Hello! *waves* Love the fact that the nice people at Digital Spy have given us our own message board to discuss lots of young men in brightly coloured coats.....

Have been reading a couple of the threads on this board about the choice of songs that the Josephs have been given so far - all of which I agree with. I'm sure I haven't said 'They're making him sing that??' at the TV for the last time this series.

It has set me thinking about what songs I would most like to hear the Josephs sing; something that would really show them each off to best effect.

My suggestions are ;

I would love to hear Lee have a go at 'Empty Chairs at Empty Tables' from Les Mis (which I think has already been suggested on the Lee Appreciation thread). It is so heartbreakingly sad and I think he could wring every last ounce of emotion from it but without being OTT.

Daniel could do a great version of 'Maria' from West Side Story - I think it would show the same kind of passion that he brought to 'You Give Me Something'

I would like to hear Lewis (who I thought was really good on Saturday) have a go at something much more high energy - something from 'Footloose' perhaps, and definitely something that involves interaction with the dancers because one or two of the Josephs have been so wooden around them ("if I ignore them, maybe they'll go away...")


Um... as these are my favourites it's easier to imagine what I would like them to sing...am struggling with some of the others. So, what are other people's suggestions?

There is part of Daniel singing that on his myspace page - sounds great!

He sounds great. Dont expect ALW to give him this song to sing though.

I love all of the songs on his myspace

I fully expect ALW to have him singing "Heads, shoulders, knees and toes!!" at some point .

It will be 'Macarena' and 'Shuddup Your Face' before that though.

They should all be singing musical theatre songs. The choices are ridiculous and bear no relation to what the winner will be doing in the West End.

I thought Seamus had a huge advantage with 'Being Alive' on Saturday and equally Johndeep showed his complete inadequacy with 'Something's Coming' - and this is what we should be judging them on.

At the moment we have them singing pop songs in a musical theatre style which just doesn't work. That said, am not really blown away by any of them and can't see myself sticking with this one. I think the problem is that Joseph is actually quite a bland part and any pretty boy would do.

An advantage that was neatly cancelled out by John Barrowman saying: "Don't vote for this man: he's a nutcase control freak." Sorry, I mean: "Seamus, you need to be more of a 'team player'."

I've missed a lot of this Seamus is one step away from Satan stuff. I suppose I'm not like the majority of viewers in that I have a musical theatre background and am more interested in the standard of singing and suitability for the role rather than which one I fancy, who has the nicest personality and who sings a pop song the best.

I couldn't care less what their personalities are like, as long as they are pleasant on stage I don't care what they are like when the curtain comes down!

Plus they've obviously edited the footage heavily. We're not idiots. We know they always 'cast' someone as the bad guy on reality TV. I'm also more interested in the performance. And whilst we're on the subject, why did no one pick up Daniel's reluctance to take any direction from ALW? Plenty of people I know who have a music/theatre backgound raised their eyebrows at how he just decided to do what he was going to do regardless of ALW's suggestions.

This is more important than you might think in terms of what happens onstage, though. A leading man -- especially in a show like Joseph -- really does set the tone, both onstage and backstage.

If he's standoffish and critical of others -- or perceived to be that way -- rather than accessible and supporting, it does impact how much the rest of the cast, even seasoned professionals, feel about coming to the theater every night. And when people don't want to be there, it does impact their performance and therefore the quality of the show as a whole.

Seamus may well be getting edited somewhat unfairly, but once he realizes this, he should know that under no circumstance should he say anything that can easily be taken out of context.

I'm sure you're right about backstage atmosphere, but at this stage Seamus is not leading a cast: he's in a competition against 11 other young men, of whom the nearest to him in age is 28, and the youngest - 17 - could be his son. Only one of them can win the role, so maybe he just doesn't feel like one of a 'team'. I don't think a person's attitude towards rival competitors would necessarily equate to their attitude towards show colleagues.

Couldn't agree with you more.

Les Mis is one of the few musicals that I'm not too familiar with, so I had to look up empty chairs at empty tables. I'm so glad I did and I agree that Lee would bring something special to the performance!

When you see that song done well, in context, you weep buckets, I promise you. Unless it's just me................

I agree with you about Seamus Swampster. They should stop this silliness about team playing and stop it now! How daft would he look if he was trying to be a teenager?

Nonetheless, they do a lot of work together -- at least two group numbers every week, and in the context of those, they are a team. Leadership is leadership, even in a competition. I think it's a fair consideration overall.

Whilst I agree with you Swampster that the way Seamus reacts to his fellow competitors is not indicative of how he would react to cast members, I can see why it would ring warning bells to the panel and ALW. Making the assumption that he would be different in different circumstances is a bit of a gamble. Whilst he has every right to act the way he has, I can't help feeling that he is making things unnecessarily difficult for himself. I hope he stops giving the others so much ammo.

Possibly because it went down very well with the audience?

I thought that was an interesting decision on Daniel's part. IMO joy is easier to convey than anger when singing and generally makes for a more immediately attractive song. At the moment the most important thing for the contestants is getting the votes and IMO Daniel's mature enough to have realised that.

I'm pretty sure ALW wouldn't tolerate something like that in the actual show but for the purposes of ADWD I think Daniel made the right choice.


True enough, but fairness is not the aim surely. The ADWD producers are trying to make interesting TV, giving the contestants a fair go is a poor second.

I'm not saying I think that's a good thing mind you, just that most of the time that's how reality TV works. They'd started setting Seamus up as the outsider in week 3, I hope he doesn't give them any more material for that this week.

My jaw hit the floor when Daniel had his little "you don't know what you're talking about" moment with the Lord! I don't know what people see in him to be honest. His performance on Saturday was hideous.

While we're on warning bells about diva behaviour, I can't help thinking of Saint Connie's comment last year about how if people wont spend 50p voting for Helena who is going to spend £50 on a ticket to see her in the role!

I would love to hear Daniel sing that too, a beautiful song from one of my favourite movies and i really think Daniels voice would do it justice.

As a Lee fan i'd like to hear him sing the Moulin Rouge version of "Your Song", i think that would be a most swoonworthy moment.

Um.......he's got by far the best voice of anyone on the show??????

Wouldn't say that based on Saturday night, which is the first one of the "live rounds" I've seen. I totally expected him to be in the bottom two, he was awful. I'll see what he comes up with this week and reserve judgement though as clearly lots of people think he's amazing!

If you have only seen Daniel's performance from last week I can understand why you wouldn't see what people were getting so excited about. His first week was miles better; better song, stronger vocal performance, good interaction with the dancers (only he and Lee seem able to do that!) and just very very watchable. I loved it.

I read on another board that they're ALL singing pop tunes this week. I guess ALW isn't reading this board and the thread about what they should be singing.

He really is amazing and i do agree that if you hadnt seen the first week then you wouldnt understand why we are raving about him

If you want to hear a few more recordings by him, check out http://www.myspace.com/officialdanielboys , which has a great selection of his vocals

yes I agree with that - ALW knows his stuff - I thought it was arrogant to not take his advice - even though he did the song well. I thought Seamus sang well last week - don't know anything about the conflict apart from what I have read on here about it - but it hasn't made me dislike him.