In light of the blind... sorry 'the climb' song for Joe X Factor... I was just thinking back to past winners of these types of shows and I remembered Girls Aloud's SOTU, and I just thought.... Wow... I don't particularly like them... but as far as a catchy fun perfectly crafted pop song goes... It was a great tune... Wasn't it not?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnLrNHCQPP0

At least it was original, it wasn't a ballad, it wasn't about some lovey-dovey x-factory journey.... Just a good, 'get your make up out girls' type of song.

So why couldn't Simon Cowell have ordered something original and fun as the winner's single? It can't be that hard for him... He can pretty much order any song writer or producer in the world to write up a good song.... Instead he choose 'The Climb'.... Hmmm

What do you guys think?

You might be onto something there.

Not as good as the 'loser' Cheeky Girls' single though (and borne out by the effortlessness with which they eclipsed One True Voice's sales and longevity).

By a mile.

But the reason was that they could pick a song specifically tailored for a pop girlband. There simply isn't the time to do that with these winners because when they make these decisions, they might have up to 7 potential winners.

One other good one was "I Believe" which was done by Fantasia Barrino. But it was simply a perfect song for her. Done by anyone else and it wouldn't have worked at all.

It's not a great song, but "Right Here, Right Now" was a song done for Swedish Idol and sung by Agnes. It's one of the better ones as well.

Damn right. As OP mentioned at least it was original, and a great track, which still sounds fresh today, whilst X factor keeps churning out kareoke boring ballads. Even Peter Kay written a song for the winner of Britains Got The Pop Factor or whatever it was called, and that was just a spoof.

Don't they know who the final 12 is by end of summer? Seems like enough time to me

Indeed.... Motown use to write hit songs within a week... and they didnt even have a picture in their minds as to who of their artist would sing the songs sometimes. If they gave it to a female singer, they would just change the lyrics to suit them.

If they did that then, I can't see any reason why they can't do so now.

I agree that SOTU is a great pop song and the best winning song ever IMO

However SOTU was NOT original, it just hadn't been released.

It was written and recorded in 2001 by another girl band called Orchid, but they split up before it was released. There were a lot of arguments at the time, because the backing vocals used in the record were from the original girl group and GA just sang over them.

I'd imagine it takes too long to write an original song that'll work with the winner's ability and that's the problem for The X Factor. If they write one for each of the final 12 then they'd have spent money on 11 songs that'll never see the light of day.

Also, with Popstars, they had two weeks before being voted into the group (Nov 30) and releasing the single (Dec 16th). With The X Factor the winner's single is out less than 3 hours afterwards for download!

Well its not like they have to wait to see who's in the final 12 before they write a song. I'm sure there must be loads of demos hanging around that no other artists have taken yet. Isn't it just a case of calling around songwriters and seeing whats on offer? It doesn't need to be a completely original song written specifically for the winner.

But its not just the fact that its a cover song that annoys me, its this trend for X Factor winners to sing about their struggles against adversity to get to the top. I think Hallelujah was the only one to buck the trend wasn't it?

Well at least they picked a good song, a song that wasn't predictable... There seemed to have put a little thought into what song to give the girls.

And the whole time thing doesnt make a difference IMO... because they pick the song during the 12 week finals.... So thats plenty of time to choose a good song.

I agree. It's the one winner's single that you don't have to be ashamed/embarassed of listening to.

Yes. But it wasn't going to be on the agenda to be the winners song last year, until Simon heard an American Idol contestant sing that song during his audition.

I quite liked Evergreen myself...

SOTU is blantantly the best winners single, but I think the crucial thing was that they had to take a risk with it. The girls were predicted to lose, so
a) they had to pull out all the stops and
b) do something different and original

Were they originally meant to release 'Sacred Trust'? The bonus disc on the Greatest Hits has their version of it...

Yes, but it has to fit all the finalists.

With Popstars they knew they'd have a 5 piece girl group.

With The X Factor they may end up 1 of 12 very different combinations of people who all have different abilities, ranges and so on. This year you had the likes of Jedward, Kandy Rain, Lloyd, Joe and Olly all of whom are very different singers (if you can some of them singers at all!)

It's far harder to find a song that all of them would be able to sing well. As it was Olly had a struggle with The Climb

Sound Of The Underground was def the best winners song of any UK competition at least. It was a really good pop song.

I haven't liked any of the X Factor winning songs that much. I think this year's is one of the better ones, but I still wouldn't listen to it.

I quite liked Anything Is Possible by Will Young.

I remember being mad about Pure and Simple when Hear'say started out, I would never listen to it now though.

Is it really beyond them to have 12 potential different songs?

The end of September. But it doesn't make a difference.

Can you imagine any of this years X Factor contestants singing SOTU? It was for a very specific kind of act. They couldn't get away with something like that for XF.

Probably. That's an entire album of songs, 11 of which will never see the light of day. Not to mention that it involves recording songs for some of the dullards that go out 12th and 11th.

What they could do (and did do in series 1 not so successfully) is to have one song for each finalist. But it would have to be a cover.

Was 'Shine' Shannon Noll's winners song on Oz Idol? I think it's a great song, but probably because my main association is the cricket highlights.

Girls Aloud was an excellent winners single for a girlband, but I prefer Hearsay's Pure and Simple, my favourite is still Evergreen though.

Sacred Trust was dire! cringe cringe cringe!

As a drum n bass fan I would say Hell No!!

I think it is. I loved it then and it still has a firm place in my "best of Girls Aloud" playlist seven years later. It was the first single I ever bought.


It is a massive shame that they just do a dodgy ballad cover as a winner's single now. Surely Simon Cowell of all people is able to rally his troops,so to speak, and prepare twelve songs in twelve weeks? They wouldn't have to start from scratch,just find demos of something amazing but unreleased and rework them a bit.

Well none of the X Factor/Pop Idol songs have been like SOTU, it wouldn't work. If they actually wrote an original ballad, then it would be better.

sound of the underground is amazing