“You are the X Factor”. ”You are a star”. The emphatic statements of X Factor reality show judges Simon Cowell and Louis Walsh to twenty-one-year old Shayne Ward, in Saturdays final, after his last song showdown with fellow finalist, forty-one-year old Andy Abraham. At that moment, Cowell and Walsh collaboratively sealed the fate of both finalists: Shayne the winner and Andy runner up.
Yes, the public were given the power to decide this year’s winner. Over 10 million people voted for the acts. But the X Factor is about clever manipulation. Playing the role of music pundits like the real life positions of Cowell and Walsh, voters were encouraged to think like them and make Shayne the victor, in the hope that the shop assistant from Manchester can replicate the commercial success of Pop Idol champion Will Young. Ward has the necessary criteria: a young white male who could occupy the mainstream position in the British pop market, attracting a lucrative teenage fan base of both girls and boys. Andy, older, black and equally, if not more talented, did not.
The X Factor show sets it self up as a vehicle for discovering talented singers with exceptional appeal and propelling them to long term stardom. It has been a phenomenal hit with viewers. An estimated 9.3 million of them watched the finale. However, the programmes credibility is in doubt with the failure of last year’s winner, Steve Brookstein, to make an impact as a recording artist. Cowell and his team have shortened the ladder of opportunity for some contestants in a desperate bid to turn out a reproduction of a ‘chart star’. This year’s competition had less of the X Factor about it and more of the Will Young Factor. Next years model may be new ‘pop princess’ Charlotte Church. 2006 competitors beware.
Thomas L. Blair is a sociologist and political blogger on the Chronicleworld 'for creative renewal in Black Britain and Afro-Europe'. His work is honoured in the British Library's archive of "social, historic and culturally significant web-based material from the UK domain". He won top prize in the blogging competition on The-Latest.
Sumantra Maitra is a freelance journalist from Mumbai, India. He is a correspondent for All Sports magazine, and a foreign affairs blogger for the Washington Examiner. He has written articles for news website Merinews.com and other regional publications. Sumantra runs a blog at DailyWorldWatch.wordpress.com. He provided exclusive eyewitness reports for The-Latest on the Mumbai bombings of 2008.
Brian Usher is photography consultant for The-Latest.Com. He is a highly experienced editorial and commercial photographer whose work has been published throughout the world, appearing in many well known magazines and newspapers. Brian has featured in several books and has been a writer for the Royal Photographic Society magazine.
Heidi Kingstone has spent time in Afghanistan reporting for a number of publications. Her work has appeared in the Financial Times, The Spectator, The Sunday Times and other international journals. She has also reported from places like Iraq, Rwanda, Lebanon, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Kenya. Heidi is The-Latest's Editor at large.
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