With regards to Leona, I would like to say that apart from Bleeding Love and Spirit which achieved no 1, I Will Be reached 66, Happy 31 and Echo album 13 on US charts, so hardly a 1 hit wonder, not to mention grammy noms. With regards to Fleur, I do not see anything special, and Alex had far more going for her and a better voice than Fleur, and I really hoped that she would have success in the USA as well. I wish everyone the best and hope they find success in the music industry, XF should be viewed as a stepping stone, and if the current batch of XF artists can find success as Leona and Alex, after all these years, then good luck to them.

I like his top four!

I agree with Brian completely. She is a huge talent.

Will she f***. She couldn't break an egg.

That's not a very constructive post is it now?

It's just as constructive as 'OMG she so will she's amaze lol' etc.

Sorry, but the overhype for Fleur on here is getting really irritating. She's competent. She's maybe even quite good But she's barely good enough (yet*) to break the UK let alone America.

*I put 'yet' because as I've said before, she has the potential to possibly do an Alexandra and steadily rise through the ranks. However, so far she hasn't demonstrated she's got anything other than a fairly unremarkable voice and as good as she looks, and as good as she can perform, production will only get you so far.

Well so far i feel she has shown she has great all round ability which very few artists have. As well as being a good singer with her soft vocals, she is a very good rapper, a great dancer, and a really good performer. Very much all you need to be a successful artist.

Don't be ridiculous. I'm sure if Alexandra had the same levels of success in America as Leona you'd be saying she broke America. As Kenneth Chow said, breaking America isn't about sustaining a certain level of success, it's about having that success in the first place. Leona had a #1 single & album, another top 20 album and single, another Gold certified single, a #1 Dance hit, a top 10 AC hit last year with 'One More Sleep', Bleeding Love is still played quite a bit (not a lot) in the US today. She's known. She's not massively known but she's known. People know her name whether it's because of her songs, Bleeding Love, Liam Payne or whatever. She broke America. End of.

Syco were terrible before 2010/2011 when they finally could handle worldwide careers. Sadly Leona and Alexandra were signed at a time when being a worldwide XF act was new to Syco. These days with joint deals (Olly is signed to both Syco and Epic) and better marketing strategies and the success of One Direction, acts from the show have a bigger chance of making waves in America - Cher had a big hit single in the US, Rebecca had a top 30 album, Olly had success with 'Troublemaker', Little Mix have had two top 10 albums, Ella is gaining airplay with 'Ghost' at the moment. So with that in mind, there's no reason why Fleur couldn't be big if signed.

'Soft vocals' is just you attempt to spin 'weak vocals' into something positive, isn't it?

Look, she's an ok singer, an ok rapper, an ok dancer and a good performer. But she doesn't excel in any of those things from what I've seen so far and to stand out she really needs to. I'm still waiting on a killer vocal performance from her and I'm starting to think we'll be waiting and waiting and waiting...

Honestly, with some of you it seems all you need is someone who looks the part. As long as they're pretty and female and give off a certain attitude you'll fill in all the gaps with imaginary performances plucked from the most fantastical recesses of your mind. You like her? You want her to do well? That's great, but evaluate her strengths and weaknesses within at least something approaching reality.

I just comment on what i actually see, and no more or no less. Just because someone has soft vocals does'nt mean that they have a weak voice. Look at people like karen Carpenter, Nora Jones, Eva Cassidy. I could go on and on. You dont have to have a belting voice to be able to sing well.

One word:

Rihanna.

She can't sing for crap but she puts on a hell of a show and is an amazing performer.

"Fleur East WILL break America".

They should stop her sitting on the globe in the sitting room then.

Watch her latest performance of diamonds and stay at the troops concert and say rihanna can't sing! She was simply phenomenal

I believe that Fleur is going to go on to be one of the most successful artists that the show has produced.

This is a really silly comment. You could say that about anyone who isn't either the best vocalist or the best dancer. Look at Rihanna for example - she's not the best singer and she can't dance. But she can still put on a show because she has confidence on stage as well as having a great tone to her voice which sounds great on record - have a look where she is in her career.

Hahah ok then, cos brian said so

Oh please, if you think one hit single and album and people talking about her and Liam Payne equals her cracking America then that's up to you...but really it's just a terrible defence. It can't be expected that anyone is going crack the U.S in the way One Direction have...that's extremely rare. But cracking America is when you have sustained success, you're a household name and everyone knows who you are, longs for your next album, your a big subject in the media, you have continued, consistent sales. Not one hit single, album and a hit on the dance chart. You ask most people and apart from Bleeding Love, they'd probably struggle to name another Leona song. She has had success, but she hasn't cracked the U.S. This isn't a dig at Leona and it's not her fault she hasn't beacause she without a doubt should have. It's all down to Syco. Look at some fo the amazing acts we've seen over 11 years...it's ridiculous that many of them aren't absolutely huge right now.

All of those singers you mention have a very distinctive, individual tone to them and that tone is their USP. Fleur currently doesn't have a USP outside of the narrow parameters of the competition.

'Soft' vocals have their market, sure - you just have to see any number of adverts soundtracked by a lispy, insipid female vocal to notice that - but that market centres around the 'singer-songwriter' aesthetic - girl sits alone at piano and simpers about lost love, or girl sits alone with an acoustic guitar and looks forlornly into the camera - none of those artists are looking fierce or dancing because their schtick is all about vulnerability or (some loose approximation of) 'authenticity'. To do a dance routine or give off some attitude would be incongruous.

Like I've said before, Fleur is the strongest performer in the competition this year. She's the only one who looks truly comfortable on stage. But the strength of her vocal falls short of the strength of her performance skills and that, for me, means she falls short. She neither has a unique tone, nor does she have any power in her voice to match the 'oomph' of her performance.

As for other posters comparisons to Rihanna... come on now! Rihanna is less an individual artist and more of an industry. Her success is as much down to the vast numbers of people working behind the scenes, the songwriters, the producers, the stylists, the marketeers etc all pooling together to pump out the product that defines 'Rihanna'. She's an avatar, a figurehead for a vast collective of people. But strip away all of the contributions of those people and there's very little left, just a blank canvas who knows how to do some moves or give the right look to camera. While that clearly works for her, whoever wins the XF isn't going to have a team the size of Rihanna's behind them. If they're really lucky Simon will cough up for a Ryan Tedder song or two.

Agreed and really agree with the Rihanna bit, its so true!!

I am not sure that saying that Fleur does not have a distinctive voice is true, as if i heard her on the radio i would know who she is without them having to tell me. The same can't really be said of Lauren Platt, as although she has a decent voice, it does sound so similar to many other artists of her type.

Says you who also believes Fleur is the most amazing artist ever to to have graced the XFactor stage

Fleur in my opinion doesn't have a distinctive vocal at all

We will just have to agree to disagree on this one.

Leonard lewis
Cher lloyd
one direction
Olly murs
Rebecca ferguson
even ella henderson

They have all had success of in the states

Yes because I actually said "one hit single and album and Liam Payne"... They were a few (of many) examples. She's been Grammy nominated, she sang the soundtrack of the highest-grossing movie ever, she's featured on various American reality music shows, she's been a part of quite a few high-profile televised organisations (SU2C being one)... At the end of the day I'd say she has broken America because she still has a career in America. It's not like The Saturdays where they went and came back once they flopped. Leona still performs there quite a lot and is recognised by the US media, the US public and music industry insiders evidently.

she could. but she would need a megahit.
or it could go the other way ... where she gets a hit in america, but not in the UK..