So Farewell Then, John and Edward
They've become a bit of a phenomenon, John and Edward, over the past weeks.
For those of you who don't know, they are contestants on The X-Factor, and if you've been living in a cave in the desert and don't know what that is, it's a televised nationwide singing competition in Britain. Of the twelve finalists, one act gets voted off every week, until one remains and is pretty much guaranteed the Christmas Number 1 and some winners, such as Leona Lewis or last year's Alexandra Burke, do very well afterwards too.
Some people criticise the whole competition - which is fine - - and complain that the contestants have no talent - - which is not. I think that this year's bunch have been particularly talented, as a matter of fact.
Except for John and Edward.
These two are seventeen-year-old identical twins from Ireland with identical blond vertical hair. They have an identical lack of talent, too: they can't really sing and they can't really dance. But they have tremendous energy, masses of self-belief and self-confidence, and have also shown a quite amazing resilience as every week they've been greeted by loud boos from the - always slightly hysterical - X-Factor audience.
They've been in the bottom two before in a previous week and been saved from elimination by Simon Cowell letting the public vote decide - - and they'd had more votes from the public than the other contestant, so they stayed.
They've been promoted well beyond their talent and I think that they've only got this far because lots of young girls fancy them. Their Unique Selling Point - - well, actually, I could be cruel and say it's their Only Selling Point - - is that there are two of them. Ooh! Look! TWO of them! And they're JUST THE SAME!
The Boyzone song that they sang when they were in the bottom two tonight had a large assortment of notes in it, most of which remained undiscovered by Jedward (as the public has taken to calling them).
Every week their mentor Louis Walsh has cleverly concealed their lack of ability by adding lots of other people on the stage doing lots of jumping about in bright costumes. The song tonight, however, required excellent voices singing in harmony, and hence left the twins totally exposed as they clunked their way through it.
They were up against Olly Murs, who is an excellent singer and a superb performer too - - and Dannii Minogue had the vote which finally sent the twins out of the competition.
I don't expect it's the last we'll hear of them though. It's possible to get a long way on self-possession, and I'm sure they'll stay in the public eye for a while yet.
So there you go. Visit Daphne's blog for all the important world news, brought to you fast.
For those of you who don't know, they are contestants on The X-Factor, and if you've been living in a cave in the desert and don't know what that is, it's a televised nationwide singing competition in Britain. Of the twelve finalists, one act gets voted off every week, until one remains and is pretty much guaranteed the Christmas Number 1 and some winners, such as Leona Lewis or last year's Alexandra Burke, do very well afterwards too.
Some people criticise the whole competition - which is fine - - and complain that the contestants have no talent - - which is not. I think that this year's bunch have been particularly talented, as a matter of fact.
Except for John and Edward.
These two are seventeen-year-old identical twins from Ireland with identical blond vertical hair. They have an identical lack of talent, too: they can't really sing and they can't really dance. But they have tremendous energy, masses of self-belief and self-confidence, and have also shown a quite amazing resilience as every week they've been greeted by loud boos from the - always slightly hysterical - X-Factor audience.
They've been in the bottom two before in a previous week and been saved from elimination by Simon Cowell letting the public vote decide - - and they'd had more votes from the public than the other contestant, so they stayed.
They've been promoted well beyond their talent and I think that they've only got this far because lots of young girls fancy them. Their Unique Selling Point - - well, actually, I could be cruel and say it's their Only Selling Point - - is that there are two of them. Ooh! Look! TWO of them! And they're JUST THE SAME!
The Boyzone song that they sang when they were in the bottom two tonight had a large assortment of notes in it, most of which remained undiscovered by Jedward (as the public has taken to calling them).
Every week their mentor Louis Walsh has cleverly concealed their lack of ability by adding lots of other people on the stage doing lots of jumping about in bright costumes. The song tonight, however, required excellent voices singing in harmony, and hence left the twins totally exposed as they clunked their way through it.
They were up against Olly Murs, who is an excellent singer and a superb performer too - - and Dannii Minogue had the vote which finally sent the twins out of the competition.
I don't expect it's the last we'll hear of them though. It's possible to get a long way on self-possession, and I'm sure they'll stay in the public eye for a while yet.
So there you go. Visit Daphne's blog for all the important world news, brought to you fast.
posted by Daphne at 8:57 pm
5 Comments:
Until I read this post, I thought you were an intelligent, cultured and discerning Leodensian but now I am not so sure. For me the X in "X Factor" stands for trivilisation, exploitation, hollowness, self-promotion and greed. If a bomb landed on the studio I wouldn't be shedding any tears.
Everyone needs to relax trivially sometimes, YP!
Personally, it made my evening seeing those two voted out. Now we can focus on the remaining contestants who CAN sing. :)
This comment has nothing to do with this post because you are in England and I'm not and we don't get that program in the U.S., but since I am in the U.S. and you're not, I wonder if you know the terms Estes Park, Colorado and Garrison Keillor? Of the A Prairie Home Companion Keillors?
Anyway, Mr. Keillor also hosts a daily program called The Writer's Almanac on our public radio; it always includes a poem and famous births, deaths, and other events of that particular date. I was going back through the printed version of Writer's Almanac and ran across this poem for November 5, and immediately thought of you.
I do know, of course, who Simon Cowell is.
And just in case you are unaware, that poem is a parody of Psalm 137 in the Old Testament.
YP - - I think I'll have to write about this!
Jenny - me too!
RWP - THank you for the poem - I knew it was a parody of a psalm but didn't know the number of course!
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