Well, tonight’s X Factor was an epic battle, was it not? As some contestants’ fortunes improved, some lost ground. Severely.

I’m about to tell you who I thought were the best and the worst performers of the night were, and I want you to tell me what you thought of tonight’s show.

1. Alexandra Burke - Now the frontrunner in the show, Alex has proven she’s a versatile performer, confident, sexy and most importantly a powerful singer. In fact, she’s such a brilliant performer, Cowell must be rubbing his hands together in glee at the number of records this girl can sell. Watch as he starts bigging her up at every opportunity.
2. JLS - Yes, I know I should have Ruth in here, but her slurring bothers me. JLS on the other hand were relatively slick tonight and Cookie/Aston is showing his prowess as an excellent lead vocalist. They’re still a bit too bland for my tastes - but I didn’t have as big a problem with their first song as Simon and Cheryl did.
3. Ruth Lorenzo - There’s no doubt about it, Ruth is hot stuff, and she can rise to the occasion when the song demands it. But on the bad side, she mumbles when she sings low, and that’s not acceptable in a pop star. Also, she’s made no effort to improve her diction as the weeks went on. She’s a good performer, but her singing leaves me underwhelmed.
4. Eoghan Quigg - The Quiggmeister was rubbish tonight, even attracting a mediocre comment from Simon. In both performances, he looked shifty and nervous and his vocals were weak both times. In fact, the second song was a complete whitewash, because he was drowned out by the chorus, and surrounded by dancers taking care of the performing part for him.
5. Diana Vickers - I can’t work out if I’ve crossed the line between loving and hating Diana. In the first four weeks, she was my favourite contestant until the laryngitis thing. She’s been back three weeks now, and not a single performance has impressed me. I’ve been optimistic until now, hoping there’s be a return to form, but Diana’s struggling now, and I’ve just about given up hope.

So, basically what I’m saying is Alexandra wiped the floor with everyone tonight. Who impressed you tonight? Share your own chart here.

Can you believe that we’re more than halfway to the X Factor final for this year? Wow!

As you already know, tonight’s X Factor was themed around songs by Take That, so there was a range of classic British pop to choose from.  Now, if we can forget the phenomenal bickering between judges this evening, let’s try and work out who was the best act on tonight’s show:

1. Alexandra Burke - Alexandra has established herself as a frontrunner in this year’s competition. She’s leapfrogged Diana in terms of performance, confidence and singing ability. Tonight’s performance (and show opener) has proved that she’s going to be a really slight pop star after this show.
2. Ruth Lorenzo - Ruth normally reserves her best performances for when she’s in the sing-off, but tonight she gave a passionate rendition of Love Ain’t Here Anymore that got some good feedback from the judges. She still needs to deal with the poor diction when she’s singing softly, but otherwise a powerhouse performance.
3. Eoghan Quigg - Eoghan’s confidence is growing week after week. We thought he’d stumble with the Take That song, but he put on a strong show on Never Forget.
4. JLS - As we said earlier, Louis dresses these guys up in Westlife’s hand-me-downs. He’s trying to package quite a funky act as a traditional boyband, like a square peg in a round hole. While their performance wasn’t bad, they were outclassed by the three above this week.
5. Diana Vickers and Rachel Hylton - Now, this one will be controversial. The former darling of the competition, Diana is joint bottom with Rachel who has been almost universally bad throughout the competition. For the second week in a row, Diana has tried to sing a song which doesn’t suit her distinctive vocal style. Rachel’s performance was a huge improvement, but was marred by her seeming to shout more than sing.

Well, that’s our verdict on tonight’s show - over to you for your opinions: are we right, or are we wrong? And who’s going to end up in the bottom two tonight?

If I can offer one more comment on Diana - she has a voice that people either love or hate. Unfortunately, when she tries to sing songs that don’t suit that singing style, it isn’t just bad, it’s horrible. I think this mostly comes down to song choice, but it’s very late in the competition, and I think Diana and Cheryl need to play it safe.

Rachel has suffered from exactly the same thing throughout this competition, which leads me to ask more questions about the format. Rachel has shown that she’s got ability, but the song choices (largely as a result of the themes each week) have limited how much she can show off her individuality. What a shame. And while they seem to be slowly starting to get it right, it may just be a case of too little too late.

So, this week was the Best Of British on X Factor, and with a ginormous catalogue of songs to choose from, did the contestants capture the vibe?

Some of our favourite acts were not so strong this week, Diana due to illness, Alexandra suffering because I prefer to see her dance. On the other hand, Rachel Hylton made a good comeback singing one of her songs from audition. Eoghan’s getting better each week too. Here’s how we ranked the contestants tonight:

Read more & comment »

Wow, tonight’s live show was amazing wasn’t it? We missed Diana Vickers, and hope she gets better for next week.

Laura shocked us by coming on and playing piano, and Rachel continued on her losing streak with an horrific version of Against All Odds. Incidentally, that was the song Steve Brookstein released after winning the first season of X Factor. Will the curse of Brookstein strike tonight?

Anyway, we’re here to rate tonight’s acts, so without further ado, here’s tonight’s X Factor chart.

Read more & comment »

Tonight’s X Factor chart, when we look back on it, makes it look bad for the old folks – ALL of Dannii Minogue’s acts are at the bottom this week. For a mentor who’s frequently in the dance charts, you’d think she’d have an appreciation of disco music. Apparently not.

On the other hand, we’ve rated ALL of Cheryl Cole’s acts right at the top. Those girls are destined for pop stardom! Let’s look at the Unreality TV judging panel’s comments…

Read more & comment »

For the first time in this competition, we were stumped when it came to writing this chart. The standard of performance tonight was just amazing for everybody concerned.

If you were watching, the judges gave standing ovations to a number of acts tonight, something that’s almost unheard of. Especially when you consider that Leon Jackson and Ray Quinn virtually ruined the name of Big Band routines in this competition.

Anyway, read on for our X Factor chart (and remember to tell us your favourite acts in the comments):

Read more & comment »

Tonight’s theme was Michael Jackson. Not that you’d know it since 50% of the songs chosen were technically Jackson 5 songs.

Now, someone should tell ITV that Jackson isn’t called the King Of Pop for nothing. With the exception of two songs, every tune was turgid, slow muck. Where was Smooth Criminal, Bad, Thriller and Speed Demon?

1. Diana Vickers – An improvement even on last week’s performance, Diana has become much more confident and her individual style makes her our favourite this week. Can she keep the standard high throughout the competition?
2. Eoghan Quigg – As the man with the flat hair and high waistband said, it was an honest performance from Eoghan, and while he may not be the strongest voice in the competiton, he’s a natural on stage.
3. Alexandra Burke – Alexandra suffered from boring song choice. Despite a strong vocal performance, I’ll Be There couldn’t properly let Alex showcase her voice.
4. Austin Drage – The Drage pulled off a daring reinterpretation of Billie Jean which impressed the judges on our sofa, I can tell you. Austin may have put a bit of distance between himself and arch-nemesis Scott tonight.
5. Laura White – Laura fluffed the first part of her performance of You Are Not Alone, singing like she had a mouthful of sweets. Despite a good recovery in the second half, it didn’t do her any favours tonight.
6. Scott Bruton – Scott had to improve on last week’s performance, but despite all that, Eoghan and Austin seem to have more of a following. Of all the under 25 males, Scott is the one we least expect to see in the finals.
7. Ruth Lorenzo – Should she sing Spanish or should she not? We think that would be a bad move for the hot senorita – she needs to find an identity, but flogging bilingual cover versions isn’t a way to sell records. Does anyone else think Cowell is saboaging Ruth with that advice?
8. JLS – The boyband we love to..er…like. They got lucky with an actual good Jacko song, but muffed it with some bad tuning. Funny though, that the judges happily overlooked that little problem in favour of bigging up the boyband.
9. Rachel Hylton – Rachel picked her own song tonight, and Dirty Diana was an inspired choice. Unfortunately, the microphone coming from the roof limited her movement and she ended up stuck on top of two Marshall amps. Not the rockin’ performance that the song deserved!
10. Daniel Evans – Apparently you aren’t allowed to address Daniel Evans without saying “You’re a really nice guy, but…” and the “but” will mostly be followed by “why are you wasting your time on this competition”. Daniel is a lovely guy (see?), but in the name of Brookstein, who’s going to buy his records?
11. GirlBand – The Girl Band who should have gone last week come bottom of the chart this week…just for existing. Not really, it’s just that they’re not much good. If all’s right in the world, they’ll be going home this week.

…and the honourable mentions…

Best cover of a cover of an original song: Austin Drage, with props to the producers for trying to suggest he was putting his ‘own interpretation’ on Billie Jean, then Louis and Simon outing it as based on the Chris Cornell version from a couple of years ago.

Most irritating judge: Dannii Minogue, for managing to say absolutely nothing of consequence to any of the acts. They should just pre-record her saying “it was a fantastic performance”

The Bruce Forsythe award for being doddery: Mr Simon Cowell for managing to forget yet another contestant’s name. Nothing makes people feel more special than when you forget their name on national TV.

Best barefoot performance: Diana Vickers cements that quirky, hippy image by taking to the stage in her bare feet.

OK, we’ve watched the show and heard from the judges. Now, it’s the Unreality team’s turn to judge the contestant’s from tonight’s X Factor.

Join us as we write our first X Factor chart of the 2008 series…and stay tuned at the bottom of the chart for our new ‘honourable mentions’ section!

1. Alexandra Burke – This girl’s got the complete package – the looks, the voice, the confidence. She gave a stunning rendition of Whitney Houston’s I Wanna Dance With Somebody and almost got an apology from Louis Walsh for rejecting her three years ago.
2. Laura White – Despite some styling issues, Laura’s performance was amazing. She’s definitely the best singer of the competition so far and the strongest vocal performance of the night. We’re marking her down slightly for not looking as much like a pop star as Alexandra.
3. Diana Vickers – Diana’s unique delivery makes her one of our top contestants tonight. OK, the Kate Bush hand movements were slightly off-putting, but her stunning cover of With Or Without You tonight blew us away. Top marks.
4. Eoghan Quigg – The young Derry lad deserves an honourable mention for the maturity of his performance (he’s only 16!) and the fact that he managed to pull off a version of Imagine where other X Factor contestants have failed before him!
5. JLS – Described by Simon and Louis as the best group they’ve had on X Factor so far, JLS started off a little weak, but recovered quickly with a triumphant version of I’ll Make Love To You by Boyz II Men. Maybe next week they’ll get a more contemporary song to showcase their individual talents.
6. Ruth Lorenzo – A solid version of Take My Breath Away from Ruth, but not so wonderful that Simon got her name wrong in his critique! She strikes us as filling the Niki Evans vocal type from last year, and we think we even saw Niki wearing a similar dress last year too!
7. Bad Lashes – A disappointing performance from the girl group that Louis described as like ‘a bunch of hairdressers’. Not that it was the worst performance of the night, but I had higher hopes for them and they didn’t deliver. In fact, they were on a par with…
8. Girlband – The girl group that does exactly what it says on the tin. For me, there’s just nothing special about this group, and even described by Simon as sounding like Girls Aloud rejects. They just don’t do it for me.
9. Austin Drage – Crybaby Austin pulled off a decent version of Every Breath You Take by The Police – at least that’s what the judges thought. In our living room it sounded pretty mundane, certainly nothing to get excited about.
10. Scott Bruton – Poor Scott, he basically got shafted by poor song choice by Simon Cowell. Singing some obscure tune that had the double whammy of being completely rubbish, poor Scott burst into tears after hearing the judges comments. The thing is, we’re not sure how strong a singer he is, even if he’d had a decent song to sing.
11. Rachel Hylton – In the liveblog post, I described this performance as ‘brutal’. There’s nothing much more to add here. Rachel’s stomping, shouting performance lacked any sort of finesse, and the only reason she’s not at the bottom of the chart is because we reckon she’s got talent if she get’s the right song to showcase it.
12. Daniel Evans – They say the nice guys finish last. That’s definitely true for Daniel, who seems to be a lovely bloke, but utterly lacking in star quality. A lukewarm performance of I Wanna Know What Love Is was enough to show that he’s the token over-25 male in the competition, and has absolutely no chance of winning.

We’d be surprised if Daniel Evans doesn’t go out tonight. Here’s some prizes we’re awarding to the contestants and judges after tonight’s show:

Most tragic song choice: That Yeh Yeh song Simon gave to Scott Bruton, far worse than Louis’ choice of Build Me Up, Buttercup from last year.

The Sharon Osbourne award for most pervy judge: Danni Minogue, who felt the need to comment on the sexual prowess of virtually all the male contestants….even Eoghan Quigg. Yikes.

Most spine tingling performance: Diana Vickers for an unusual but beautiful performance of U2’s With Or Without You. This girl has a great style that can only get better as the competition progresses.

Biggest costume disaster: It’s got to be a tie between Rachel Hylton’s awful shapeless grey suit and Laura White’s unflattering dress and hair.

Most pointless performance: Ruth Lorenzo for continuing to sing in Spanish because Simon remarked about it once in a bootcamp episode. Alright, you’re Spanish, welcome to Blighty, now let’s move on, eh?