Come on now- Some of those songs were appauling! The mentors/judges literally had thousands to choose from and some of those songs chosen were terrible!

Surely they would know that the song choices are poor during the dress rehearsal!?!

It does make you wonder if the poor songs were chosen deliberately to help engineer a certain scenario that the producers want.

thought you deserve an answer and yes, why did simon sit there and say, yes that was a bad choice, did he not hear the dress rehearsal? was he not there?

Why did Simon even pick that song in the first place

I think they should let the singer to choose their own songs or have a good part in choosing the song that they would enjoy singing. Because if they don't like the song they are given to sing then that's gonna come across in their performancce.

Well Louis, Cheryl and Dannii were all at rehersals sp? on Thursday so they would have known.

Whether Simon was there or not I don't know but I find Simon so fake thesedays. It's like he is always acting or saying the same thing and pulling the same faces. It's all for show and it seems to become more and more obvious each season. I'm not sure how long he can keep it up to be honest.

Simon was at the dress rehearsals, because I remember seeing him in some of the contestants' VTs.

I agree about the simon acting thing. He's clever and he knows that his opinion counts for a lot. And I think sometimes he really uses it to his advantage. Sometimes he looks like he's reading a script of that white piece of paper in front of him!

Everything seemed very 80's orientated... apart from a couple of song choices...

I can see Dannii's point at working a crowd... HOWEVER she could've chosen a song a thousand times more suited to Rachel's voice to work the crowd with.

The Simon/ Scott thing was also just weird... surely it would be obvious during the coaching/ performance training that it would sound bad... also surely they've had a while to prepare this as they've known they were in the Final 12 for a couple of weeks now.

All in all these song choices should've worked given the time they've had to prepare and change them; they've had more than a week to do this (or ai'm assuming they have had)

The 'poor song choice' seemed to be part of a theme last night and I also am suspicious. I am beginning to find the whole thing deeply fake and wouldn't be surprised if the songs are deliberately chosen to get rid of people - also I suspect the whole thing is decided at the producer/Cowell level for all the contestants and their so-called mentors play little part now

The fakest thing for me last night was Rachel's performance. Simon was watching it on the screen yet as soon as the camera went to him he pulled this daft face once he realised he was in live shot!


I think he needs to stop it!

I actually didn't think Rachel was so bad - sure the first bit was terrible with the poor girl reducing to pushing her way past the non-dancing dancers like someone trying to get to the front of a queue, but by the end of the song I was actually getting quite impressed by her performance. Simon's comments didn't take that into account, it was almost as if they were pre-written

What has to be remembered is that this is the first week and that the prime aim of the mentors is to win the competition.
I think Simon thinks that Eoghan and Austin are his best chances of winning and did give Scott the short straw. 'Cruise ship' 'Karaoke' 'Cabaret' are all words that he uses regularly to disparage contestants, so why he decided to project one of his acts in that mould is baffling.
Having said that, he did sign the Teletubbies and Robson and Jerome and turned them into stars so maybe there's a plan.
The Dannii/Rachel situation seems easier to fathom. It looked like a mentor putting her protégé in her place and showing her who is boss. The issues with Rachel and her 'feisty' attitude emerged at boot camp and I think Dannii has wasted no time in trying to nip it in the bud. Minogue junior took the percentage call that Rachel would not be eliminated by the public or the judges in order to teach her a lesson.
Like a few on this site, I have been to the X Factor Live tour. At one of the concerts, I bumped into an unsuccessful finalist who suggested that their mentor consistently went against their choices (even down to styling and image) and ultimately undermined their chances of winning the competition. I am not mentioning names because it was said in confidence. The only reason I mention this is because a lot goes on behind the scenes to shape our perception of the show and the competitors that we as the public don't see.
I am not a fan of either Scott or Rachel but I do have sympathy for them in the fact that they have no control over all aspects of their Saturday night performance.

I think Danni was perhaps trying to see if Rachel was professional enough to learn and perform a song she didnt want to. As she was poor at remembering lines of her own song choices at bootcamp.

as for simon's choice for scott! out of all the UK and US no1s to pick, he picks that little no one!

Makes you wonder sometimes. One week in American Idol Paula Abdul critiqued a contestants performance before he sang it by mistake

Louis this week told Laura there were three or four great girls in her category and asked Simon on the Xtra Factor what next week's theme was.

And Simon told Ruth she had certainly made an impression, and in the same sentence called her Rachel

the paula abdul incident brought to light how they make their notes/comments during the dress rehearsal, Paula just got mixed up and said her comments too early in the live show.

I imagine on the xfactor they do similar, though im sure they'd still change some of their comments to suit how the act actually performed on screen.

I know it's got nothing to do with last night's show but that was the funniest/most uncomfortable piece of TV I'd ever watched!

I know what you mean It was sheer comedy on one hand, but I like Jason Castro and you had to feel for him being told he was rubbish (he wasn't) before he'd sung.

Do you know that Paula was only at that rehearsal for 30 SECONDS ?

It's not the judges that make the notes

Rachel felt very uncomfortable at the song, and to be honest, she could have belted that one out a lot better, but you could still see the attitude underneath, and that is why she didn't perform well initially.

On Xtra factor, when they cut to Rachel whilst they were talking to Dannii about Rachel's song choice, she looked as though she was bitching about Dannii.

I think she's got a good voice, but her arrogance is going to let her down.

Fame academy seemed far better managed. There people who had the nerve refused songs , had songs adapted so they could sing them and had backing tracks made to match what they wanted to do - if they were good enough to work it out. There people developed songs so that they grew more personal as the week went on.

On X factor they seem to sing whatever they get however badly rehearsals or training go and the result looks like the level that FA had achieved by the end of day one. There's no great interpretation or musicality on display and no one has even done the fundamentals with the groups of working out what their sound is and who ought to be doing what to maximise the effect.

G4 guys said that they had to sing what they were told to sing even if they were against it - ie: Baby One More Time. But more importantly they had 1 hour to arrange some of the tracks into four piece harmony which is just ridiculous. No wonder groups struggle. I just don't think they have enough musical support behind the scenes on this show.

Simon and producers tried to stitch him up, but when they saw the reaction from the all the judges, not just one or a fleeting comment, it back fired and simon realized he couldn't get away with pretending it was such a bad song choice.

By choosing this song scott probably got more votes than he would of due to sympathy. Should of gone with a boring song, that would of ment no one would remember him.

Glad hes still in felt so bad for him.

They probably were.

I've just watched the show back and Rachel did what none of the others did with the fact she got the whole crowd going. She owned the stage and didn't deserve the comments Simon gave her as he didn't once mention the fact she got everyone moving.

They cant change the arrangements can they? on idol they can, which is much better, hense why david cook did so well.

I knew the only way rachels song would work was if they changed the arrangement, but exactly the same- what was danni thinking? i think the producers allocate songs anyway, dont think the judges get to choose them tbh.

I do wish they were allowed to choose their own songs, although that would mean la Simon losing control of swaying public opinion and that would never do

Too true i think the mentors should suggest 3 songs to them and they should pick there fave AND they should speak up but saying that rachel did but danni went with it but you could see in rachel's performance that dannii herself knew it was not that good and i believe that was the only reason she stood up and clapped as kind of a way of apology if that makes any sense...