The X Factor

A belated look through the acts on last Saturday's Michael Jackson themed X Factor...

Alexandra - another good performance - 4/5

Scott - better song choice and performance this week, but he's just so generic and bland - 3/5

Ruth - unlike Simon, I think it was good that Ruth dropped the spanish because it seemed like a gimmick that was wearing thin. By all means, don't drop it forever, just don't do it every damn week. A bit of a surprise to see her in the bottom two - 3/5

Girlband - as with the previous week, Layla showed she's the only one of them who can sing properly. Although they were better, there was nothing about the performance that suggested they could go very far. I wouldn't have put them in the bottom two though - 3/5

Laura - not quite up to the awesome standard of week one, but still pretty damn good - 4/5

Austin - see Scott - 3/5

Daniel - truly woeful. Survived because he's a 'nice guy'. Louis is right too, he does look like Ricky Gervais - 1/5

JLS - loved by the audience and teenage girls, did nothing for me. Just not my thing, though their stage performance was pretty good - 2/5

Diana - now we're talking, Diana knocks it out of the park once again - 5/5



Rachel - butch Rihanna is back with a song arguably no better than in the previous week and a performance to match. What happened to the woman who sounded like Amy Winehouse in the first audition? - 2/5

Eoghan - singing Ben. How unpredictable in Michael Jackson week. Hasn't got the vocal power to make it all the way through the series, but may habg around for a while because people think he's a cute boy - 2/5

So Ruth and Girlband in the bottom two...

Ruth - unleashed the X Factor equivalent of a nuclear bomb. How Simon could choose Girlband over her is beyond me, but if she can replicate that performance in future weeks she could go very far indeed. Terrific stuff - 5/5



Girlband - salvaged some self-respect with their best performance of the series, but they were never going to win after that performance from Ruth - 4/5

Overall then, I would have dumped Daniel Evans, but Girlband were going to go sooner or later so it may as well have been now. Cheryl's still hot favourite to have the winning act, but Ruth could be a dark horse for Dannii.