If you watched the X Factor this year, if you loved it – of course you did, it was obviously the best so far – then you couldn’t possibly have been disappointed by the stars of the show LIVE. ON. STAGE. IN. FRONT. OF. YOUR. VERY. EYES!
Indeed, after being surrounded by hysterical tweenagers for two-and-a-half hours, I was OMGing with the best of them as the highlights of the contest were played out hit-by-hit.
Wagner sang Love Shack with the all the intonation of an intoxicated Jack Duckworth, One Direction nailed Rihanna’s Only Girl In The World and Aiden Grimshaw’s trademark rendition of Mad World was so intensely sexy that I could have watched his pained face all night.
Much like the primetime programme, the show was – to dredge up the most over-used cliché of all reality TV – a “rollercoaster of emotions”. We went from Livin’ La Vida Loca to dreaming of dying in a split second.
Blink and you’d miss the next act arriving on stage. They came from the floorboards, rose up on platforms, and Mary Byrne kept appearing seemingly from nowhere. When my friend announced that Harry from One Direction was hidden strategically under his chair, waiting for his big entrance, I could quite easily believe him.
But while now-professional pop stars Rebecca and Cher proved that they could have held the crowd’s attention for a full show, particularly with classics such as Sweet Dreams and Stay With Me, it was Britain’s “next big boy band” and “Maaatt Caaardle”
who had fans aged five to 50 up in the aisles, banners and all.
I’d never been to a pop concert before, but I now feel like I’ve been to ten. And that’s not enough – I want more.
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