012, which is a shame because I really want to hear all of his music since then live. Anyway, I thought it was rather obvious to anyone who knew me that he's by far my X Factor alumni across the different franchises, and is easily one of my favourite reality singing competition contestants.  This write-up would be longer but @*Chris clearly wants it turned on, so I'll come back and edit more to it eventually.

Edited June 28, 2020 by Elliott

[1234567890]

Great write-up on Matt Cardle, @Elliott.

[*Wallace]

Really great detailed write-up on Matt Cardle @Elliott

[~Tom~]

Great write up on Matt @Elliott! I haven't heard much of his post X Factor work but he had a solid run on the show. The First Time ever I Saw Your Face was awesome.  

[*Chris]

Thanks everyone!

Will post details for the upcoming cycle, shortly. 

[*Chris]

25!