If they really want to, boys can be way bitchier bitches than girls.
In an interview with the Daily Star SundayEoghan Quigg, who finished 3rd in last year’s X Factor, lashed out at last year’s Britain’s Got Talent winner George Sampson:
“I don’t know what George’s problem is. We met once and we spoke and it was fine. Then he posted loads of rude stuff about me on his website.
“Clearly it’s jealousy. I mean, he was the only young heartthrob on the scene last year and now I’m here. And let’s be honest, there’s only so much dancing you can do.
“He tried bringing out a song but that was an absolute flop. What’s he gonna do, dance until he’s a pensioner?”
Ouch!
I like both guys, and I don’t really want to take sides in this schoolboy fight, especially since I haven’t read what George supposedly wrote about Eoghan. But I have to say to Eoghan that talking about other people’s “flops” isn’t the smartest thing to do when your own stuff isn’t exactly doing too well either.
George Sampson released the DVD Access 2 All Areas that made it to #1 in the UK Music DVD Charts. Eoghan Quigg’s self-titled debut album made it to #14 in the UK Album Charts.
Okay, that’s apples and oranges.
But both guys also released a single. George’s Get Up On The Dance Floor debuted at #30 in the UK Singles Top100 and stayed in the charts for four weeks. Eoghan’s single 28,000 Friends reached #32 in Ireland but failed to chart in the UK.
Maybe it’s because I’ve been in the Johnny’s fandom for so long that I can relate to this piece of news so much, or maybe it’s because I’ll always prefer the freshness of a young artist over the relative staleness of a media mogul who’s been in the game for so long that he’s beginning to lose touch with the audience or interest in the artists.
George Sampson has reportedly claimed that Simon Cowell is to blame for the disappointing performance of his debut single.
The Britain’s Got Talent winner peaked at number thirty in the chart when he released Get Up On The Dance Floor last month.
Sampson has since brought out a DVD entitled Access 2 All Areas, which includes behind the scenes footage of his recent UK tour and a dance tutorial.
Discussing how Cowell’s decisions led to poor single sales, Sampson told the Daily Star: “It was purely based on the timing, which was wrong. We should have done the DVD first to get the visual and let everyone see the new routine on the Royal Variety Show, then brought out the single.”
The 15-year-old also apparently suggested that Cowell had mishandled the career of Leon Jackson, who released his debut album Right Now in October after winning X Factor’s 2007 series.
“He left it too long,” Sampson explained. “People forget about you after a year, he needed to move quicker.”
=====
You’ve got to be kidding me. “We should have done the DVD first to get the visual and let everyone see the new routine on the Royal Variety Show, then brought out the single.” Well of course you should have. It’s as easy as 1-2-3, how on earth is it even possible that George knows it and Cowell doesn’t?
It’s not poassible. Simon Cowell couldn’t be in this business if he didn’t know it. I’ve always said Cowell knows what he’s doing, and he does. It’s just a matter of bad timing you know. George won BGT on May 31st. August or September would have been the perfect time for his CD single and DVD debut. You know, work with him a couple of weeks, record the music and the video, play it on the radio, throw it on TV, live appearance on whichever entertainment spectacle currently covers the Saturday nicht prime time slot. Followed by a simultaneous CD/DVD release the next week and not two months earlier. Please, it’s not rocket science.
Too bad that by the perfect time for George’s debut Simon Cowell was already too busy with X-Factor 2008 and couldn’t be bothered anymore. Or maybe it just didn’t occur to him that George Sampson could have promoted his releases on X-Factor. Either way -10 points for Cowell.
George could have been a back dancer for Eoghan Quigg, and a substantial number of the millions of people who voted for Eoghan every week would have bought George’s single and DVD. That’s a lot of money lost, Simon Cowell, and I’m not sure they saved it up for Alexandra Burke.
The show is still going on as I’m writing this. I’ve just watched the first song of each of the contestants. I know I’ve been backing Eoghan ever since he first auditioned, and only yesterday I wrote that I still think he’s gonna win, but when I found out about tonight’s running order and the songs the finalists would perform for the first time I thought I might have been wrong. Not about how this show works. I still think they’re trying to manipulate the public into voting for one act, but this is the first time I think that one act might not be Eoghan.
Eoghan started off the show with I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day, and he was not good. He wasn’t exactly bad, and maybe he wasn’t even worse than in previous shows, but for this one I gave him 5 out of 10. Maybe 5.5, but not more. The judges comments did the rest for me. They were all very nice comments, but they didn’t comment on the performance really. “I always knew you’d be in the final, and I’m glad you’re in the final” sounds great, but it leaves out the essential part: “But it wasn’t all that great.”
Next up were JLS with Last Christmas, and not very surprisingly probably the most popular Christmas pop song brought out the best JLS I have seen so far. However, the best of JLS is still not great. 7/10 for me.
Then Alexandra got to sing what probably the most popular Christmas song ever, Silent Night. And I’m sorry, and despite the “Outstanding!” comments from Simon Cowell, I thought she totally ruined it. She does have a great voice, no doubt about that, but honestly, spending 5 notes on every other syllable is way too much of a good thing for me. Silent Night is also my favourite Christmas song, but this version didn’t work for me at all. 6/10.
So the first round left me somewhat disappointed because I thought the standard of all the finalists would be a wee bit higher than an average 6/10.
During the show I was also monitoring live forum discussion and it struck me as kinda odd how many people seemed to have problems getting through because all the phone lines were busy. I’m not saying that this is what happened, but it would be another nice way to manipulate the show by just not letting the votes through that you don’t want to get through. If I were a TV producer this would definitely be one possibilities I’d look into if I were so inclined.
Next all three finalists were performing songs together with top pop acts, and it was my least favourite part of the evening because quite frankly I couldn’t see the point of it, so I’m gonna make this short. They were all 7/10 for me. Eoghan was way better than in his first song. Because of that and because I’m biased I’d even give him 7.5/10.
Finally the finalists got to perform their very own favourite songs of the series. Eoghan started it off with We’re All In This Together. I think he did okay. In the West End I’d give him a standing ovation, but I probably wouldn’t buy his CD. Simon said it was better than last week, I didn’t think so, so I’m giving him 7/10 for this one.
Alexandra’s performance of You Are So Beautiful was very good, but still not extraordinary. 8/10.
JLS did I’m Already There again, and they were doing quite nicely actually. 8/10, and it was the first time in the whole series that I thought they might actually win this competition.
So adding up my scores after the three rounds it’s Eoghan 19, Alexandra 21, and JLS 22. If I were objective I’d have to vote for JLS! But I’m not objective, and neither are the viewers in the UK who are voting right now, so I still thought it was an open race at this point.
All of Eoghan’s performances of tonight are over at my Youtube channel. And here’s the result:
So this is it. Eoghan’s dream is over, and to be very honest, based on tonight’s performances he didn’t really deserve to win. It’s a shame really because I liked him a lot, but in the end I’m not surprised. I still think the producers knew tonight’s winner before the voting even started. They just picked someone else than I would have.
Alexandra won the competition, and based on her talent she probably deserved it. But I don’t really care.
Okay, so when does Britain’s Got Talent start again?
last month.
