Lucie Jones suffers Jedward X Factor snub
Post categories: Artists,ÌýSouth Wales,ÌýTelevision
| 08:44 UK time, Monday, 9 November 2009
Lucie Jones has been the surprise evictee of X Factor, after losing in a sing-off against cartoonish Dublin twins . But, in the long run, is it such a bad thing for the 18-year-old from Pentyrch near Cardiff?
It comes down to this: Simon Cowell put Jones into a public vote with Irish twins 'Jedward' - and the assumption is that he knew that, because of the unfathomable public support for the twins, they would prevail at the expense of the Welsh singer.
Cue a nation up in arms this morning, calling radio stations and wibbling about the unfairness of it all on . Lucie's improving, they say, and she's far superior to Jedward. The Cardiff girl may well have honeyed vocal chords compared the Bros-alike duo with their avant-garde takes on 1980s pop classics, but hang on one second.
This is a TV show first and foremost and the record contracts at the end are almost incidental. Ask Steve Brookstein or Shayne Ward whether they extracted the most from their record contracts.
Simon Cowell is in the business of orchestrating a TV show that gets the maximum amount of viewers possible and if that means manipulating the permutations to his advantage then so be it. The audience are entirely complicit in this artifice - with the exception of Leona Lewis, the role of the audience is to vote and then to buy the Christmas release and - maybe - the one album from the winner.
Cowell rakes in money from the phone votes, then again as the winner records their debut song on Simon's record labels. He then makes more money as radio and television stations play the songs. If the artist is lucky enough to release an album, he'll then be getting in more revenue from those sales.
If people really are up in arms about Lucie Jones' apparently premature exit from The X Factor, then they should take the initiative back from Cowell and his ilk and start buying proper pop music and stop relying on knockout talent shows as their sole source of music tips.
For Lucie Jones, her talent and her media exposure mean that she won't be lacking in offers of work, whether as a conventional artist, a West End performer, an actress or anything else she turns her mind to. She's probably best off out of it all.
Words: James McLaren
Adam Walton
Bethan Elfyn
James McLaren
Laura Sinnerton
Comment number 1.
At 9th Nov 2009, marcobie wrote:JEDWARD TO WIN!
Now, I'm not a fan of the twins, and haven't even been watching the X Factor religiously each week, however there seems even to me only one option left if Cowell wants to push through ridiculous artists who couldn't record an album if they tried:
THE TWINS MUST WIN!
I could see his point when he pushed the Rachel decision to the public vote, despite being a class act there was logic - apparently it was her third time in the bottom two - the public were struggling to connect. With Lucie he has no such backing or logic.
He has demoted the X Factor to Britain's Got Talent. He knows full well that the great british public have superb musical taste, but that we're also responsible for some of the biggest mistakes and one hit wonders ever... He's using that aspect of a mass public vote to his own ends (plus a birdie tells me he gets tipped off to the direction of the vote in his earpiece before he makes a decision). He looks to give the British public the deciding vote, however, it is flawed, they weren't voting to save Lucie over the Twins, given the chance and votes recast by everyone who voted, who would have won?
But we are where we are. I don't believe there is any act I would like to see again on an entertainment basis more than the Twins, they are addictively embarrassing to watch. So let's make the twins the next PJ and Duncan - VOTE JEDWARD!
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Comment number 2.
At 10th Nov 2009, Dawn Blacker wrote:Iagree with Lucy's Nan,I am going to vote for the twins to win then perhaps he will really take a fast plane out of the country. Shame on you Simon Cowell.
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Comment number 3.
At 10th Nov 2009, justmyview wrote:This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
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Comment number 4.
At 11th Nov 2009, Celine wrote:Maybe the article makes sense. If the show was any serious, it would not be a phone-in vote. Every single show that looks for real skills are not phone-in votes: Masterchef, the Apprentice, The Restaurant...
Lucie will do brilliantly without Simon. If you don't count Alexandra Burke cuz too early to tell, Leona is the only X factor winner who did well with Simon.
I would not say that ITV manipulates the poll results but everybody knows that the judges'comments do influence the public's voting behaviour. Lloyd and Danyl have already survived the bottom 2, and sure enough they have not been in it again. Stacey was told by Simon that she was vulnerable so sure enough her fans multiplied their phone calls. Joe was told by Louis that he was more of a theatrical singer, Jamie keeps being criticised by Louis, and of course, they both got through as well. However, Lucie had standing ovation from all judges 2 weeks in a row, therefore, her fans think they might as well save their money because it sounds like she is safe anyway. The same happened to Laura White last year.
If it was up to me, I would definitely stop making the public vote for all those reasons.
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Comment number 5.
At 11th Nov 2009, Joe wrote:While stopping the public vote might make the programme a bit more transparent, it would also deprive ITV and SyCo (Simon Cowell's production company) enormous amounts of money each week. There's not much chance of that happening.
Even so, I think most viewers can see X Factor for what it is - a hunting ground for pop puppets who can release a single or two, maybe even an album, for a quick buck before next year's intake comes around. We're not dealing with high art here.
This is the main reason why Cowell's probably quite relaxed about Jedward winning - there's nobody truly outstanding in the competition, so he may as well make some cash from a pair of cartoon doofuses who can release a comedy single before being forgotten about for good. In the long term it won't do him any harm.
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Comment number 6.
At 11th Nov 2009, Celine wrote:well joe, there no one truly outstanding it must be because they're only starting in the music industry as performers. When Beyoncé started in Destiny's child who would have thought she would then sell so many records?
I know Simon won't stop the public voting because of the money, not because he genuinely thinks the public is always right. He certainly was not saying that when Danyl was in the bottom 2.
So far, apart from Leona, no X factor winner ( for Alexandra it's too early to tell) has made a tremendous career. that proves that he only wants to be on Tv, make the headlines and make massive amounts from the public's phone calls, not find the next Michael Jackson.
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Comment number 7.
At 14th Nov 2009, almost witty wrote:Hear hear!
Then again, half the people I know who watch The X-Factor (I refuse to) love to watch it to see the awful singers. Today's equivalent of the Roman coliseums.
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Comment number 8.
At 20th Nov 2009, Joe wrote:Yes, those Roman coliseums were *awful* at singing ;-)
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