So, not posted on here before but wonder who can answer my question : How do they select the songs each one will sing each week? I mean, do they have a short list or can they pick any song ever written? Are they restricted by getting a 'licence' (or whatever you call it) to perform a song by the songwriter? Are all the songs pre-picked even before the series starts?

How does it work..?

yeah i wanna know that too

I think they have an agreement where no-one can sing a song that was performed on the show the year before. I'm sick & tired of hearing the same songs year after year.

There must be some sort of shortlist to an extent which is possibly why they have themes? IIRC, last year there was a disagreement between Dannii and Louis. Louis said that Dannii "stole his acts song choice". In the end, Simon defended Dannii as apparently each week, the judges take it in turns as to who has first pick of the songs.

From my understanding, I think broadcasters can purchase a special copyright licence to use pretty much any song (like a radio station has to have), though there of course will be certain acts that will opt out of this - especially if they don't want their songs to be used on talent shows. For example, some artists opted out of the licence agreement with Spotify specifically, so I would imagine such a thing would be the same for shows like the Xfactor.

I initially thought there might be some kind of shortlist that the producers drew up, but since Simon chose and unreleased Whitney song for Danyl to sing I figured that as long as it's covered by the licence agreement, anything goes.

I meant to say I think they SHOULD have an agreement
Doh!

Well I understand Guns and Roses wont allow any of their songs on this show, and there are others as well. If they are over 50 years old they do not have to pay some type of commission to anyone either, so any Elvis song I think is debt free.. all a bit odd really. They choose the most crap songs year in year out same old same old crap.. and then one year you get a newish song and you think WOW, but that is just ONE of many on this show.

Lets see what ROCK gets us.. if it is loads of Elvis, well they arent paying anyone for them... so no huge shock there then, but other than that what can we expect, well what we can guarentee is that any artist out there with an ounce of integrity will say no you cant use my songs, but any manager out there with a brain will say YES YES.. and pay up for using it... so will we see any James Morrison .. or Daniel Merriweather, I sincerely doubt it to be honest with you.. but I can of course hope that we will see at least one by both on this dire show of songs.

but tabby performed "sweet child o' mine" a few years back...?

i can remember some of what i read on a different thread, something about them having a list of songs they can use without any copyright implications and the mentors choose for their acts from that.

I think that was just because JLS were supposed to be performing Rule The World the previous week (Best of British) but were told to save it for Take That week instead. Dannii then had first choice & gave it to Rachel; and Louis saw it as stealing their song because they'd planned to sing it the week before.