Has it always been this bad and this obvious?

Yes and yes.

They always get plonked on first or second in the running order too. See: Lauren Platt, Mary Byrne, Janet Devlin etc

Yes but I think the public are smarter, they vote for past performances as well

I wish the contestants had more choice

See Laura White for the best example. After Fallin' she was given dated songs. Performed them well, but Simon was already commenting on her lack of style/appearance; throw in the songs and we're left confused as to who she is.

Flure down to 5

Wrong thread lol

Yes!!! Anton and Kiera and Max

Yes, it's always happened and the favoured contestants get uplifting, heartwarming songs. Or in Fleur's case & much hyped song that hasn't been released as an exclusive.

What about that guy last year who was given a Meatloaf song and he was more of a soulful singer - Paul I think? When he had the audacity to complain he was well and truly thrown under the bus.

I prefer it like that, at least Simon Cowell shows hint on who he's gonna invest after the show.

It got really obvious to me on what they was doing in series 7 when the top 4 was given much better song choices compared to everybody else in their year, and it's gotten worse over the years to the point of acts like Sam Callahan, Abi, Janet, and everyone that finished 3rd or below in last years show shouldn't have even bothered showing up as they was always getting misused by Simon because they "weren't his thing" which is code for "you don't shout at me like I'm some karaoke 80's wannabe."

This year I think the acts that will end up being misused are Seann, Kiera, Max, and Monica because again they don't fit 100% into Simon's little mold.

did you really just use sam callaghan as an example of people being given bad song choices and being "sabotaged" by the producers ?

any song that had lyrics was a bad song choice for that guy

I thought that he did well in the sing-off which I think shows what he was more like in talent than the producers picking the songs for him to make him look inferior to Sam Bailey as everyone had to look inferior to her in that series.

"make him look inferior to sam bailey"

are you actually serious with that comment ?

the guy was one of the worst contestants to ever make the live shows

That's because he was only ever meant to be the pretty boy of the series, he was never meant to be taken seriously.

I'm not saying that Sam Callahan was a brilliant vocalist, I'm just saying that in the sing-off he was a lot better than what the show was leading us to believe under their management, and his performance of Iris was much more entertaining to me than anything that Sam Bailey ever did.

i'm just gonna bow out of this discussion as there really is no point continuing

sam bailey wasn't my cup of tea at all , i found her incredibly dated, but to suggest that sam callaghan was sabotaged so he didn't outshine her is one of the most incredible statements i have ever seen on this forum

have a nice day ...