I know we are not supposed to be talking about the judges, but WOW, didnt realise Simon Cowell is leaving £90 million to charity in his will. Divided up between children/animal charities.
God, I KNEW he was evil!

Danyl: I'm just not warming to his performances. Bar the first week (ironically I believe it was the best performance so far this series), he has been pretty disappointing. Either he can't hit the low notes or he can't sing the melody of the song, at this stage it is getting tedious. I wouldn't mind, but I have to read columns about his "flawless" performances.

Jamie: He has been for the most part disappointing, but I saw potential at the judge's house and I saw potential last Saturday. Now that Rachel and Lucie are gone I have no favourites, but depending on how this week goes I could be rooting for the guy.

Olly: Getting boring at this stage, it's like watching some wideboy having the craic with his mates on a Saturday night doing karaoke. Has anyone ever seen the video for Robbie William's Something Beautiful? That's what Olly is.

Joe: He's like Quigg last year, always consistent in what he does, except Joe is actually likeable and has a good head on his shoulders. However the chap has no charisma and is just "pleasant" in his performances, he's like a young Cliff Richard or Daniel O'Donell.

Lloyd: There's no strength or force in his voice, his voice constantly sounds like it's about to break. He's got to go now.

Jedward: I want them out now, for their own sake. The longer they are in this show, the bigger the witch hunt is going to get. Forget how bad they are, we know that, it's time someone started to think about the well being of these kids instead of getting the "lulz" at them every weekend.

Stacey: Good singer, good personality, comical the way she doesn't take shit off Cowell......I'll be perfectly content to see her win this show.

Well, you can't take it with you, and he has no wife or children.

Ah, thanks for the thread Lizzy.

Danyl's my favourite, but I'm worried for him and still don't feel he's reached his potential. I'm dying to hear more of his singing voice, inbetween the parts he belts out. He's relying too much on the powerhouse endings, which in the week he suffered a set back, disguised the fact that for much of the song, he'd just coasted.

Olly - second favourite, he's popular and a natural talent, with a good voice and he makes it all look effortless. Enjoy the fact that he makes each song choice fun. Could just do with letting out the suits by half an inch. (Not that I'm complaining)

I like Jamie, and have been surprised at the emotion he puts into the slower song choices. I think he's been held back, and must be frustrated with the song choices being messed about. Once he's allowed to go for it, we'll really know it!

Lloyd and Joe, sorry to group together, but they've got the looks and sweet voices, but nothing to grab me yet.

Stacey was a revelation at her audition, and her voice is still wonderful. Simon mentioned the walking, but I think the point is although we've seen heaps of personality when she's not singing, overall she's still quite reserved in her performances.

John and Edward. Saturday night's all about being entertained and just like Chico, I find myself looking forward to them. The perfect antidote to all the drama and seriousness of the show at the moment. Unfortunately I think we may well be treated to a least a couple more weeks!

Olly - Liked him from the first audition, he is still my fave, but Simon needs to stretch him now. His songs and routines are too samey each week. Would like him to have a ballad this week.

Danyl - Ridiculous amount of stick the guy gets, I do think he has a really good voice and I thought And I Am Telling You, when he sang it quite soft til right at the end, was superb. Definitely think he should be in the final, but I realise he is a marmite act. I prefer it when he doesn't go OTT.

Jamie - I do like him but prefer him doing softer stuff like Hurt. Whenever he does rock, it does sound a bit pub rock singer. Feel sorry for him about the song choice changes and I don't feel Simon is championing him like the other 2.

Joe - Nice lad, controlled voice, just find him a little bland. But I can really see him in the West End which is still a good career, and probably a longer one, than the usual length of pop careers that the acts on XF have.

Lloyd - I like his voice but he is a like a deer in the headlights every week. I think he is a couple of years too young for the programme.

Stacey - Loved her in the auditions, but have not been blown away yet, which has really disappointed me. Not sure when its going to happen. But she has it in her.

Jedward - Love the boys, they make me smile, when I have been disappointed with a lot of the acts, I always look forward to seeing them.

Aaw, this thread is continuing. Makes a nice change from the rest.

Thanks for all your input guys, hope to see some more posts tomorrow.

what a very decent, calm, sound and intelligent thread!

anyway, here are my comments for the remaining 7..

(in order on who should go next)

Lloyd - I hate to break this but this guy has been staying in the competition just because of his looks. And if I'm going to be honest, he doesnt look very very very WOW at all. He ruined several songs already and I can see him struggling more in the coming weeks so better if we just cut the agony for LLoyd by not voting for him.

Jamie - A very good performer but I can sense that he has given his best (Week 1) already and that's it. Among the remaining acts, he's the one I never imagined winning the show. I wiuldn't buy his single. His voice is husy and rock and he is good ONLY on that field.

John & Edward - Purely entertainment. Like watching all these big production numbers but sometimes we have to go abck to basics and challenge the acts vocally and I am sure these two will struggle and may as well deliver a totally disastrous performance.

Danyl - Very good singer but I think he knows that very well and he is living with that fact which unconsciously manifested in his cockiness. I like him seeing in the Semi's but failing to eneter tha Finals. It is also an eye opener for Simon to always keep your feet on the ground.

FINAL 3 (in no particular order)

Olly - At the moment, Olly is totally within his comfort zone and he knows doing a plain ballad will put him in danger. But I want him to do more ballad and take the challenge of it.

Stacey - Has been given the worse songs ever but very glad how she always give sher own flavour in these songs. I think she is Danni's least favourite and this time I think she will be given better songs and perhaps shine as what we first saw in the auditions.

Joe - Best male vocals but not a popstar vocal at all. He is consistent but needs more challenges. He is always very good but not WOW in the level of Leona and Alexandra. Could do with some uptempos and perhaps more challenging notes too.

when are you gonna stop this nice, reasonable act and tell us what you really think.

go on who do you hate really?!

That would go to lloyd...i think most people would agree.
The kid has had hardly any song that works with his limited vocal range.
Stacey has...

Just because you dont like lloyd....you should still be able to see the poor boy has had stupid song choices.

Lol, no I don't think I will - you asked for my real opinion somewhere else I seem to remember, and I ended up being called rude by people who don't get irony!
Mostly I like discussing things in a reasonable way, because to get so het up about things is really not my usual life style. I am called "so laid back she'll fall over one of these days" by my real world friends.
I don't hate anyone, but if you insist on some honesty, I REALLY want Danyl to win (but don't think he will) and I think Lloyd or John & Edward should go out next. If we MUST think about this as a singing comp then the final 5 should be the ones with the strongest voices I would think!


Lloyd has had some poor song choices, but so has everyone else. Personally, I think Cheryl has struggled a little this year with her "boys", even she herself has seemed dazed and confused a lot of the time when asked for her opinion! Unfortunately for Lloyd, who has a long way to come on before he is excellent (although I can see it in him!) his mentor is stuck in the mud. Luckily for Joe, he is talented enough to be able to move past this - and he really could sing the phone book! Whether or not you like Joe's personal style is down to purely individual tastes!

There you go, thats my take on those couple of points!

None of the acts this year really do it for me this year. I don't think we're gonna end up with any big stars.

Jamie - He really does just remind me of a guy you would see singing in a pub rock band. Different to the other contents but still not really original in my opinion. Tries to hard to be this rocker.

Danyl - can't sing but something about him bugs me, think it's the cockiness.

Joe - Was my favourtie to win as he does have a perfect voice and is so endearing but he can be a bit bland and needs to shake it up a bit.

Olly- Although not my favourite I think he'll win. He has got charisma and does entertain.

Lloyd - Really given bad song choices. Bleeding love was a diaster. He can sing and is really cute but think he would be better in a few years when more mature.

Stacey - I do like Stacey and she can sing although I didn't rate last week. She has a sweet personality but sometimes I wish she would calm down and and speak properly.

John and Edward - Although they're not the best singers they do give it there all and for me are the most entertaining. I'm sure they though they were gone last week yet they still gave it their all in the singoff. Also to be fair Louis did not put them into the final six of the groups by himself. Yes he put them through to the live shows but he could not have done that if the others had not put them through to boot camp in the first place.

Lizzy, I do like your attempts to restore reason! Here are my thoughts on the remaining few...

Joe
My favourite and has been since the first live show. He's just got such an epic voice and I think he's got the talent, as well as the looks, to bring a breath of fresh air to the music scene in this country. We need a new, vocally exceptional, male solo singer in the George Michael mould and Joe fits this perfectly.

Some people say he doesn't have the X factor (note the lower-case f!) but I think he does, in spades. His voice is very charismatic and instantly recognisable.

He also clearly has no idea just how beautiful he is, which is really lovely - there doesn't seem to be any arrogance there at all.


Danyl
Again, massively charismatic but has been sort of torpedoed by the production and the inconsistent 'angle'. His audition looked like a party piece to me, with lots of tricksiness and gimmickry, and I didn't think he performed well at all during the live shows, until this week when he really impressed me with Purple Rain. If Yvie is spending time training him she's doing a good job as he seems to have wrestled control of his voice and is starting to perform like a real singer.

It's so shallow I can barely bring myself to mention it but the haircut really, really helped!


Jamie
My opinion on him has varied, probably more than with anyone else. I didn't like his audition, as I thought he sounded just like what he was trying not to be - a pub singer. But Hurt was a masterpiece and probably one of the best performances, of any of the finalists, this year so far. Subsequently, though, he seems to have gone back to the Big Book of Pub Rock Songs and it's all been a bit 'will-this-do'.

Crying could have been brilliant but it seemed a bit all over the place to me - he went for the wallop too quickly, in my view.


Stacey
A voice in search of a popstar. Again, disappointing as before the lives she was one of my favourites. Seems to have floundered a bit since the first couple of live shows and the whole 'rabbit in the headlights' thing isn't going to work in a post-X Factor world.


Olly
Since 'prime Essex beef'-gate I have had trouble keeping my food down with this one. I think he's good, but he got good quick and now needs to do something new. By which I mean sing something that was written since the millennium.

I also think, sadly, that he's an ideal Saturday night TV person, but not exactly cutting edge in the wider musical world. He sits halfway between Robbie Williams and Will Young but he's not as good as either of them.


Lloyd
Poor Lloyd. Worst song choices in history! This boy is not Justin Timberlake so please stop trying to force him down that road! He had a lovely voice during the auditions and judges' houses but it hasn't been allowed out since the lives started.

He also suffers from nerves, quite clearly (well, he is only 16!) and it means that he looks nervous on stage a lot of the time. And when he's nervous, we're nervous watching him.


John and Edward
It's difficult to be constructive with this one. I actually think there's an unfair game being played here (with them being in the competition, I mean, not on the forum) and they're the butt of a joke which hasn't quite had its punchline played yet.

They're not singers. We can all see that. Thing is, I'm not sure that they're really entertainers either. Everything they do is based around the 'joke' of ineptitude combined with huge production numbers. But it's becoming increasingly clear that they can't seem to get their heads round things like stage position, remembering cues and cameras, lines. If they can't do that then they're not going to make it in kids' TV either, where although it all looks chaotic and noisy, actually behind the scenes is some of the most tightly-run stuff going. And to do something really badly so that it's consistently funny, you have to actually be able to do it really well - Les Dawson playing the piano springs to mind (YouTube it, he was hilarious).

OT, but thank you for the reminder of Les Dawson. May I also offer Eric Morecambe, who told Andrew Preview that he was, in fact, playing all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order.

In no particular order -

Jamie - Not keen on him. I am fed up with hearing how the song choice has needed to be changed at the last minute. This always seems to be happening on weeks that Jamie is not too comfortable with. Could this be a ploy to get the sympathy vote.

Danyl - Don't get him. He appears to arrogant and cocky to me. The week after he was in the bottom two, he acted like a child. Admittedly he can be a good singer, but as I said I just don't get him.

Lloyd - Seems to me that his song choices are awful, and that is down to his mentor. He does try. Give him better songs.

Joe - Admittedly my favourite. I liked him from his first audition and still do. I would like him to win, and vote for him everyweek, but I don't know if he will.

Stacey - I like Stacey singing, but then as soon as she starts to speak, I switch off.

Olly - Although not my favourite, I do think Olly can win it. I think he has the personality to make it after the show.

Jedward - I cringe everytime they come on and I am sick of hearing about them. They should be given a song which makes them stand still and sing, with no backing group. If they do really well, I will hold my hands up and say I was wrong about them. Until then, not for me.

At the end of the day, it does not matter who wins the show on whether they make it with a music career. It all depends on Simon. If he likes the singer(s), then he will work hard with them (Leona and Alex) but if he does not like them he will not do anything with them (Steve, Leon).

So you hate lloyd and Jedward

I am going to come back and read eveyones elses comments but this is my view on the current contestants

I'll start with my Favourite Olly!! Is he the best singer?! Maybe, maybe not!! But he does have the whole package in terms of style, entertainment value, a good singer, likeability factor and yes he is HOT. My worry with Olly is the novelty factor. Simon goes on about relevant acts and then gets Olly to sing Twist and SHout, he needs to start singing more dare I say it "relevant songs" I think it is possible even in themed weeks. I vote every week for him and really hope he goes on to win.

Stacey......love her or hate her I have to say love her, she is a down turn earth slightly silly girls, she is likeable and I really love her voice. I am still not sure what genre suits her best and would be very interested to see where she takes her lovely voice after X Factor but following her Coldplay and Keane songs think she is highly suited to these kinds of songs. Fingers crossed she is in the final.

Joe - beautiful voice, great performer! Would I buy his music?? NO!!! but I am sure there is a market out there for him. I think he is more suited to theatre stage as he is caught between sexy teen and young boy performer and think the big stage would suit him perfectly. Seems like a nice guy, so wish him well.

Jedward.........Where to start?! IMO again....likeable boys but I feel so so sorry for them as Simon puppeteers the public's hate to them (they are so young) I think they are entertaining and would be more them happy to see them in the final or week before. In saying that if Stacey Olly got knocked out to them I would be abit sad!!

Danyl! Good voice Good performer. Haven't taken to him BUT don't get the hate campaign

Jamie. Good singer good entertainer I wouldn't buy his music unless he bought out some very edgy yet soft rock/Indie (I know what that means) but don't think he will be given this an option as a winner of X factor

Lloyd - Louis said it best...Suited to a boyband that being said If I was a few years younger I would vote for him and would probably have a big crush on him.

You can prob see My opinion is not solely based on singing ability but then my general music choices are not. I go for the whole package and that is why I want Olly to win

Apologies for spelling or grammer mistakes

Lloyd - Oh DEAR at his song choices. They have been terrible. I think he has a nice voice but there is just no power to it at all. I don't think he is good enough to stay in, but totally agree that he should be in a boyband.

Stacey - I just don't get her. I don't think last weeks performance was anything to write home about and the weeks before was almost as bad as Danyl's imo. But when she's on her game she's very good.

Jamie - I think he's pretty cocky. More so than I see in Danyl. And last weeks performance was painful on the ears in some parts. That said I do really like him anyway and I would like to see him in the final (with the other over twenty-fives please)

Joe - Technically the best voice. But he does too much vibrato and looks like he belongs in One True Voice. His performances have been spot on vocally but don't have the wow factor.

John and Edward - I have to say I respect how much they always try. They're obviously not the best singers (or dancers) but they try their hardest and even when people have been horrible to them they have never given up. They must be doing something right because everyone is talking about them! Do I think they will win? No. Do I think the show would be boring without them? Yes.

Olly - I think he will win. I loved his auditon because I loved the song and the dance and the general attitude. Not the best voice, but he has something that reminds me of Robbie about him. Plus he has a good voice and he stands out even when he is being given a big production. That said, I think this week will be really hard for him.

Danyl - I am in two minds. I personally think he has got the most unique voice in the competition. But not the most controlled. Purple Rain was pretty spot on though. I am torn by the papers and things I have heard from people who have met him. He seems very one way or another, he's either the best person or he's the worst and I do sort of worry about how much of him is an act. Purely for his own sake. That said, him and Olly have been my favourites since auditions and I would totally buy his album.

Oh yes, I really hate them with a fiery vengeance!

LOL

I love them both, but people keep telling me this is a singing competition, even though it is blatantly a light entertainment show.

Or a Pantomime, complete with Villain (Simon) Poor put upon heroine (Dannii) Evil opposite of put upon heroine (Cheryl) and a pantomime dame (Louis)
It also has the village people out with their torches (The tabloids and certain members of the GBP) and some nice but dim bit parts (the contestants)

Take your pick really.

I still want Danyl to win!

I want Jedward to win because I think they'd destroy the other competitors in a fight with their kung fu ability and costume choices.

Alternately, Danyl because he could eat them all with his big mouth.

duneriver, you are very funny.

You are not alone there, he is the favourite of a lot of people, and my second favourite after Danyl.

I thought you were talking about the band which got me confused.....i assume you werent talking about the band. Or are they fans of the show????

i wouldnt be surprised.

Lol, I meant in pantomime, you always have a group of villagers who go after the villain with flaming torches!

what pantomimes have you been going.

i never went to any of them...are you sure it was a pantomime?!!

It may be the disney film Beauty and the Beast I am thinking of in relation to the villagers . But still, I like my analogy. Especially in casting Simon as the villain.