Late to this thread opening but can't grumble at anything posted so far... particularly pleased to see All Summer Long at the bottom of the pile, awful song!

Agreed, this is a good bottom 3, though I'd possibly have them the other way around just because I despise the dead-eyed cast single covers (and its cousin, the large celebrity group charity single featuring everyone flatly singing a different line) the worst of all. Putting that sort of stuff on the airwaves is insidious and it is good that this sort of thing is no longer a cultural force.

'All Summer Long' is a somewhat interesting #1 in that we really don't often do country and it's odd how it made it over here, I suppose being an unholy amalgamation of more famous songs helped. No objections to it being last in part because of who he is though, it's also terrible.

found this on Genius while writing this comment:

22 hours ago, Scene said:

I only bought Hero because of Alexandra tbh. Her and Ruth made that series of X Factor SO GOOD. I still remember Take That week where Alexandra and Ruth looked to be in danger of falling into the bottom two due to performing early but both managed to escape through sheer performance quality. I think Ruth was probably the intended casualty that week but blew everyone out the park with Love Ain't Here Anymore. IIRC Alexandra narrowly escaped the sing-off that week and JLS were there instead! Still the most exciting series of X Factor for me (along with Little Mix's year)!

Ruth was definitely written off because at 27 (or however old she was at the time) she was considered too old….

Thank the Lord she had those vocals and delayed the inevitable for a while!

20 hours ago, Chez Wombat said:

2008 was a bit of a transitional year for me, I was still at school and still listening to the charts, though musically, I really tired of a lot of 2008's hits due to them constantly being on the radio, was perhaps the year where I started to gain more of a liking for the smaller hits and those just outside the mainstream.

I didn't mind All Summer Long at the time, but it was always quite a random hit, I guess he was on the fringes of success before and this one succeeded due to the time of year and being so radio-friendly and at the right time of year. I don't listen to it these days, it relies way too heavily on the samples which highlights how little he can give himself. Not to mention a pretty awful person these days x

The X Factor charity covers were the nadir of Reality TV domination, was Cowell shamelessly flexing and adding a charity element to be extra manipulative. All of them are awful, although in this case, the original Hero wasn't that good anyway. The only redeeming thing is realising I have the ability to remember and name all the contestants singing in them as it was pretty much household TV at that time so remember it very well x

There is one song I here I particularly despise, I hope it's not too much higher for you x

Colour me intrigued! What’s the betting the one you hate is my #1!

Actually. I've changed my mind on the next song!

18 Alexandra Burke Hallelujah

#2s held off #1: Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah

I'll start with this. I am an Alexandra Burke fan. She has a cracking personality and a great soulful voice. I also love that she exudes confidence (something that was twisted by bigoted viewers on Strictly). It's been great to see her shine on the West End in the last few years. She was also a revelation in her film debut. I run a local queer film group and one of our screenings was of 'Pretty Red Dress', a film where Alexandra predictably plays a regular person, auditioning for singing roles. Why does that sound familiar?!

Some of you may remember that Season five of X Factor was not Alexandra's debut. She appeared on Season 2 and went to Judges Houses with Louis Walsh. I remember at the time thinking that Alexandra should have made the live shows. But when Louis is choosing, you will no doubt lose some talent in place of a cute boy or a gimmick. And that is exactly what happened. She was devastated at the time, but little did she know what was around the corner. She returned three years later and bowled everyone over. This all culminated in THAT performance with Beyonce, which meant there was to be no other winner. I always likened her comeback and win to Nadine Coyle's Irish Popstars~Popstars journey - i.e. if Louis had put her through in Series 2, she'd likely have been an early out, never to be heard from again.

Her winner's single, a cover of the Leonard Cohen track 'Hallelujah' was a bold choice. Famously covered by Jeff Buckley, many were enraged by the choice. So much so that they downloaded the Jeff & Leonard versions in protest. This led to the very rare circumstance where the official top 2 songs were the same.

I personally have three other covers of this song that I adore. Pentatonix's version was just epic. Damien Rice did a great version (available on YouTube). But probably my favourite is Rufus Wainwright's. I was a maaaaaaasive Shrek fan back in the day (still am). I'm pretty sure the Rufus version was the first version I heard. And I was hooked, to the point of tears. Alexandra's version is good (in my opinion). I think I liked it more at the time, but quickly got bored of it. It sold by the bucket load however, spending three weeks at number one. She followed it up with two more number one singles and a chart topping album.

I love Alexandra Burke also and have been fortunate enough to have seen her twice on stage when I visited the UK. The first was in Manchester i September 2016 when she was in the UK Tour of Sister Act and the second was in Wimbledon in December 2024 when she was in the pantomime of Jack and the Beanstalk. She was sensational both times.

On the song itself, it's one of my favourite X Factor winners singles. She has such a brilliant voice. Unfortunately she was another victim of SyCo's poor handling of their artists.

That series of X Factor U.K. felt enormous and we still haven't arrived at the year with the highest ratings yet. Says it all that 'Hallelujah' and 'Hero' were the EOY top 2 of 2008 after just a couple of months, plus the show could get Beyoncé as a duet partner indeed.

They sure were recycling from Mariah quite a bit with 'When You Believe' as a coronation single in 2007 and now 'Hero' as the inaugural charity ensemble choice! I also remember her mentoring the contestants one week but Diana Vickers had to miss out due to laryngitis, cue dramatic VT, with spliced shots of her lying in bed with a full face of make-up on

Quite a nostalgic time for the show (extending to Eoghan Quigg's 'voting face' on Harry Hill's TV Burp) and a notable year for talent, but not complaining about these placings. 'Hero' is very by-the-numbers and the transformation of 'Hallelujah' is too overblown and hollow, I'm glad the stunning Jeff Buckley version got to chart at #2 off the back of it, though.

Not easy to order those 3 X Factor related singles. All terrible for me. You really must have the musicality of a brick to think “Hallelujah” can be improved with a key change, but it is at least much more vocally accomplished than Leon’s. And the group offerings were if anything even more insufferable than the individual ones.

Not my cup of tea either, as it's oversung in all the wrong places for me, but I do like Alexandra in general and bought her debut album and enjoyed all of the singles released from it in 2009/10.

I think Hallelujah is one of the better winners songs... which isn't really saying a lot as I wouldn't say I actually like any of them, but at least Alexandra's is competent.

Haha, that was the one I was referring to! I just remember some people liked it for some reason x

Alexandra was a good singer and her back catalogue suffered a bit from generic material (and, as it turns out, subtle racism :/) but I really do detest that version of Hallelujah, it offends me more than the other winners singles as the originals weren't all that anyway so there wasn't much to ruin, but Hallelujah is one of the most distinctive, complex songs of all time and to just turn it into a generic winners story with a key change is sacrilege. The one good thing about it is it got Jeff Buckley's beautiful version a higher peak and a distinctive Christmas chart battle in the download era. I grew up with Shrek so I also like Rufus Wainwright's version

I don't think Alexandra's Hallelujah is that awful. It probably ranks as the best X Factor winner's single (though I've always had a soft spot for Cannonball), but of course none of them are particularly great. In part that's because it's such a great complex song that it's covering.

That said, it's a pretty boring and safe version of Hallelujah in comparison to the more well regarded versions, and the only thing of note about it in that list is that it's one of the most prominent female-sung versions. Which is nice sometimes, but attached to the sanding down that X Factor did of the song, definitely well down the list.

(I also really like the Pentatonix one)

13 minutes ago, Iz様 🌟 said:

I don't think Alexandra's Hallelujah is that awful. It probably ranks as the best X Factor winner's single (though I've always had a soft spot for Cannonball), but of course none of them are particularly great. In part that's because it's such a great complex song that it's covering.

That said, it's a pretty boring and safe version of Hallelujah in comparison to the more well regarded versions, and the only thing of note about it in that list is that it's one of the most prominent female-sung versions. Which is nice sometimes, but attached to the sanding down that X Factor did of the song, definitely well down the list.

(I also really like the Pentatonix one)

Loving the love for the Pentatonix version

And yeah I shouldn’t but I low key like Cannonball (and I’ll always have X Factor to thank for giving my fave artist a top 10 single)

1 hour ago, Chez Wombat said:

Haha, that was the one I was referring to! I just remember some people liked it for some reason x

Alexandra was a good singer and her back catalogue suffered a bit from generic material (and, as it turns out, subtle racism :/) but I really do detest that version of Hallelujah, it offends me more than the other winners singles as the originals weren't all that anyway so there wasn't much to ruin, but Hallelujah is one of the most distinctive, complex songs of all time and to just turn it into a generic winners story with a key change is sacrilege. The one good thing about it is it got Jeff Buckley's beautiful version a higher peak and a distinctive Christmas chart battle in the download era. I grew up with Shrek so I also like Rufus Wainwright's version

lol you thought I would put Hallelujah anywhere near number one?! I know I have bad taste (sometimes!) but still!

1 hour ago, gooddelta said:

Not my cup of tea either, as it's oversung in all the wrong places for me, but I do like Alexandra in general and bought her debut album and enjoyed all of the singles released from it in 2009/10.

Which is your fave? Mine is actually The Silence

11 hours ago, Paddington James said:

I love Alexandra Burke also and have been fortunate enough to have seen her twice on stage when I visited the UK. The first was in Manchester i September 2016 when she was in the UK Tour of Sister Act and the second was in Wimbledon in December 2024 when she was in the pantomime of Jack and the Beanstalk. She was sensational both times.

On the song itself, it's one of my favourite X Factor winners singles. She has such a brilliant voice. Unfortunately she was another victim of SyCo's poor handling of their artists.

You could say SyCo was the elephant in the room….

15 minutes ago, Herbs said:

Which is your fave? Mine is actually The Silence

Oh definitely All Night Long, loved that.

Broken Heels was really solid too.

I have now heard Hallelujah performed too may time at school Christmas concerts which annoys me as it isn’t a Christmas song. I’m also having the same issue with Somewhere Only We Know.

Hallelujah is one of the few winners singles I actually like. Having said that it is cynically formulaic so I can see why you put it where you did.

I’d have it few spots higher, but I can see why it’s not everyone’s cup of tea.