Out of the X Factor

The ongoing worldwide fascination with talent contests on television began about a decade ago in the United Kingdom. The show was Pop Idol which was exported to other countries and became American Idol in the US, Australian Idol Down Under and so forth depending on the country. We had it twice without much success, as Philippine Idol first and then as Pinoy Idol. Do you remember who won? We did better with Star For A Night, which was also originally a British show which yielded a Sarah Geronimo.

Pop Idol was replaced some years later by The X Factor. While it was also a talent contest, the focus was more on the X Factor, that unidentifiable quality that makes somebody a star. People in the entertainment business have been in search of this since time immemorial and they are still looking. X Factor is trying to peg down what makes it up. The show is in search of the total package, looks, talent, sex appeal, etc. Leona Lewis of Bleeding Heart from four years ago must be the most popular among the winners of the show.

The winner in 2009 was Joe McElderry from South Shields, England. He is a hunky 19-year-old with a reedy singing voice that sounds great for light pop ballads and dance tunes. His debut album, Wide Awake is available in local stores. Since the X Factor is not on local TV, it will take a while for fans to discover the good-looking Joel. I am sure though that they will fall for him once they see and hear him. I make a special call here for female tweens, who will surely love his slow, laidback version of Superman and his truly soaring The Climb, which was his winning song in the X Factor finals.

Also included in his album are Ambitions, Someone Wake Me Up, Real Late Starter, Until The Stars Run Out, Feel The Fire, Fahrenheit, Wide Awake, Smile, Love Is War and as a bonus track, his version of Miley Cyrus’ The Climb.

Shayne Ward from Manchester, who won the competition six years ago, also has a new album. This is his third and it is titled Obsession. Ward is another successful X Factor discovery. He is often referred to as the British Justin Timberlake. His style resembles McElderry’s a lot. Must be the Britpop influence among their producers. But Ward has stronger tones which come across as quite sexy. He also rocks harder. In fact, his first single out of the album is Gotta Be Somebody, which was originally by the rock band Nickleback.

Other cuts are Obsession, Must Be A Reason Why featuring 3 Pearl, Close To Close, Waiting In The Wings, Foolish, Someone Like You, Human, Crash and Nobody Knows. The latter was a Tony Rich Project hit some years back. That can be difficult to top but clever Ward gave it a reggae spin and made it the best song in the album.

Speaking of reggae, there are several reggae-flavored cuts in Olly Murs’ self-titled debut album. Murs, who comes from Essex and was a promising football player in high school, did not win in the X-Factor. He lost to McElderry in the finals. But winner or not, talent will out and Murs also bagged for himself a recording contract. Olly Murs is made up of new songs Murs himself co-wrote.

The fact that he is also an accomplished songwriter gives him the edge over other X Factor winners. He easily notched a number one seller on his first single out, Please Don’t Let Me Go and there are lots of other commercial tracks in the CD. I choose Thinking Of Me for his next and then maybe Love Shine Down for his third. Other titles which are all very pleasing pop tunes are Change Is Gonna Come, Busy, I Blame Hollywood, Ask Me To Stay, Heart On My Sleeve, Hold On, Accidental, Don’t Say Goodbye and A Million More Years.

By the way, McElderry, Ward and Murs all record for the Syco Music label. Syco stands for Simon Cowell, the man behind X Factor. He came up with the idea for the contest and is the show’s producer. He left American Idol last season to work on bringing the X Factor to the US.