X-Factor UK Judges Houses Recap

Shock! Horror! Jade Richards not chosen for Judges Houses.

by Marc Ridley - EQ's resident X-Factor columnist

So it's the final weekend before the live finals hit our screens, and the final thirty-two singers are jetting off across the world: Greece, LA, Miami and wherever Louis is pretending to live this year.

The groups are with Tulisa in Mikanos - joining them is Jessie J: GOOD. In Miami with Kelly Rowland, the girls got to Kelly's crib by speedboat, and had Jennifer Hudson (?!) to help her out: WHO? Louis had found himself in Barcelona this year, and the over 25s were joining him to be judged by Sinitta: BORING. Finally, the boys had been invited chez Gary in LA, and after taking a dip in his pool, they were joined by Robbie Williams: UGH.

The Keys were the first group to try and impress Tulisa and Jessie J; the five 'lads' belted out Beyoncé's "Best Thing I Never Had" in pretty good form. The Estrelles were painfully disappointing however, and Boy v Girl  weren't really up to scratch. The Lovettes were pretty decent - but Tulisa wasn't impressed, bizarrely.

Gary-manufactured group The Risk were perhaps let down by their weaker singers, but their rehashed cover of No Air was pretty good. Meanwhile, girly and giggly 2 Shoes were EQ's favourite of the groups - not only were their voices awesome, their broken-down ballad version of Ke$ha's "Tik Tok" was a remix highlight. They even gave 'Derm' a 'shoe hug'. Aww.

Nu Vibe (what a TERRIBLE name), put together by the X Factor producers, sang a new version of Tinie Tempah's "Written In The Stars" mashed pretty bizarrely with Jessie's "Nobody's Perfect". God knows if they'll get through. (And by God we mean Gary, of course).

The X Factor 2011 - Episode 7 Recap

 

by Marc Ridley - EQ's resident X-Factor blogger

So it's the final auditions episode of the year, and the drama has been turned up to 11. It all kicks off with our latest auditionees making their nervous journey to the O2, which has been a nice new touch for the latest series, even if their use of public transport is overemphasised to hammer it home to us that they're just ordinary people.

Our first contestants, however, were anything but ordinary. Ageing couple Margaret, 52 (we know that 52 isn't really old, but seriously, you should've seen her) and Neil had come to the auditions together but performed separately. Margaret failed to make much of a positive impression unfortunately - it was like Gail Platt had wandered onto the stage. Her husband, Neil, 55, was next, and belted out "Crocodile Rock", while Margaret unfortunately sat crying backstage. Crikey. Unfortunately Neil's performance didn't go down too well, either, and the couple earned themselves eight noes before making their disappointed way home.

Up in Liverpool (how do they edit this stuff? And why?!), Bradley Johnson was up next. 16 years old and fresh out of school, Bradley had graduated without many qualifications and a bit of a rough upbringing in general - he'd been excluded three times. Hoping to keep out of trouble, he'd chosen X Factor as his rehab. 

After Bradley sang a track by Radio 1 man of the moment Ed Sheeran, the audience were rightly impressed and he'd successfully won the audience round too. And he seemed to know it: Bradley broke down in tears on stage as the judges delivered their positive verdict.

51-year-old Terry Wistanley has been singing for years, but saw the X Factor as his final chance to make it big. Singing Michael Bolton's "To Love Somebody", Terry was either performing in an empty arena or had bored the audience into silence. But they soon picked up when he reached the high notes, and Terry's particularly tedious brand of old man crooning had seemed to work. Yawn. Let's just pray he doesn't make it through to the live shows.

Brand New - "With UR Love" by Cher Lloyd

Have you made up your mind about Cher Lloyd yet?

It seems that the world has finally come to the rather sensible conclusion that "Swagger Jagger" was pretty good, and whether you're a fan of hers or not, the Cher Lloyd project is very much full steam ahead. 

"With UR Love" is the second single from Cher's debut album, which is due to be released later this year. She's been working with tried and tested pop legends like Max Martin (P!nk, Katy Perry) and RedOne (any amazing song from the last few years), and is set to release this new track on 30th October.

Cher's debut album is available this November, but clips of all the tracks are floating around the internet now if you know where to look. You can listen to "With UR Love", which features Mike Posner, by clicking the play button below.