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Good natural magnetism, shame about the hair

8 Oct 11 | Re: That indefinable, certain, kind of, you know, like a quality

I am looking forward to The X Factor starting tonight. I know they’ve already had some weeks of casting and auditions, some of which have been filmed and broadcast, but that just seems like a cheap way to crank out a few weeks of cheap filler TV. The live shows are the real thing as far as I’m concerned, and now they’re getting going again, I will be glued on as tightly as Kelly Rowland’s eyebrows.

Without watching much of the auditions process, I have become aware that one of the hopefuls this year is one Frankie Cocozza. I am in two minds about him. On the one hand, Popjustice’s withering critique of him which you can read... rightchere is kind of on the money from a certain standpoint. I recommend it to you. It is well-written and cogently argued.

On the other, he does seem to have the actual X factor in some measure. Last year was a triumph for non-X-factor-having contestants, as simpering bloke Matt Cardle raced past the brattish charisma fountain Cher Lloyd. It was a debacle. Lloyd was mismanaged, given silly, nonsensical songs like Imagine, overstyled, and generally hobbled, while Cardle sang that Roberta Flack song over and over again in that daft falsetto and cantered to victory. Partly, I blame Louis Walsh. His kinda-fun-but-talent-free turn Wagner tended to undermine the credibility (no, not that kind of credibility, Cardle fans) of anyone else who tried to put on a show as well as just standing there and singing, so that Lloyd’s strengths fizzled while people went for Cardle’s tedious realness.

So this year, I am hoping that the balance will be redressed a bit and the X Factor will be won by someone who has a bit of the X factor and not just what it takes to be “a recording artist,” like Louis Walsh keeps saying. Travis are recording artists. We don’t want a Travis. We want some raw charisma, and Cocozza seems to have that. But he also has one of those silly hairdos that’s all artfully messed up, like the Kooks. So Popjustice could be right after all. I’ll see what I think when I see all the contestants properly on tonight’s show.

Posted by FRANKIE LIDEO at 18:35

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