Hassaan

I was going for the most unlikely, at least in terms of lyrics. :D Any thoughts on who we could see winning? Of the sixteen winners: 4 comedy acts 4 singing acts 2 dog acts 2 dance acts 1 magician 1 musician 1 shadow theatre group 1 gymnastics troupe You could argue that we had 5 singing acts if you wish to include Jon Courtenay, but yeah. Standard of act is more important to me than variety, but it's interesting that of the last five winners, four have been comedy acts. It wasn't until series 4 that a comedy act made the final, and series 7 until one made the top 3. I'd be open to someone like Innocent Masuku or Sydnie Christmas winning, if the public decides that they'd like a singer this year.

We've had a few "cliffhangers" this series. Pretty sure they had that last year too, with a team that was very far behind.

Or the Harry Potter music like they seemed to do for a while. :D

I mean, I probably wouldn't expect the likes of WAP or Unholy to be used as backing music. :D

Good episode. I liked the comedian and the magic act. The opera singer, I just knew would be a bit bonkers. I struggle to connect emotionally with dance acts but I knew Bruno would go for that. They're good at what they do.

The most recent public vote was in 2019 when we sent Michael Rice. Your overarching point (something which didn't do well in the vote) still stands though.

The national selection was rather hit and miss. From 2016-19, we only got one decent result (Lucie). I think the UK's expectations are (hopefully) higher after Sam, but it depends on what the choices are. I thought Asanda (Legends) would have been a better choice for us in 2018 but the performance wasn't good enough.

I don't see why they'd keep it a secret. The only reason he's stepped back, from what we've heard, is that he's been unwell. There's been no indication of anything else.

If we're going by this, it seems like he missed the high note:

Sorry, when I say it's odd, I mean when shows do "final ever" shows but then return a few years later. I was unclear, apologies. I don't think G&S ever did that necessarily, unless they did.

Bit of a mix tonight. I just knew that GB would get complaints from people who take the show too seriously with the "waste of a Golden Buzzer" thing, but he was fun. The couple who closed the show would have been my pick though.

Unfortunately that doesn't prevent the song being unpopular across the rest of the world. The 2016-19 selection shows didn't produce particularly good results, apart from Lucie perhaps.

I do often think they should send X Factor winners. There are some you probably wouldn't go near (Steve Brookstein) but there's others where you feel the person could, with the right song, make a real impact.

Wait, didn't he get zero points too?

I think the choreography affected his vocals a bit too but maybe the rest of the world just didn't like the song.

Yep! They've used Take That's Greatest Day for the golden buzzer moment three times. Ain't No Mountain High Enough three times, Fix You (Coldplay) twice, You Are the Reason twice etc.

I didn't say they were bad, or that they needed to be perfect, but it sounded a bit shaky.

? I really hope the vocals are better than that on Saturday.

Tricky one. There are songs I love with lyrics that are a bit weird. Combination of both is obviously ideal but I think I'd go for the sound. I like a catchy melody.

Fingers crossed it does lead to a general election.

I think they were going to have to change tack at some point. Being heavy into race mode at the beginning wasn't sustainable, they'd have gotten tired for one.

Good show tonight. Less silly acts compared to last week but I enjoyed the dancers at the end. Sometimes a lot of the dance acts can feel rather intense, so it's nice to see an act that's just fun.

Yeah, I don't know if this can solely be blamed on the 6 year break. I was aware that she was back but there might have been many who weren't, as she made little impact on the singles chart this time round. I'm surprised she didn't have a feature this time round like with Rudimental last time, but maybe that was a conscious choice.

It charted at #6 with 6,829 sales. I Cry When I Laugh opened with 59,117, selling 1,510,678 in total. Always in Between opened with 36,449, selling 577,641 in total. A combination of the market having fallen off for most artists since but she just didn't really have the momentum this time.

Leona Lewis seems to have had many missed opportunities. Lots of songs that her record label passed on that became big hits for other artists. Gareth Gates seemed to be hot property for a while and seemed to fizzle out quite quickly.