John_Squire

Voted Mary and Cher but would not be surprised at all if Rebecca went in 4th place.

What sort of music do people think Cher could put out? I don't think she would be taken that seriously as a rapper - she could possibly pull of mainstream 'urban' sort of music, but as far as I'm aware she has no background in any kind of rap/grime/urban scene (does she???), not that that is necessarily important but people like Tinchy Stryder are sometimes slagged off for selling out - is Cher credible in the first place? Maybe something like Betty Boo, but then again, would Cher want to make such fun, quite poppy music? And, does she have the sort of songwriting talent that Alison Clarkson has? She could potentially be a similar sort of artist to Fergie (a mix of ballads and swaggery rap lite), especially if will.i.am produced her, but that wouldn't be the 'fresh' and 'individual' style people seem to think Cher has, she'd be another wannabe 'urban music' star - the new Jentina???!!! Nothing interesting there. I think she needs to take a couple of years, work a lot on her vocals, learn to write songs, work out her style, and then she could possibly be a decent artist. 'Cher Lloyd - X Factor Winner 2010' will not, in my opinion, be very good at all. She is only 17 - time for her to improve, but if she takes the X-Factor winners/Cheryl Cole lite road, she won't have a chance to mature as a credible artist like, say, Will Young did after he won.

Her album should still male top 10 but only just...might fall short this week, perhaps the second single could save it after Christmas. I don't know why she's releasing so close to Christmas, her promotion hasn't been that high-profile and she would've done better in January. Same with Nelly, MCR, and I think Olly Murs too (reckon he will chart at 5 or 6 but could easily get the #1 outside of the Christmas rush).

Sooooo. The two most interesting, entertaining and talked-about contestants (and whether or not you think it was engineered to cause controversy, we DID all talk about them) are gone. We are left with: A pretty decent, quite high-voiced singer who can't sing anything approaching the non-pop side of rock and may or may not have an ego greater than his admitted talent. A pretty, seemingly nice girl (from Liverpool!) who can sometime give very beautiful renditions of classic songs but can easily be accused of being a boring performer and who, if she wins, will be marketed as Leona Lewis mark 2 and be forever labelled as a boring balladeer. A nice, 'inspiring' middle-aged woman from Ireland who does a nice line in Shirley Bassey impressions, torch songs and, if she was allowed to have a bit of fun, perhaps humorous and/or more disco-y songs, but ultimately will be marketed like Susan Boyle, only without quite such a remarkable story and who would have one big top 5 album before disapperaring back into the small venue and pubs circuit. A teenage girl with a possibly false or possibly toned down aggressive persona whose main talent is to sing adequately well at a high-school level in between trying to ape popular raps and who needs to decide if she wants to be the new Cheryl Cole or the new Lady Sovereign (and ultimately question if she has the marketability of the former and the talent of the latter). Five slim teenage lads with slick hair-dos, half of whom can't sing and half of whom aren't good looking, who if they were formed at an audition in the provinces and touted around record labels rather than having X-Factor exposure, would end up with a career nowhere near as successful as Westlife or Take That, nor The Wanted or 5ive, nor even Rooster, but more like Phixx or Northern Line. Ladies and gentlemen, pick yer winner.

Imagine if the Hate Chart number 1s had been the actual number 1s for the year 15 Biebertastic weeks at number 1 *shudders*

I would love Katie to be in the final, but I don't want her to win X-Factor and get saddled with $h!te songs, etc, so I suppose I won't be devastated if she goes tomorrow. I'd rather it be via the sing-off though than with her coming bottom. At the end of the day, though Katie obviously has less voters, I think people who are Katie fans are probably very into her and will follow her career avidly, whereas people who vote for, say, Rebecca or Matt, might not buy anything past the first single, certainly the first album. I realise that may be generalising but look at Joe: he must've had, what, at least four million votes or so in the final, yet his album sells about 1/40 of that. Katie has a less generally-marketable style than, say, Leona (who in the Xmas prezzies stakes is marketable to teenage and younger girls and mums as well as just fans: don't know what demographic you'd try to market Katie to). If Katie and Mary leave tomorrow I will still be somewhat happy cos Wagner will have a good chance of making the final (I think he has a good chance of winning floating voters!!!). Ideally it would be Cher and Mary, though I do like Ms Byrne, but out of the supposed 'bottom four' she's only my third favourite. Wonder who would go if it was Katie v. Mary in the sing off :o I think It would surely go to deadlock (Louis and Dannii for Mary, Simon and Cheryl for Katie)

I think bottom three: Katie, Mary, one of Cher/Wagner/Rebecca.

Second round: Wagner, missed him :( Maybe a 6 from the clip at the end One Direction - yeah, not bad, not great but 6/10 Mary - definitely Karaoke but confident 5/10 Rebecca - Don't think her voice worked but OK 5/10 Katie - when she got going, not bad 6.5/10 Matt - actually back on Britney form :o 8.5/10 Cher - predictable, not awful 6/10 Overall tonight: Matt Wagner Katie Mary Rebecca/One Direction Cher

So far: Wagner Rebecca Mary Katie Matt Cher One Direction

Matt 5/10 Katie 5/10

Cher 3/10 Rebecca 7/10

1D - crappity crap apart from Harry's vocals which were OK. 3/10 Mary - yeah, kinda good, pretty much vintage Mary. 6/10

On a scale from absoulte $h!te to bloody brilliant, Wagner was not half bad! Definitely a 7/10 and for him an 8/10 (woulda been a 9 if he showed he could stay in tune all the way through)

Human!

There are also these rumours Matt Katie One Direction If these are true then Matt will top the voting. As for Katie, why? Just why? She will definitely be bottom and go, I mean...so many people love that song and will consider any Katie version a massacre...equally, lots of people detest it and will be put off by the song itself. The other two spoiler choices are much better (especially , but neither song is as well known as this one, and a great performance of either won't save her with this as her other song. 1D: I do know that song! Rebecca would do a far better version though.

If true, shockingly good choices except Rebecca (I don't really know the songs so don't know if that will be good) and 1D. Matt's second song should sound nice but utlimately boring. Mary's, Katie's and Cher's are the best picks IMO.

I'm not sure about predicting 1-10 but Take That number 1 Susan Boyle top 5 JLS between 2 and 8 Bon Jovi lower end top 10 Michael Buble between 5 and 10 One of Pink and Cheryl Cole to be bottom-end top 10. If Duffy charts top 3 next week then she'll be top 10 but I don't think she will sell more than 50-60k so probably won't be higher than 4 or 5 (waits for her to do 100k+ and get the #1!)

I think Mary could cope. I can imagine her singing 'Amazed' by Lonestar as a ballad (yeah, it's country, but this is X Factor themes) Worst off would be 1D (if they had any kind of harder rock song, not pop-rock lite), Rebecca possibly (though I think she could pull it off, it's Cheryl's choices that may be making her boring), Wagner (obvs) and Katie COULD sound crap on a ballad though I reckon she could very easily pull it off. And if Matt growls again I will probably :puke: Speaking of Katie, I'd never seen this before, but I don't think she comes across as fake or a bitch in this video. Arrogant maybe, but not too much (I'd say more self-assured), and apart from that, likeable IMO.

Human.

02 · Take That · 'The Flood' +5 03 · Ellie Goulding · 'Your Song' +4 04 · Rihanna · 'Only Girl (In The World)' +3 01 · JLS · 'Love You More' +2 06 · Far East Movement Feat. The Cataracs & Dev · 'Like a G6' +1 08 · Alexis Jordan · 'Happiness' -1 09 · McFly feat. Taio Cruz · 'Shine a Light' -2 10 · Westlife · 'Safe' -3 05 · Katy Perry · 'Firework' -4 07 · Black Eyed Peas · 'The Time (Dirty Bit)' -5

LOW low low low $h!tE

I actually wouldn't mind a Rebecca cover of Make You Feel My Love, it would be the best winner's single yet (not that that's hard). Obviously I'd prefer an original song, or at least an inspired cover. Hell, why not a Christmas song? It would sell just as many copies as usual (ie 500k - 1m) in an even shorter space of time - more money more quickly for SC

Number 1 obviously. I voted 0-200k because I thought that meant sales at number 1. I think the top end of that amount for its opening week - I'll say 190k. 400k+ overall. It's difficult to judge because there is a Cowell/X Factor backlash in many ways this year (hence Wagner vote etc) but then again Help for Heroes is one of the most popular causes around. Cowell was a big part of Helping Haiti and that sold loads, of course. Potentially a 500k seller but probably closer to 400k - I'll say 430k overall. Chart run something like 1-2-8-17-30-37-49-58-71 - can't see it dropping as fast as last year's.

^ For Christmas Number One please :wub: Wagner and Mary ice-dancing in the video.

LOL