Hallelujah! The fab four are back, Dermot’s back... our show is back
IT’S what we pray for every year: the contestant who just has the lot – the X Factor that the whole show so often manages to evade.
But in 16-year-old student Samantha, it appears they’ve found it very quickly.
As returning judge Nicole Scherzinger put it: ‘You seem so ahead of the game.’ She was. Fantastically strong voice, selfassured, with the kind of trendy image that seems popular among the young these days (clothes out of a dumpster rather than the high street), she was extraordinary. And she’d even brought her grandfather, who never fulfilled his singing ambitions because he had to look after his family (come on: it wouldn’t be The X Factor without the Kleenex moments).
Samantha wasn’t the only huge talent – or the only one with a story. Twenty-seven-year-old primary school teacher Melissa brought along her husband and cute kids.
She’d given up her singing to bring up her family. Simon adored her – not least, I suspect, because she looked like all of his exes.
Eighteen-year-old Caitlyn, a victim of bullies, was similarly moving, as she sang about the father who had picked her up so many times.
And so the 13th series came back with a vengeance. Not just back from last year – which should have been put out of its own misery to save us all pain – but returning to its original form.
After some time in the entertainment wilderness, it’s refreshing to see the show returning to its roots: studio auditions in front of the judges, rather than in front of an audience who increasingly came to resemble a baying Roman mob; the four best judges the show has seen (Simon Cowell, Louis Walsh, Sharon Osbourne and Nicole Scherzinger); and the most professional and watchable host (Dermot O’Leary) in its history.
We know that the mechanics are still there – the sob stories (though toned down), the disagreements between judges, the key phrases (‘That is why we do the show’ – thanks, Simon; we know) – but it now manages to feel fresh and original once more – and tighter; less fussy. That’s no mean feat after 12 seasons.
Welcome back X Factor.