Hey, guys, ease up here.

It was a bit of fun. I thought both the girls were stunning tonight, and so I didn't get my mobile phone out to vote, just made the donation.

Lesley Garrett's got them right, Kim is technically superior, Edith is more passionate, and which style you prefer is a matter of taste.

They both deserved it tonight but only one could win!

Well we do know Kim was 2/5 favourite at the start of today, which means that on all the previous show's votes combined, she must have been WELL in the lead for the bookies to quote that figure.

Why that translated into defeat tonight, we all have our own ideas and have posted accordingly.

Frankly, I'm not even a big fan, I preferred Dawn, and this show is meaningless in the real pop world anyway, just ask Kwarme or last year's winner, but I do object to the result being controlled by BBC musos and Radio One luvvies.

I'm not totally sure on this, given it's the weekend and I'm not a teetotaller, but weren't all the top 5 or so, and the last two or three winners BBC regulars, either now or in the past?

I mentioned earlier (somewhere) that where a Kim win would be a bit of an anticlimax, a win for Edith would be controversial, because of the switch to txt voting and Colin making sure his listeners knew about it (thenetworkbabe has herself suggested that txt voting could favour Edith).

I also mentioned that Edith fans would strike back by bringing in the Eastenders audience to cast doubt on Kim's earlier victories.

(I hadn't expected that Kim would twice go second with txt voting cut off quickly after, leaving some, such as me, without time to vote, or that Edith would get a duff mic, muddying the waters further and giving Edith's fans another weapon.)

I would have been much better if Edith had had a clean win conducted on the same basis as all the other votes. More people would have been happier then, and perhaps Edith's fans would have found it easier to be magnanimous in victory, and Kim's likewise in defeat.

Or maybe not, this being the internet after all.

Has any Kim supporter considered that, irregardless of the change in voting opportunitites, Kim didn't engender people to vote during the day because of her lacklustre-dire performance Thursday night.

Kim appeared to garner much from the 24/7 voting system throughout and had enough to carry her through bad-mediocre performances over the body of the piece. She rode that wave...is it not fair to suggest that her BAD Thursday performance diminshed her vote pre tonight's performances.

It cannot work both ways...Kim went ahead on Thursday, in part, due to Wednesday...Kim blew Thursday and Edith owned it...makes sense that daytime voting today went to Edith fair and square.

/P.S. sympathy vote to Edith because she truly had dodgy sound...purleeeze...even with the tech difficulties Edith came across well and it was clear she was feeling, performing and aiming on vocal.

...Kim is the only one to actively play the sound probs card at a time it wasn't true.

Except for the duet, her performance was fine; and if it was such a turn-off for the voters, why was she saved by them last night?

As I predicted, Edith supporters would cast doubt on Kim even if Edith won.

Just imagine their vindictive fury if Edith had lost, especially after that duff mic.

But you are typing from a perspective different to mine. I believe all her Thursday performances were poor. There were few times that she lifted herself above bland and wall-paper for me but the 'i don't know why' was one. She lost the crediblitity built on that on Thursday night, imo. Her main piece was so clearly outwith her comfort-zone that she was unable to engage, sing and sell it. The duet was just appalling, despite Ade's efforts to make it comedic, because Kim doesn't have the versatility or inclination to work as anythin other than solo-ballad-diva. She appears to have been very restricted in the scope/breadth/depth/range to which she was prepared to try and give. All the choices she could control appeared to be about staging her within her comfort zone.

Thursday tested her, in all ways, and found her lacking, imo...i believe her vote was diminished because of Thursday night. That was the point it became apparent she failed on solo up-beat, working with others was beyond her and a solo ballad (with everything else going on) was average and bland...

All i'm saying is that i don't thin k that the voting system of tonight [Friday] necessarily lost her the lead...Thursday, justifiably, did.

Come on, it's where she works! Half the DJs are her friends! If you seriously expect Radio 1 of all places to be unbiased then that's a bit silly...if BBC1 on the other hand flashed up big 'vote Edith' ads in between the news and weather then you'd have more of a point

I missed the entire thing this evening. But due to the fact that I've always prefered Edith's voice by miles, I'm pleased she won...

And I haven't been very impressed by anything Edith's done, but I don't go around claiming that must explain what the voters did.

You've now invented a new and convenient theory that voting isn't based primarily on the night, or of impressions built over the series, but instead specifically on the night before; and you do this to suggest that Edith would have won on a vote that never took place; then you take this as an opportunity to indulge in some slagging off.

That's exactly the problem with the sort of victory Edith had. Her fans can't be satisfied with that, can't be magnanimous in victory. So they feel they have to continue the spinning and slagging. (Too many of them anyway.)

I don't agree. And the judges rightly praised her "keep me hanging on".

Rubbish. She worked fine with Debra, for example.

Of course it didn't necessarily do it.

But why take that as an opportunity to slag off Kim in such extreme terms?

there is no way Edith could have won, her song was a mess, Champagne supernova indeed, she was pony.

the other woman was much better, Jools Holland was laughing his bollocks off at Edith trying to sing, he almost fell off his chair.

It was an absolutely disgusting result and Kim was definitely robbed. Shame on the BBC for not having phone voting during the final and for fixing it for Edith to win. Kim is the true winner no matter what the results, and all fair minded people will acknowledge that. I'm truly disgusted.

you could also say 'shame on the bbc' for not getting the sound sorted out on Ediths first song. Her rendition of the simon and garfunkel was superb.

In my own opinion, I think Ade should have won, as he injected some entertainment value into the fact that he knew he couldnt sing a note. Its a very very very tired format and but for him having seizsures onstage it would have made a very ballad-boyzone-dull 2 weeks.

If it comes down to actually ability to sing, then the two finalists should have been kim and dawn, but for some reason dawn was discarded a few days ago in favour of tone-flat Reggie.

I agree, that on talent, kim should have won, n but she seems to have wanted to win just a little too much, there was something in her manerisms that suggested she is trying to make money out of this, where as edith was such a sour puss, and genuinely did make huge improvements over the 2 weeks.

iknow kim was the best even before kim had finshed the text line was closed!!!!!!!!!!

If Kim's performance on Thursday night was considered bad enough to lose votes then surely she wouldn't have been the student with the most votes, putting her into the one guaranteed slot with Edith and Adrian needing to be saved in order to make it to the final.

Every night Kim always made it into the guaranteed slots and she never had to be saved by judges or students, even on the night when there was only ONE place, Kim was there! Her support was consistent throughout.

During the final the voting was seriously restricted. Why not do what was done every other night to pull in the most money? That in itself is really annoying. It felt like a lost opportunity to draw in some extra cash by closing the calling lines at 7pm before the remaining students even performed!

If the voting had been exactly on the final as it's always been on all the other nights I'm not so sure Edith would have won. If she had it would have been great, but with the voting the way it went it gave Edith the better chance of collecting the most text votes - her fans were given much more time to vote. During the last round there was such little time to vote for Kim after she was finished, we didn't even get to hear all of what the judges had to say
before the lines were closed! I voted for Kim during Edith's performance and during Kim's and still some of my text votes didn't make it in time because of the traffic! Thankfully although some of my votes may not have made it into the final count, it's a good thing the money goes to a good cause so it wasn't a complete waste!

It felt like an anti-climax compared to all the other nights. Alot of people felt cheated with the way the voting was set up and how quickly the FA final was rushed in between everything else.


But at the end of the day I am pleased with the amount raised and I'm very proud of all the FA students because I could never get up on that stage and do that in front of the whole nation!

Do you really think for one minute that Edith went in to come out with a future singing career ???...you pillock.

Yes Kim was excellent all the way through, but ask yourself this....Who has just left a major soap to try and make it as a serious recording artist ???? That's why Kim went in....to build her profile as a recording artist, and it seems she's done that anyway as a £1m recording contract has been reported to be on the cards for her.

Edith has surprised a lot of people this week and done brilliantly but I don't think for one minute she's going to give up Radio 1 for a singing career.

Also on the final night I do think that Kim sang the wrong kind of song. Yes, she sang it superbly there's no argument there, and it did make your hair stand on-air when she sang it, but if you think about the demographic of the kind of people likely to watch FA and CR, and likely to vote either by phone or text then an Oasis song is always going to favour than a song years and years older.

For me though the performance of the whole FA has to be Ade and Can't Take My Eyes Off You....sheer genius.

It's for comic relief, I think Edith, Kim and the one from Corrie all took it too seriously! It's a bit of fun for charity christ sake!

Touche..all this Kim was robbed is such nonsense...

No problem with you preferring Edith, but can you honestly say that the voting system/Colin Murray PM show help allowed for a completely fair result?

I really don't see how anyone can justify the insinuation that the BBC rigged the final vote. All of the final 4 were BBC people - so the BBC would have nothing to gain by rigging the vote.

The people who were voting for Ade or Reggie were always going to be more likely to like Edith (and switch their votes to her) than Kim. Edith, Ade and Reggie mostly seemed to be enjoying themselves, Kim didn't seem to be having much fun at all.

I agree that this may be the case i.e. Reggie/Ade votes going to Edith BUT I don't think the way the vote was held allowed for an accurate representation.

I agree that a very short text vote was not the best idea. But they did say that all the phone votes between Thursday's show and 7pm were also counted in the final vote.

The best thing of all would have been a proper Fame Academy final show, separate from Comic Relief on Thursday night. I don't think it would have affected the result though.

At the end of the day, Kim was technically superior and I think that it was one of the best (if not the best) performances she had given and even though Edith won, Kim's still the one with the recording contract. So, who's got the ultimate victory? I'm sure they're both very pleased to have been involved in raising so much for Comic Relief anyway.

Well i think if Kim won, then this thread would have been called Edith was robbed, nobody can win, i personally am glad Edith won as i thought she was the best!

LOL... too true...

I actually thought Kim's performance last night was dire. Her voice is entirely too weak for Somewhere Over The Rainbow, and the warbling notes she injected made it seem even worse. She's a good singer - given the right song. That wasn't it.

Edith's voice seemed more versatile. Although I only saw the last 4 or 5 days of it, she was consistently good. She really deserved to win.

As for Ade...he was brilliant. I wanted him to win. But if he couldn't win (and I don't honestly think he was ever going to...people were taking it far too seriously for that), then I think Edith was the right choice.

But hey...we can't all agree. Life would be really boring if we did

I think there may have been one or two people who thought like me. This was not the real FA when I only ever vote for people whose music I am likely to buy This was for Charity, and I allowed myself so much money per night for voting which was my contribution to Comic Relief. I voted for the people I liked, whether it was their singing, personality or performance it was my choice.

Most nights it was split four ways, when Dawn left it was split between Ade, Edith and Reggie, so for the final it was £2.50 each for Ade and Edith, when Ade went I sent a couple of texts for Edith, this was done before the performance the soon as the text lines opened. You will probably find that plenty of Kim voters did the same, in fact many here already said they voted throughout the day for Kim and texted for her, the winner was never going to be chosen on their performance.

I am far from a teenager, and have not listened to Radio 1 for many a long day, so that had no influence on me at all, I did not know Edith or Reggie very much prior to this, I did of course know Ade and Dawn, we all just have different favourites.

I found Leslie's critic at the final very telling, she said of Edith, she put so much heart and soul into her performance that it was a joy to behold she showed the most versitility and bravery in her choice of songs (paraphrasing here) Of Kim she said she showed what good training could do, and that she had the most techically perfect voice, it was a beautifully controlled performance and that she had come into the academy with a beautiful voice and had just got better and better (again paraphrasing). I would not disagree with either of these statements , I would much prefer a slightly off key performance with pure heart and soul in it than a technically perfect one which is why Edith appealed to me, I just never found Kim's performances beleiveable, her best performance was Nora Jones, but I know she was coached on practically every word by David on that, and the emotion she portrayed was therefore his, not her own.

For all Kim fans you can now relax, she will probably get a recording contract from this, so you will be able to go out and purchase her music and listen to it till your heart's content, for us Edith fans we will settle for remembering her joy in her performances in the academy