Week 18

Team Minogue take it to the top!

Dannii's boys make it to the final two and there's not a dry eye in the house... three cheers, X fans, the new judge done good!

Cooooooeeeeeeeee! The X Factor is the ‘highest rated entertainment show of the year’, and the battle of 2007 was mega! Team Minogue recruits; you have done me proud and made two boys incredibly happy.

Before I can discuss the final of The X Factor 2007, I have to thank the dashing Dermot for hosting us through all the madness; he’s been a real treat for everyone.

The week started with some emotional home visits for the three finalists and a show stopping show opener with Same Difference setting the Christmas scene by surrounding themselves with dancing elves and flying up to put stars on top of the country’s biggest Christmas trees!! It nearly melted Frosty the Snowman’s ice heart when Louis said, “People obviously like you and they are voting”.

Simon’s bottom lip was quivering as he said, “I never had presents as a child for Christmas” – he’ll say anything to get the votes!!!!!

Leon had the biggest homecoming that X Factor has ever seen! Scotland turned out in full force to see their own ‘Leon King’ performing on a stage next to the clothing store that he once worked in – he had to sing over the screaming fans.For the show, White Christmas was Leon’s ballad to everyone at home and the comments were amazing:
Louis, “You must have a career”.Sharon, “Were you singing I’m Dreaming Of A Hit Single? Because that’s what you are going to have”.
Having walked into the first audition alone, Leon is now the Pied Piper and everyone is following him!

Rhydian visited his home village in Wales to an amazing turn out. I know everyone is so proud of him. He sang his favourite Christmas classic O Holy Night and was a vision in a white silk suit, accompanied by a beautiful children’s choir.
Louis, “You are the best singer and will sell internationally”.
Sharon, “You are like a white angel”.
Dannii, “If you are not doing anything on Christmas day then please come to the Minogue household and sing that again”.

Each contestant then got to perform a dream… with star duets. Same Difference was joined by Jason Donovan to sing Any Dream Will Do, and it was ‘poptastic’ and ‘amazing’!!!!The most eligible singleton in the country, Rhydian, sang a special duet version of You Raise Me Up with the beautiful Opera legend, Kathryn Jenkins. These two Welsh beauties made magic on stage and Rhydian’s dream came true – he had said to his father two years ago, “I would love to duet with Kathryn Jenkins”.

Leon received the best comments on his duet with my very lovely sister, Kylie Minogue. They did a special swing version of Better The Devil You Know, and Leon was a little devil when he almost pinched her bottom! They were like two little playful sexy kittens and blew the roof off. Kylie says he will “go all the way” with a career in pop.

We were blessed to be rejoined by some of our most talked about classic auditionees who wowed us with their very special rendition of My Way. Who can forget the graveyard singers, our biggest Japanese fan and Icaro – to mention a few!

The last songs for the X Factor Series 4 were…

Same Difference sang the best of their songs from the series; Breaking Free from High School Musical. There is no other song that embodies their youth, fun and desire to be pop stars – loved it!

Leon melted our hearts with a second performance of You Don’t Know Me. It was one of his most sparkling performances of the series. Armed with a sharp suit and a vintage microphone, he is our very own ‘Braveheart’.
Louis, “You are potentially as good as Michael Bublé”.
Sharon, “You have performed with Michael Bublé and Kylie Minogue, and these superstars are obviously rubbing off on you”.
Simon, “I’m going to be honest with you… I thought it was brilliant”.
I hoped Leon’s mum loved that performance, but I had to tell him how hot he looked as well!

Rhydian made us cry with his rendition of Somewhere – it is by far my favourite version of this song.
Louis, “I am going to be honest; if I am judging you on that performance then you deserve to win”.
Sharon, “I hope you record that”.
Simon, “If we are giving the title to the best voice, you should win”.

Dermot, “You have managed to do something that no-one else has managed to do this series, you made Louis and Simon agree on something”.
I remembered one of the first conversations between Rhydian and I, when I wanted to give him the chance to get on the stage and have Simon say, “That was brilliant”. Rhydian has truly done that now!

Kylie did wow us with a performance of her new single Wow, from her latest album X – it could not have been more special for me to have my sister up on stage in front of me for the biggest X Factor show ever!

Favourite Line of the Week:

“Louis Walsh is a grumpy old man” – from small child in Portsmouth.

Love and massive thanks to my guest judge, Terry Ronald, who helped me make those first important decisions in Ibiza; to choose my three contestants to enter this year’s competition – I couldn’t have done it without you!

Thank you all for taking this incredible journey with us. I’m hoping we can make this year’s Christmas number one single with When You Believe. It was originally a duet between Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston, and has now been rewritten especially for The X Factor. This will be Leon’s very first single! Please help make his Christmas dreams come true….

Dannii x

Week 17

Just like Marmite, it's Team Minogue...
Love us, hate us, there's just no stopping us!

Cooooooeeeeeeeee music lovers!

From the start of auditions around the country, to judges’ homes in Ibiza, to the live finals – Team Minogue thanks you for putting two of my boys up there. I’m beaming so much; I bet you can feel my smile jumping off this page J

Leon (our very own ‘Braveheart’) and Rhydian (‘The Riddler’) will not let you down next week when they battle it out with Same Difference.

Being the newest judge, there is no better place to be than in the title fight against the ‘King of judges’…Mr Simon Cowell!

Special Guest Michael Bublé, ‘The King of Swing’, was crooning with his new single Lost. Michael is Leon’s idol and both our feet have still not touched the ground since Michael invited Leon to duet with him at his concert at Wembley last Tuesday night! They sang Michael’s song Home, and the audience jumped to their feet and gave the biggest applause. Michael said, “This guy is a star!”

Semi Final action Part One; for the judges’ choice of song:

For Leon, I chose, The Very Thought Of You; A classic love song that has been sung by all the greats, including Tony Bennett, Nat King Cole and Rod Stewart. This song makes me go weak at my knees and I loved watching the girls swoon over Leon! I could see nerves taking over, however, and backstage Leon reminded me of how he was in show one, and onstage, he was not as relaxed and in the zone. He still managed to win us over as he was as soft as his velvet suit and melted our hearts yet again.
Louis, “You have come such a long way in this competition, tonight you owned the stage”.
Sharon, “You’ve come so far and it’s been a pleasure to see it”.
Simon, “Let’s get real. It was one of your weakest performances for a while”.

For Rhydian, I chose, Bridge Over Troubled Water. I have wanted Rhydian to sing this song all series so it was a joy to see him perform so well; a handsome young man in a beautiful blue Alexander McQueen suit.
Louis, “You’re definitely going to make the final and probably win”.
Sharon, “It was absolutely, breathtakingly perfect”.
Simon, “That was bloody fantastic!”

Semi Final Part Two; for the contestants’ choice of song:

Leon chose to sing, How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) – we had been watching Michael Bublé sing this at Wembley and Leon was in his element. (Excuse me girls, but just how hot did he look in his leather jeans? Not many people can rock that look but, boy, our Braveheart is bringing sexy back!)
Louis, “You’re going to have an amazing recording career”.
Sharon, “Great confidence tonight, it looked so smooth”.
Simon, “You’re going to hate me tonight, you really are…it was all a bit too indulgent”.
Rhydian chose, You’ll Never Walk Alone. What a powerful song choice! Rhydian knows what suits him well – the lyrics and performance were both inspiring.
Louis, “That was an amazing performance…you were fantastic”.
Sharon, “There will be one proud mum here tonight, and I know exactly where she is”.
Simon, “A stunning performance”.

Michael’s comments on Leon and Rhydian:
On Leon, “I said to him at Wembley, ‘remember this dude when I could use a break’”.
On Rhydian, “I think he’s scary, his voice; El Divo and Josh Groban are looking behind them right now”.

Niki, we will all miss you. She has been a joy to have on the show, and the other contestants were really sad to have to say goodbye. I thought our ‘songbird’ gave a beautiful speech and I’m sure there will be people queuing up to work with her – Niki, you have to keep singing!

Favourite lines of the week:
Louis, “There is a circus in town, and Simon you are the biggest clown!”
Sharon, “He’s as serious as a heart attack”.
Simon, “My name is Simon Cowell” (for anyone that was unsure…)

Feel the love, and we will see you next week at the final.
Phones at the ready, this is the battle of the year, Team Minogue recruits...

Disco Dannii needs you!!!!!!!!!

Week 16

TRUE BRIT

Dannii returns to her Welsh roots to sing the praises of this week's Best of British performances.

Coooooooooooooooeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! For the first time… no voting from the judges and tough, tough competition.

You can feel that we are nearly at the final and close to Christmas, I mean, if the panel’s comments are anything to go by, the X Factor is not just a DVD game now, it’s also a weekly pantomime! It got so heated that I think it best I bring some mistletoe to work with me so we can all kiss and make up.

Song choices this week were in the theme ‘Best of British’ – so the net was wide open to catch all the greatest!

Rhydian opened the show with the classic by Queen, Somebody To Love. He was riding high on a grand piano with the sharpest Ozwald Boateng suit and the coolest dancers. He really was in his element and deserved all the amazing comments.
Louis: “I’m sure you’ll be in the final. Freddie Mercury would have loved that performance – it was passionate”.
Sharon: “Freddie was a good friend of mine, and I know he’s watching this performance and he’s saying bravo”.
Simon: “Tonight, for me, it is all about proving that you could survive in the real world outside of this competition, as a star. Based on that performance you could”.

Leon is Scotland’s very own Braveheart. There is no one that has come so far in such a short space of time. Louis is constantly making acerbic remarks about him being a Michael Bublé impersonator but Leon has had exactly seven performances to his name and is wowing the audience. Michael Bublé has had seven years of performing professionally; I really hope Leon gets that opportunity too. We do not currently have a star like this in the UK and it would be great to see ‘The Leon King’ fill that role. He owned the stage with his performance of Crazy Little Thing Called Love.
Louis: “I absolutely loved that performance. Since you got your confidence, you are fantastic”.
Sharon: “You are so damn cute, you know I love you”.
Simon: “What I saw tonight was that you have presence”.

In this section, we all thought that Hope let us down with their performance of 2 Become 1 – the vocals were just not on it (even Simon agreed!) Niki, however, packed a punch with Total Eclipse of the Heart – she was really in the zone.

I was not ready to like Same Difference singing Any Dream Will Do from Joseph (‘cos it’s not a song I like) but you know what?… they pulled it off so well and made me smile and smile – well done. I would love to see them in the final.

Leon’s second song choice was The Beatles’ classic, The Long and Winding Road. This song personifies classic Brit pop and I feel Leon is now delivering powerful performances – we are loving it!
Louis: “An absolutely brilliant performance. You absolutely nailed it”.
Sharon: “You’ve got heart in your eyes and you tell the story of the song”.
Simon: “I’ll see you in the semi-final”.

Rhydian chose, I Vow To Thee My Country/World in Union. This is the rugby national theme and, as Rugby was Rhydian’s first passion, he sang this for all his family and friends at home (I hear it was also Princess Diana’s favourite song and was played at her wedding).
Louis: “I think everyone in Wales is voting now”.
Sharon: “I didn’t know the song ‘cos it’s not really my sort of thingy, but you sang it very well”.
Simon: “I don’t think it matters whether you are English, Welsh, Scottish, Irish, British, whatever… that was outstanding!”

Rhydian does not have any sob story to tell and the country’s press have gone from hating him (or who they thought he was) to agreeing with the bookies that he is the favourite to win. He was genuinely nervous this week – he knows the competition is tough and would never let you down – he wants it 100%!!

Same Difference sang one of my all time favourite pop songs, Wake Me Up Before You Go Go. It was a pyjama party on stage with the cutest routine and a pillow fight! Poor Sarah got some feathers from the pillow fight stuck in the back of her throat just as the judges were giving their comments – bless you for keeping it together!

Niki pulled in a great performance of Fields of Gold and Hope did their best performance of the night with We Will Rock You.

So, the votes came in and everyone on stage was shaking in their shoes. Hope received the lowest amount of votes but vowed to stay together and hopefully release a great single and album.

The heat is on… and we are all ready to cook up a storm next week. The old saying is “too many cooks spoil the broth” so one more act will be leaving next week…

See you then for the judges’ choice of song for their act… and the acts’ favourite song too.
Ciao

Dannii x
P.S. I loved hearing that Gabrielle was a huge fan of Leon’s last week and, just to let you know, Rhydian received a letter from the writer of You Raise Me Up to say it was the best rendition of that song he had heard – Go Team Minogue!