I was voting for 5am and switched to Matt after they were eliminated, can't imagine I was the only person who did that either. My reasons weren't xenophobic, I just preferred Matt's voice and looked forward to his performances more than Saara's.

When the app vote was introduced last year, the show was very careful to pick male acts the teenage girl app voters wouldn't go for to ensure that Louisa win. They didn't do that this year, so there was precisely zero chance of a female winning- let alone one from the Overs category. The fact that Saara wasn't from the UK and we had Nicole telling the UK to support their own just torpedoed an already sunk ship.

Definitely not every viewer, but maybe enough for 8 % difference ... All i'm saying if she was from Manchester or Birmingham Matt wouldn't have a chance.

The girl vote stopped Saara from winning nothing more and nothing less than that, If it was all to do with nationality, then why did she finish top on the Saturday night as well as the last few before that?.

Its the pesky girl vote that was it,

so once again DS goes into pure conjecture mode because the forum fave finished second. you seriously think only brexiteers ,frustrated housewives and tweens voted for Matt Terry . I know a straight married couple who voted for him ,a lesbian couple and a French lady in my local deli .stop trying to pigeonhole and stereotype who voted for who .good lord.

Most of Matt Terry's votes would've been largely from a female demographic, and I bet that half of them weren't voting for him because he has an amazing voice.

Hear Hear....I wanted Saara to win but I didn't vote. Possibly Matt's fan base are more prolific phone voters. Nationality has nowt to do with it!

Well said.

It's all because the 'right' person didn't win.

It's only a game show. It's only a game show.

So when she was in the sing-off (never even was bottom2 in the votes) it was brexit. She comes second and it was xenophobic. So basically unless she had won it would be called that.
Her voting stats are mainly very good, especially considering her edit before the live shows was terrible and wouldn't have won her many fans. She came top in the last three votes too.

I haven't heard one person say they wouldn't vote for her because of where she is from and haven't seen any comments to that nature, I would be interested if somebody could post some examples if this is the case. Even on the tabloid websites comments there are loads of really positive comments. We do still live in Europe, we left the EU thats politics, will people suddenly not want to vote in the Eurovision contest either.

I saw one comment in the live final thread last night saying they weren't voting for saara because they voted leave. I can't provide a link because I can't remember what page it was but hand on heart, it was said. I wouldn't make that up.

While I don't believe that this is the reason that saara came second, unfortunately, we live in 21st britian, where a ignorant demographic will let something like this sway thier vote.

All in all, I do think it was the tweenie vote that swung it for Matt.

I can believe there was a comment, don't worry i wouldn't demand somebody scroll through the whole main thread I just haven't seen any comments, if there were a couple here and there it definitely was a very small minority. I even read the Daily Mail comments last night and was surprised that there was way more positive comments about Sara and barely any to that nature... usually the DM is the place for negativity on any subject!

I just don't see it as a massive reason for her to come second, there is a section of society who probably think in that way but Im not sure hardcore xenophoics are always the type of people who would bother voting for X Factor. And even people who voting brexit because they don't want too many immigrants, doesn't necessarily translate that they all would then not vote for a European on a singing show.
I do think the last song choice was probably better for Matt and he did well in his duet too, which was towards the end of the voting on Saturday night so would have affected the amount he got.

Mainly I think the support for Sara has been great and has grown over the competition, it doesn't have to be UK winner for the XF and we have now had a few contestants do well who have been foreign-born. Even BGT had a non-British winning act. Same with celeb BB.

I don't think she would have won if she were British either. I actually think the UK ended up really embracing her "Finnishness" in the end.

The 30% or so of people voting for 5 After Midnight for free on their mobile phone apps were highly unlikely to use all their new free votes on a 29 year old woman singing Bjork and Whitney over a cute young boy singing Sam Smith and the song from the John Lewis ad. I saw lots of tweets and posts wanting "Saara or Matt to win" or Matt or 5am to win". Nobody was saying "5AM or Saara to win".

Considering the demographics that now dominate the votes with the app, Saara actually did remarkably well to come so close to winning it all.

I would have thought if there was any xenophobia, it would have prevented Saara getting as far as she did, the same would go for Ruth Lorenzo, Jedward and Andrea Faustini.

I think some Saara fans are just a little bitter that she didn't win, but why? She's still an established singer who didn't need to use X Factor to gain publicity in the first place! Why couldn't a few agents in Finland have just sent over some promotional material to UK radio stations, etc?

I don't think it is anything to do with racism/xenophobia. I really think it was down to song choice. If Saara had had the same songs as Matt then it would have been a whole different ball game. I have supported Saara ever since her Bjork performance and I knew the minute Matt started singing last night he was going to win purely because he had more credible, recognisable, popular song choices and evoke emotion. I am annoyed he won, mainly because I believe it was the song choice so strongly. I do think that Saara will be better off not having won in the long run.

Saara did incredibly to come 2nd despite:

Being against a 'young guy'
Not having a location to focus on her eg. She went to Finland for final week and they can't vote.
Someone who came 10th in the vote in Week 1

She did incredibly and imo it proves she went far due to her vocals and personality rather than her looks, the regional vote or the likely 5am switch to Matt.

This is interesting:
http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2016-...n-the-x-factor

I hadn't even thought about the fact that they were playing the song during every ad break!

Totally agree - I actually thought it would be a miracle that she could win purely because she doesn't have a family base here, a city to get voting for her etc

If true, it does show that they were actually helping him to win. I'm not that bothered though because Matt is a good singer.

I don't think anyone can categorically state that one thing caused Saara not to win, or indeed that it didn't. Several things will have gone against Saara and I don't think they can be dismissed out of hand. Undoubtedly the fact that she was female and an older female at that, will not have helped her cause against a young, attractive male. However, there will have also been an element, albeit a small element, who wouldn't have voted for her because she was foreign. I have heard people say that a non British person shouldn't be allowed to enter a British competition, not only this year but in previous competitions too. I think given she had all this going against her, she did remarkably well, especially being so close in the final vote.

I would've agreed that a lack of geographical vote from within the UK would've hindered Saara throughout - but seeing the voting results was a happy surprise. I believed she was only scraping by each week after her first 2 weeks in the Lives. To see she was placing 2nd and 3rd for the most part, and getting 1st's towards the end was great.

I was rooting for her because she seems like a lovely girl with loads of talent, and I'm a sucker for the underdog. So I'm pleased to see that she wasn't the underdog after all.

I honestly think Matt's last song gave him the edge over her though. She sang a Whitney song that isn't overly familiar with the general public whereas Matt performed the song from this year's John Lewis Christmas ad.

Bib that was unfair at the time imo. Jls get west life Alexandra gets Beyonce.

I think what didn't help was the producers not having Saara's girlfriend being shown with Saara as soon as she came over here. They knew that Saara would have had a boost in her votes from LGBT people and they weren't going to let that happen. ITV isn't homophobic at all because if they were, they wouldn't have LGBT characters in their soaps. No, it's just that the producers didn't Saara getting a boost in votes.

And how many people who are sick of the sound of it thought to themselves "not again"

OK. I think the conspiracy theories are getting a bit out of hand.

Sigh... Are you one of those who thinks that there's no manipulation etc going on in this show?