IRISH SCHOOLGIRL Janet Devlin made it through to yet another round of the X FactorTV talent show after a decidedly borderline performance.
With assurances she was going "back to her roots" and wearing her own, casually stylish outfit rather than the sex-kitten threads provided for her some weeks back, the Tyrone singer – who turned 17 on Saturday – gave a stripped-back interpretation of Queen's Somebody To Love.
The voting public disagreed with judges Tulisa Contostavlos and Gary Barlow that it was “one-dimensional” and “boring”, respectively.
Devlin now joins five others – Craig Colton, Marcus Collins, Amelia Lily, Misha B and girl-group Little Mix – to fight it out for the overall prize of a recording contract, after Kitty Brucknell, widely regarded as one of the strongest contenders, suffered a shock elimination in last night’s results show. The final showdown of the karaoke competition takes place on December 10th.
Transmission of Saturday night’s live show was delayed by 15 minutes, and was blamed on a power-cut by presenter Dermot O’Leary.
Knock-on problems for the 24-hour telephone vote won't help the image problems suffered by the programme in recent weeks, including falling ratings and negative reviews for a talent-lite roster of finalists. Certainly, Saturday's show was notable for its lack of a standout performance, although that could be down to the Queen-Lady Gaga theme. The off-kilter atmosphere rounded off a week of bizarre events, starting with party-boy Frankie Cocozza being given his marching orders from the competition last Tuesday, for breaking an unspecified "golden rule". As many a commentator has since pointed out, the scandal – whether real or manufactured – had the show back on the front pages of the tabloids at a critical stage in the ratings war with BBC rival Strictly Come Dancing.
If Cocozza’s abrupt fall from grace wasn’t surreal enough, four contenders previously voted off were this weekend resurrected, Lazurus-style, for a public vote so one of them could take his place.
The winner of that vote, Amelia Lily, is now a serious contender for the jackpot.