Darren-5-08

Felt disappointed at first, but LOVED it on the third listen and now can't get it out of my head!! As a straight guy, I'm glad it's not TOO much of a gay anthem though.

Someone on DigitalSpy said 11.

Debuts at 11:00AM on the radio; problem is - I don't know what station!!

Didn't like Radar. Loved Womanizer, but its chart performance was undoubtedly ruined by her disastrous X Factor performance.

PS to everyone who replied - I'm not hating on Britney, I think she's fantastic, but I do hope she releases a more powerful song next, as I said, a la Toxic :)

There is huge hype behind it though.

Grenade only took a couple of hours to get to number 1. It's nearly been a day and it's not top 10.

Wow, didn't expect Britney to do this not-brilliantly. Can't say I fully expected a smash, it isn't at the same level as Toxic, Everytime or BOMT.

The 'doo-doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo-doo-doo' introduction is the best sound to play when entering a party. It is just so definitive and commanding. :)

I think people are overestimating Jessie J and the other 'new' British artists - I reckon top 10 maximum - and no-one seems to be mentioning Lady GaGa.

Purely because I'm so sick of Rihanna atm...

Are there any predictions for Matt's total sales??

I voted OG(ITW), but is this rigged for Rihanna to win?? So far she hasn't been up against any serious competition...

do you think willow will be front-loaded?? no offence, but i want ellie to get a week at number 1!!

I love Rihanna, but disagree with this. I just don't really see Rihanna as a big album artist!! Apart from GGGB, she hasn't had a huge album over here, she's mainly singles. I think she will have more huge singles from the album, but I don't think it will get particularly high in the charts and maintain good sales. I would be delighted to be proved wrong, however.

Bad Romance... Based on the fact that Poker Face gets 100/100 from me and Bad Romance gets 101/100... :P Really can't choose any other way...

I can see Cher doing that very well. It has a fantastic singing section, she can maintain the opinion that she has good vocals.

the reason i have heard is that they have realised the anticipation of their fans annd want to bring everything forward so their fans get it sooner...

and mine :)

highly doubt TT moved forward to avoid JLS. taking into consideration TT sold 400,000+ with their last album, i would guess 500,000+ easily taking into consideration JLS sold 230,000 with their last album, i would guess 150,000 give or take i don't expect westlife to be involved, particularly i think TT may hold the top spot for a second week with sales of 200,000 give or take

Lol, actually Tesco has nearly double... 30.7% of market compared to Asda's 17.3%... :)

This is not confirmed. Simon Cowell said just a few weeks ago that he is the only confirmed judge. The story about Cheryl being confirmed was false.

To be honest, I think you're thinking more of Louis... Dannii rarely mentions it being a 'singing competition'... Personally, though, I give a f**k about singing. It gave me more pleasure to pay £70 to see Lady GaGa sing live on tour than it did to watch Cheryl Cole mime on TV for free... Before anyone brings up dance routines, GaGa's dance routines were *far* more athletic and impressive and she still managed to sing live. Pathetic excuse, given how she is judging other people on their singing...

That is some serious Cher domination...

My ratings for this week go as follows: 1. Cher Lloyd - 11/10 My favourite since her audition, I can admit to slight disappointment over the past few weeks, but she more than made up for it tonight. I would easily put it on a par with 'Mad World' as the best performance of the series. She was generally in tune throughout, but conveyed the emotion of the song fantastically and really made me appreciate the beauty of a softer voice against the belting of bigger voices. Despite not being a vocalist, Cher blew the others out of the water, beating them at the own game. She is truly versatile. The only performance so far that I have found worthy of spending my money on, although I am considering adding 'Mad World' to that list. I have been listening for a while now and the power of it has almost brought me to tears. Magnificent. A world-class performance. __________ 2. Mary Byrne - 8.5/10 Glad she did something different this week. I have always been a fan, but was glad to see some versatility. 3. Katie Waissel - 8.5/10 Watching Katie makes me smile. I admit, she went a bit 'Lady GaGa', but she has a certain tone to her voice that lets me enjoy what she is doing. __________ 4. Wagner - 7.5/10 Wagner is one of the few acts I always look forward to. Ashamedly, I thought his operatic opening segment was impressive... 5. Matt Cardle - 7/10 Have never been a fan of Matt, as I'm not a huge fan of men singing in falsetto and in higher octaves, but I can appreciate that he is incredibly talented. He wasn't as good as last week, but his performance was competent nonetheless. __________ 6. Aiden Grimshaw - 6.5/10 Unfortunately, Aiden's performance of 'Mad World' seems to be too impressive for him to match. I liked what he did with the song tonight, but he certainly isn't up to the standard I would expect of him. 7. Paije Richardson - 6.5/10 I thought he sang well tonight, but it would be hard for him to sing without being compared to the original and he just didn't meet the standard required to impress me with it. 8. Rebecca Ferguson - 6/10 Loved her earlier in the competition, but she has seriously underperformed in my eyes over the past few weeks. Boring last week, even more so this week. I think she is a brilliant singer, but she needs to find a song in which she doesn't just stand and sing. If she is going to just stand and sing, I think she needs to sing a bigger song. Lately she has been unimpressive, but I think she can be amazing. She needs to sing Norah Jones at some point. It does confuse me, however, that people would rate her performance against Cher's. In my opinion, she has yet to match her truly outstanding rendition of 'Fireflies' at judges' houses. __________ 9. Belle Amie - 5/10 I didn't care if they were 'confident' or 'enjoying themselves', Dannii Minogue was completely right (as usual...). The vocal was awful. The song didn't really fit the theme either, in my opinion, but whatever. They need to listen to Dannii rather than fighting back and ignoring her. __________ 10. Treyc Cohen - 3.5/10 Personally, Treyc does nothing for me. I don't see why people accuse Cher of being arrogant with Treyc in the competition. She doesn't sing, she shouts in tune. I wasn't impressed this week and haven't been on either series she's competed in. __________ 11. One Direction - 0.5/10 (They get 0.5 because, despite what I'm about to say, Liam can actually sing.) How dare they. How actually dare they. Ruining one of my favourite songs of all time. A truly magnificent song by the wonderfully talented Bonnie Tyler and they get praised for murdering it on stage tonight. If all the microphones except Liam's were turned off, it might have warrented a 5 or 6. Zain, in particular, is absolutely awful. I love that song. Now I cringe when I think of it. Thank you, One Direction. Thank you, Simon Cowell. I think I said in the bottom two poll that I want Treyc and Belle Amie to be in the bottom two, but think it will be Treyc and Paije, however, I realised that I forgot to include One Direction in that. I want them in the bottom two instead of Belle Amie. I still think it will be Treyc and Paije though.