X Factor 2011: Wild child Richards a false dawn?

X-Factor / Mike Norman / 05 September 2011 / 2

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Jade Richards - not as good as Saturday’s audition made her out to be?

"There’s no question however that the category of Female Solo (aged 16-28) has made a cracking start to this year’s competition, which is why it’s the early favourite at [2.58] in Betfair’s Winning Category market, just ahead of Male Solo ([3.2])."

After a few more audition shows the whole nation is talking about a 21-year-old Scottish girl, but Mike Norman wasn't as impressed as everyone else and believes she won't appeal enough to win.

The X Factor is in danger of becoming the Y Factor - the Y standing for young - on the evidence of what we've seen so far this year. Sixteen-year-old Janet Devlin and 18-year-old Frankie Cocozza were the star performers in week one, and in the last fortnight we've witnessed a plethora of youngsters impressing with their auditions.

Few will argue that none were more impressive than 21-year-old Jade Richards however, the student from Buckhaven, Fife, reduced judges Kelly Rowland and Louis Walsh to tears after her rendition of Adele's Someone Like You.

As I always do, I've watched back Richards' audition many times now and whilst I admit she produced a fabulous performance, at the same time I'm struggling to understand why she received such huge plaudits.

I absolutely love the song, it's a very private and emotional song that Adele sings beautifully. Of course, no-one expects an X-Factor auditionee to sing as well as Adele but from the praise that she received you'd think that is exactly what she did. But she is far from being as marvellous as the nation appears to be making her out to be.

What some viewers don't realise is that the X Factor is massively edited, which was the very case with Richards' audition. She actually performed the Etta James' song All I Could Do Was Cry initially, but the judges weren't blown away resulting in Walsh asking her to perform Someone Like You.

As it turned out she performed this song very well but it's the type of song that, if nailed, it can make someone out to be a very good singer. I'm not at all convinced that Richards will be as good as a lot of people are expecting her to be, though I can reveal - according to my spies - that she does reach the Judges Houses stage of the competition. There are already newspaper reports surfacing that she is a bit of a wild child too, and when you add this to her Goth-like appearance I'm not convinced that she will appeal to the public in the same way that she did on Saturday night.

There's no question however that the category of Female Solo (aged 16-28) has made a cracking start to this year's competition, which is why it's the early favourite at [2.58] in Betfair's Winning Category market, just ahead of Male Solo ([3.2]).

Strengthening the case for the young solo females was 19-year-old Misha Bryan, a vocal arts student from Manchester who impressed the judges with her rendition of the Aretha Franklin hit R.E.S.P.E.C.T. Bryan put her own individual style on a big song and came across as a very confident a likeable young woman. Tulisa Contostavlos clapped and sang along, Gary Barlow smiled with delight, Rowland gave her a standing ovation, and Walsh burst out with, "That's how to do an audition!"

It's fair to say then that we'll be seeing a lot more of Bryan as the show progresses and therefore she definitely gets into my 'Ones To Watch' list below, slotting neatly between Devlin and Cocozza. Notice that I haven't included Jade Richards. Foolishly perhaps? Let me know what you think.

Also making my early list is 16-year-old Luke Lucas and boy band The Keys. Lucas, another young male in the cheeky-chap mould - and a massive crush on Tulisa - performed really well with his rendition of the Michael Jackson song Who's Loving You. True, first and foremost on the X Factor you must have the ability to sing, but perhaps next important is to appeal to the public. Lucas's personality arguably appealed more than his singing ability, but he's one of those acts who might just get better as the show progresses.

The Keys also impressed as a well-rehearsed boy band, with each of the quintet appearing to have the ability to sing. They had to be good after telling Barlow they want to be as successful as Take That, and they didn't let anyone down, producing a slick rendition of I Need A Dollar by Aloe Blacc that had Barlow saying, "I just thought it was awesome, well done."

X Factor 2011 ones to watch

Janet Devlin
Misha Bryan
Frankie Cocozza
Luke Lucas
The Keys

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Sasha | 05 September 2011

Agree she doesn't have the appeal but you have to admit she was fantastic. Will she be able to perform other songs only time will tell but don't discount her yet.
Lucy | 06 September 2011

I would strike Frankie off the list of 'ones to watch' because I think his appeal is more in his cheek than his singing. He will only get so far, but then he will lose out to the stronger singers in the competition.

I thought Jade Richards was really good but she didn't reduce me to tears. 'Someone like you' is the kind of song that will reduce *anyone* to tears if they can relate to the lyrics, never mind the singing. People would probably cry at a karaoke bar if they heard that song. Jade is a good singer, but she doesn't have that extra something that Janet Devlin and Misha Bryan have. The latter two really stood out for originatlity and uniqueness - Jade just sounded like Adele, and we already *have* and Adele, we don't need another one.