Torple

I was SHOCKED to see Milkshake make it's exit so early. I'm sure I remember it being THE track of the moment for MONTHS

Does this not mean we're going to be getting BALLAD OVERLOAD? Celine Dion fans REJOICE

Another Chance and Naive behind Kristian Leontiou and LISA SCOTT-LEE?! http://www.moopy.org.uk/forums/images/smilies/grin.gif NO WAY

So it's been confirmed that

I hear the theme is to be Tin Tin Out productions and collaborations circa 1998.

When it comes to music and music talent shows, Digital Spy is as bad as Buzzjack (if not worse) when it comes to being unable to see past their own generic preferences (their music reviews in particular are predictably dire - everything the Saturdays or Girls Aloud release is a 5/5). As we do ourselves, they tend to forget that internet-gays make up only a small section of the voting public. The fact that they predicted Two Shoes would finish well ahead of Craig and Misha B says it all I think.

I'm sorry guys (and I genuinely am as I quite like her), but only in the heads of internet forum teenage gays is Sophie a potential winner. She SMACKS of being Lucie Jones Mark II. Lovely and pleasant, but I really can't think where she's going to pick a solid fanbase up from.

01. Craig 02. Janet 03. Misha B 04. The Risk 05. Frankie 06. Marcus 07. Kitty 08. Johnny 09. Sophie 10. Rhythmix 11. Sami 12. Nu Vibe

Roxy seems to have systematically had all her links to the Square removed over the past 18 months. Peggy left, Glenda left, Ronnie's in prison, she cut her ties with Michael, she fell out with Phil... They've done all that but at the same time failed to build up any other relationships for her. Christian and Jack aside (and those are fleeting at best) there's literally NOTHING.

I've only just caught up with EE today, and God you're right. She fell victim to the writers wanting to focus on the implosion of the Moon family, and it almost felt like they felt it was a chore having to include Vanessa in the episode. I'm half-surprised they didn't just say to hell with it and write her off off-screen. It's pretty symbolic of Vanessa's character though, after she spent a year almost playing a guest character in the Max/Tanya big love affair story. I hate to admit but I'm one of those who has slowly switched off from EE recently. I really can't explain exactly what it is, but there's little that's capturing my excitement. I think the Masoods are in danger of being irrepairably damaged. We all KNOW they can do the drama, but I really think that they're fast becoming the resident MISERY family, which isn't something I think they should ever be. I really hope that once the Yusuf strand is inevitably wrapped up, they allow the Masoods some LIGHT time for a few months at least, just to remind everyone of how they came to be loved in the first place. The Moon brothers are pretty mediocre and far from worthy of all the airtime they've had recently, and I think the temporary absence of BIG characters like Max and Bianca is showing, especially on top of the likes of Ronnie and Peggy departing permanently. I also don't know why we're still seeing so little of Pat.

This has to be one of the most RIDICULOUS statements I've ever read anybody make. Are you seriously implying that for a song to be interesting it has to focus on just ONE aspect of music (the rhythm) and completely dispense with all other things such as TUNE and MELODY? How incredibly narrow-minded. And on a different note, POOR BRAVE ULTRA NATE. Not even an X-Factor appearance can return her to the top 300 :(

That's exactly the problem Sami faces. Out of everyone in that final 16, she's really scored the bum deal because under any of the other three judges she'd be safe as houses. Louis Walsh however has consistently displayed a belief that "entertainment" should triumph over vocal ability, and he specialises in the Jedwards and the Wagners of the contest. I'd love to be proven wrong but I honestly think Sami's f***ed.

So I've only just caught up with this this morning. The standard was generally better than I thought it would be; I remember thinking through the auditions that there really wasn't anybody who wowed me at all. But there were a few decent performances last night. I don't really get how anybody could be disappointed with Misha last night. I personally thought she provided everything Cher Lloyd promised and failed to deliver last year. My only small criticism was that the rap didn't really fit the song at all; I know rapping is a big selling point for her, but I think the production team need to make more effort to actually integrate it into the context of the song she's performing, rather than just have her chuck any old shit in for the sake of it. Good as it was, it felt very shoehorned in. Other highlights; Craig (OBVIOUSLY), who did a wonderful job conveying genuine emotion. Samantha, whom I am resigned to the fact she's leaving tonight because she's not as headline-grabbing as Kitty, not as gimmicky as Johnny, and not a soldier like Poor Brave Jonjo - an outrage nevertheless as she's by far the strongest singer of the four - even if Free is a bit of a karaoke song, it was still the most confident vocal of the night and the only one not peppered with nervous trembles and shakes throughout. I also very much hope to see Marcus, The Risk, Johnny (never going to win in a million years, but we may as well have some fun whilst we're waiting) and Sophie survive tonight; they all demonstrated huge potential last night. Sophie in particular really has come from nowhere - I sadly think it might be too late in the game for her to overtake Amelia and Janet, but I live in hope nonetheless. Teenage Dream was quite the spine-tingling moment. Of the others, I can't say I'm particularly rooting for any of them to stay. Frankie was nowhere near as terrible as I expected, and his indie-frontman schtick very much worked on the A Team, but I still find his personality repungant and a damning display of the sexism that apparently still exists in society (would people be appluading Kitty if she revealed seven names of seven guys on her arse? I think not.) Kitty is hugely entertaining as a personality, but in terms of her big voice, I'm not convinced she'll be anything but a sub-par Stacey Solomon or even a Niki Evans. Janet was someone I'd never paid any attention to during the auditions, but last night I found myself completely agreeing with everybody who has identified her as being Diana Vickers' little sister - except I also have to agree that I can't see simpering Janet pulling off tracks like Call Me either - even if Diana had a shaky voice, she nevertheless had more attitude and more energy to draw upon. Janet I predict will be very one-note. Amelia was the worst of the girls' last night, but that was purely down to her poor timing I think. If she can sort that out, she'll be a proper little Christina Aguilera (less-cunty) waiting to happen. Two Shoes was just hen party hell, and we already have Johnny to provide the camp factor. James and Jonjo were plain dull although I expect Jonjo to succeed a la Daniel Evans purely because HE'S A SOLDIER DON'T YOU KNOW. Nu Vibe are going to lose out because we already have a vastly superior boyband in the contest with The Risk, and they seemed to sap the joy out of Beautiful People - there was no sense of them actually enjoying themselves. Rhythmix were nowhere near as good as Buzzjack and Gary Barlow seem to believe. I think a lot of people here are (predictably) blinded by the fact that they're a girlband and that they were performing a relatively current track from an artist few would expect to see on an X-Factor primetime TV show. Beyond that the harmonies weren't terrible as such, but utterly NON-EXISTANT, and only a couple of them came even close to pulling off their solo rap sections. A stone cold mess. PREDICTIONS James, Sophie, Samantha and Nu Vibe out DESIRE James, Janet, Jonjo and Nu Vibe (or Rhythmix) out

OMG YES. ESSENTIAL 01. Feel So High 02. Life 03. What's Your Sign? 04. You Gotta Be 05. You Gotta Be (1995 edit) 06. You Gotta Be (1999 edit) 07. You Gotta Be (2011 edit) 08. You Gotta Be (2012 Olympic Re-issue) 09. You Gotta Be (Tin Tin Out Radio Edit) 10. You Gotta Be (Live) 11. You Gotta Be (Acoustic) 12. You Gotta Be (David Guetta featuring Des'ree and Nicki Minaj) ad infinitum

Very odd tracklisting. I'm sure they professed to hate Shiny Happy People (hence it's exclusion from In Time), yet that's included over Daysleeper and Drive? Very odd.

Yes because they are at least visually interesting and know how to put on a SHOW. Which is what I was getting at when I said you have to have EITHER a big voice or a big (stage) personality. They're not my favourite singers by any means, but there's no denying that GaGa, Katy Perry and Rihanna have presence and star quality in SPADES, and are all hugely recognisable. And between them they've come up with some of THE pop classics of the century so far (Bad Romance, Poker Face, Hot N Cold, Firework, Umbrella, Only Girl In The World). Rachel Stevens simply HASN'T got that same presence; she's a nice girl but there was never anything distinctive about her at all. And whilst some of her tracks were reasonably good, I don't think she was ever going to come out with a Bad Romance really. Some Girls could have been sung by almost ANYBODY.

Do people REALLY want Rachel Stevens back? She fitted in fine back in '03, but the standards have been raised these days and the public generally requires either a BIG voice or a BIG personality. Rachel fails abysmally on both counts. And yes, her "sound" would probably suit the current musical climate fine, but naturally this also means that she wouldn't actually be bringing anything new to the table at all...

LOON POST: Both the first two Corrs albums. Talk On Corners took almost a year to reach #1, and it was three years before Forgiven Not Forgotten reached it's #2 peak and started shifting serious numbers.

Clearly somebody is VERY slow on the uptake.

I'm not sure I entirely get the Moves Like Jagger love. It's essentially a Jamiroquai track ten years out of date.

I was initially quite saddened by the news, but then I realised I couldn't remember the last time they actually managed to come out with anything approaching the classics they were pumping out 20 years ago. They must have realised the same.

COME ON MAZZY STAR. Oh so painfully close to that top 40...

Still Oops! for me. I'm no Britney fan, but even casting that aside it's a pretty lazy and uninspired retread of her earlier hits.

Well be fair to the lad, it's not as if Joe Swash has done much in the way of acting since he left EE originally. It's been all reality shows and the odd spot of ITV2 presenting. You're hardly going to be the next Dame Judi Dench after months of cavorting around with the likes of Caroline Flack are you?

Oh so that's what's done it! I had wondered. I would LOVE for this to climb and climb and climb. Absolute perfection.