The eighth UK series of The X Factor was broadcast on ITV 11 December 2011, with the live shows starting on 8 October 2011. The winner was girlband Little Mix, the runner-up was Marcus Collins, and third place was Amelia Lily.
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The "Boys" category was mentored by Gary Barlow. Contestants in this category are males aged 16 to 24. The eight candidates were Frankie Cocozza, Marcus Collins, Craig Colton, Joe Cox, Luke Lucas, James Michael, Max Vickers and John Wilding. Barlow chose:
Frankie Cocozza is from Brighton and was born to an English mother and a father of Italian descent. He attended Longhill High School. During the first live show, he sang "The A Team" and was safe. The second week of live shows, he sang "The Scientist" and was in the bottom two and had to perform against Nu Vibe in the final showdown, when he sang "Red". Barlow, Rowland and Walsh all voted in his favour, saving him from elimination. In week three, Cocozza sang "Rocks", and was at the centre of controversy after he swore live on air. He was announced as being safely through to the following week. The week after he sang "Should I Stay or Should I Go", and during week 5 he sang "I Gotta Feeling", after which, all four judges criticised his performance. On 8 November, it was announced that Cocozza had been asked to leave due to him breaking competition rules.[1] This made Cocozza only the second act ever to be removed from The X Factor, the first being Emily Nakanda of series 4. It is confirmed that he will be a housemate in the 2012 Celebrity Big Brother.
Marcus Collins is a 23 year-old hairdresser from Liverpool.[2] Collins was a member of Eton Road, a band that competed during series 3 of UK The X Factor. Following their exit from the show in November 2006 and the departure of lead singer Anthony Hannah, Collins joined Eton Road as a replacement in August 2007. He stayed with the band for about 10 months before leaving to pursue a solo career.[3] He is openly gay and The Sun newspaper reported that his boyfriend was Eton Road's David Heath.[4] On 4 December, he was voted through to the live final along with Amelia Lily and Little Mix. He reached the second half of the final on 11 December 2011 with Little Mix and finished second.
Craig Colton is from Kirkby and is a student working in a biscuit factory in Liverpool.[5][6] He is openly gay.[7] He was voted out of the competition on Week 7, after being in the final showdown with Amelia Lily and receiving the fewest number of votes, due to the judges vote being deadlocked.
James Michael (born James Michael Stillings in Liverpool, Merseyside) (20) is from Thelwall, Cheshire.[8] The unemployed singer taught himself a few songs on guitar while job-hunting after finishing school at 16. He describes himself as "not academic" but realised he had a love for music and went to college to study music technology.[9] He sang "Ticket to Ride" and was the first in the boys' category to be eliminated from the live shows on October 9 by decision of mentor Gary Barlow, as there was no public vote in the inaugural live show. After Frankie Cocozza was expelled from the show, the public voted for one act from the initial four eliminated from the first live show to replace him, but Michael lost out to Amelia Lily.[10]
The "Girls" category was mentored by Kelly Rowland. Contestants in this category are females aged 16 to 24. The eight candidates were Misha Bryan, Janet Devlin, Sophie Habibis, Amelia Lily, Melanie McCabe, Holly Repton, Jade Richards and Sarah Watson. Rowland chose:
Misha Bryan, age 19, is from Manchester.[11][12] Born to a single mother Florence, she was raised from 3-months old on by her aunt Lily, as her mother could not take care of her. To this day, she doesn't know who her father is.[13] In week four, Misha B was in the bottom two and had to sing for survival in the final showdown against Sophie Habibis. After singing "Use Somebody" as her survival song, she was unanimously saved by Louis Walsh, Tulisa Contostavlos and Kelly Rowland, with Gary Barlow also confirming he would have saved Misha B too, though his vote was unnecessary for the result. She landed in the final showdown again in week six against Kitty Brucknell and sang "Who You Are" as her survival song. Walsh voted to eliminate her, but Tulisa, Rowland and Barlow voted to save her. Misha B ended up in the final showdown for the third time in week eight, with Walsh and Tulisa saving her, and Rowland refusing to vote between her and Janet Devlin, meaning Misha was saved. Barlow confirmed he would have also saved her. On 4 December, she was voted out of the competition, finishing in 4th place. When the series finished, it was revealed that Misha B had received fewer votes than Sophie Habibis in week 4, fewer votes than Kitty Brucknell in week 6 and fewer votes than Janet Devlin in week 8. This meant Misha B had received the fewest public votes four times, an X Factor record.
During the X-factor show, Misha B was accused of bullying other contestants backstage. The accusation was brought up by judge Tulisa Constostavlos after judge Louis asked Misha B if she was over confident.[14]
Janet Devlin (born 12 November 1994)[15] is from Gortin, County Tyrone. Janet had very little singing experience before The X Factor, only singing in her school, pubs and local talent shows. She previously uploaded singing videos to YouTube on a regular basis.[16] Janet performed "Your Song" by Elton John during the audition stage of the competition. She was eliminated on 27 November, after ending up in the final showdown with Misha B, finishing in fifth place.
News stories soon began to break out that she had been offered a recording contract by RKA Records, a record company partly owned by Dragons' Den star and entrepeneur Duncan Bannatyne, within 35 minutes of being eliminated from the competition.[17] However, she will be unable to officially accept the record contract for a few months due to still being tied to Simon Cowell's record label Syco, which prevents her from joining another company or releasing new music for the time being.
Sophie Maria Habibis is from London. She is the youngest of four children to a father of Greek descent. At judges' houses, she performed "He Won't Go" by Adele, and made it through to the Live Shows. In the live shows, Habibis performed Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream" in week one, convincing Rowland to keep her in the competition. In following weeks she performed "Wherever You Will Go", "Livin' on a Prayer" and "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)". In week four, Habibis was in the bottom two and had to perform in the final showdown against Misha B, she sang "Shelter" for survival. The judges voted 3-0 to eliminate her, keeping Misha B in competition. Gary Barlow also announced he would also have eliminated Habibis.[12][18]
Amelia Lily Oliver (born 16 October 1994[19]) is from Middlesbrough, where she attends dance school, also taking part in musical theatre.[12][20] She performed "Billie Jean" and was the first of the girls' category to be eliminated from the live shows on October 9 by decision of mentor Kelly Rowland, as there was no public vote in the inaugural live show. The public voted, from the 10th until the 12th November, for one act, from the initial 4 eliminated, to replace the expelled Frankie Cocozza.[10] Amelia Lily was voted back into the competition after winning 48% of the vote. She sang "The Show Must Go On". In week 7, she landed in the final showdown with Craig Colton, and was saved by having more votes than Colton due to the judges vote being deadlocked. On 4 December, she won a place in the final along with Marcus Collins and Little Mix. She came third overall, being knocked out in the final.
The "Over 25s" category was mentored by Louis Walsh. Contestants in this category are of either gender, aged 25 or over. There is no upper age limit. The eight candidates were Samantha Brookes, Kitty Brucknell, Goldie Cheung, Joseph Gilligan, Jonjo Kerr, Carolynne Poole, Johnny Robinson and Terry Winstanley. Walsh chose:
Samantha "Sami" Brookes replaced contestant Goldie Cheung who left at the end of Judges' houses. She was placed in the bottom two in the third week, along with fellow over Kitty Brucknell. She performed "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" in the final showdown. All judges apart from Contostavlos voted to send Brookes home, thus eliminating her from the competition.
Kitty Brucknell (born Kimberley Edwards[21]) aged 27, is from Cheltenham.[12] She used to be a Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and (more recently) Lady Gaga tribute act, and featured on BBC Radio 1[22] BBC Three[23] and several American TV shows.[24]
In week one, Kitty sang "Who Wants to Live Forever" by Queen and was put through by her mentor Louis. After the show, Brian May from Queen spoke out in support of her and thanking her for her performance.[25]
In week two, Kitty sang "It's Oh So Quiet" with a theatrical Alice in Wonderland performance and was put through by the public vote.[26] In week three she was in the bottom two after performing "Live and Let Die", along with Sami Brookes in spite of universal praise from the judges.[27] She performed "The Edge of Glory" in the final showdown. Tulisa voted to eliminate her, but Gary, Kelly and Louis all saved her.
In week four for Halloween, Kitty took to the stage on a rotating wheel with pyrotechnics and a circus theme to perform "Sweet Dreams" and was put through by the public vote.[28]
In week five, she was in the bottom three along with The Risk and Johnny Robinson in a double elimination special. The Risk had the least amount of votes from the public and were eliminated. Brucknell and Robinson then sang again for survival in the final showdown. Her mentor Louis Walsh, Tulisa and Kelly Rowland all saved her and voted against Robinson. Although he wasn't required to vote as the judges had reached a majority verdict (like in the previous week), Gary confirmed he would have voted Robinson off.
On the sixth live show, Kitty wanted to sing "Born This Way". Unfortunately, Misha B chose the song and had higher priority over her. Kitty then sang "Don't Stop Me Now" by Queen. Kitty was for the third time in the final showdown along with Misha B. She sang "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" but was voted off over a 3-1 majority verdict.[29] Only her mentor, Louis Walsh, voted to save her. After her elimination, Lady Gaga ran on stage in tears to comfort her and took her back to her dressing room for 30 minutes for a glass of wine and a chat.[30][31] In addition to Lady GaGa, Kitty has had support from Perez Hilton, Kylie Minogue, Nathan from the Wanted and Brian May from Queen.[32] Since then, Kitty has appeared on Harry Hill's TV Burp on 19 November 2011 singing "Born This Way" in the final minute of the show.
Jonjo Kerr in Chorley, Lancashire; 27, is an infantry soldier (in the Yorkshire Regiment) from Coventry (originally from Chorley, Lancashire). He was deployed to Afghanistan as part of his duties.[12][33] He sang "You Really Got Me" and was the first of the overs category to be eliminated from the live shows on October 9 by decision of mentor Louis Walsh, as there was no public vote in the inaugural live show. The public voted from the 10th to the 12th November for one act from the initial four eliminated from the first live show, including Kerr, to replace the expelled Frankie Cocozza, but Kerr lost out to Amelia Lily.[10]
Johnny Robinson aged 45 is from Harrow, London. Born to an Irish mother and an English father, Robinson has one older brother and an older sister.[34] He is openly gay[35] and took part in Stars in Their Eyes when he was 24, as Boy George, and got through to the grand final.[12] The Daily Mirror also revealed that he performs as a female impersonator in transvestite clubs around London under the name Sarah Lee. The Mirror also put a video of one of his performances in the clubs as a drag queen. In week five, he was in the bottom three along with The Risk and Kitty Brucknell. The Risk had the lowest amount of votes, and were eliminated. Brucknell and Robinson then sang again for survival in the final showdown. He was eliminated by his mentor Louis, Tulisa and Kelly.[36] He went on to appear on The Saturday Night Show with Brendan O'Connor on 3 December 2011.[37]
The Groups category was mentored by Tulisa Contostavlos. Acts in this category are duos or vocal groups. All members must be aged 16 or over. The eight candidates were 2 Shoes, Estrella, Girl v Boy, The Keys, The Lovettes, Nu Vibe, Little Mix (formerly known as Rhythmix) and The Risk. Contostavlos chose:
2 Shoes are a duo from Brentwood, Essex, made up of Charley Bird (23), a telesales worker, and Lucy Texeira (21), a retail assistant. Bird is currently expecting her first child.[38] They sang "Something Kinda Ooooh" and were the first of the groups to be eliminated from the live shows on October 9 by decision of mentor Tulisa Contostavlos, as there was no public vote in the inaugural live show. They were in the running to replace Frankie Cocozza after he was eliminated from the contest, but Amelia Lily received 48% of the public vote, which brought 2 Shoes tenure to an end.[10]
Little Mix (formerly known as Rhythmix) are a four-piece girlband made up of Essex[39] barmaid Jesy Nelson (20), High Wycombe waitress Leigh-Anne Pinnock (19), and South Shields students Perrie Edwards and Jade Thirlwall (both 18).[12][40] Originally known as Rhythmix, the band was formed at bootcamp from singers who auditioned as soloists. On 26 October 2011, Rhythmix announced that they would change their name following a dispute with a children's music charity of the same name, after the programme tried to trademark "Rhythmix" in Europe. After some disagreement between Syco and the charity,[41] a resolution was reached and Cowell donated an undisclosed sum to the charity.[42] A spokesperson for The X Factor said, "At the request of the charity Rhythmix, the members of the girl group Rhythmix have decided to change their name, a decision which has the support of Syco and TalkbackTHAMES. The group's new name will be announced in due course". It was reported that the band decided to make the change, despite no legal reason to do so, to avoid any difficulties for the charity.[43] They announced that they would now be known as Little Mix on 28 October 2011 following on from this, the band said: "We all agreed on it, including Tulisa, because it just felt right". Little Mix became the first girl band in the history of the The X Factor to make it to the final live show.[44] They reached the final two on 10 December 2011, and won the show on 11 December 2011, making them the first group to win The X Factor.
Nu Vibe were a five-piece boyband made up of Jordan Higo (16, from Huddersfield), Stefan Romer (19, from Hampshire), Bradley Johnson (16, from Rainford[8]), Richard Milford (16, from Birmingham) and Ashford Campbell (19, from Huddersfield).[12] The band's members successfully auditioned as soloists, but they were knocked out of the competition at the bootcamp stage. The judges then called them back and put them together as a group. They were put through to the live shows by their mentor Tulisa. For the first live show they sang Chris Brown's "Beautiful People". Tulisa then sent them through to the first public vote after the first live show. For the second live show Nu Vibe sung U2's "With or Without You". After the first public vote, Nu Vibe were in the bottom two and had to perform in the final showdown against Frankie Cocozza. Nu Vibe performed "Promise This" by Cheryl Cole and were then eliminated from the competition with only their mentor, Tulisa voting in their favour.[45] On 28 October, it was announced that Ashford Campbell would join The Risk after Ashley Baptiste decided to leave the group.
The Risk are a four-piece boyband composed of Ashley Baptiste (22, from London), car salesman Andy Merry (20, from Ayr), Burger King chef Derry Mensah (21, from London), and Charlie Healy (25, from Coventry).[12][46] Healy originally auditioned in another group, The Keys, while the other three auditioned as soloists. Andy previously auditioned for The X Factor in 2008, and came second in the United Kingdom selection for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in 2004. The band came under criticism from a Scottish band from Prestwick, who have been performing together for several years as The Risk. They asked The X Factor management to change the name of its contestants to avoid confusion.[47]
On 28 October 2011, just before week four's live show, it was announced that original member Ashley Baptiste had decided to leave the band after stating that his heart did not lie within a boyband anymore. He was replaced with Ashford Campbell, as a fourth member. Campbell had been previously a member of Nu Vibe, but his original band had been eliminated on 16 October in week two of the competition.[48] In Week 5, they received the fewest public votes and were sent home, after finding themselves in the bottom three with Johnny Robinson and Kitty Brucknell.
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