X Factor Soundcheck Review - Louis Walsh In Shock As He "Smells The Coffee" Over Shayne Ward;

ITV treat us to two soundchecks this evening - Journey South singing Rod Stewart's
"You're In My Heart" and Shayne singing Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now".

Journey South sounded very polished and very comfortable. Saturday's Rod Stewart rendition is going to be an acoustic (unplugged as MTV would say) treat - two voices, one guitar and the only backing a violin (unseen on the soundcheck). The small audience were impressed and gave JS a warm, unprompted round of applause at the end.

Shayne Ward's performance however was the reverse and the penny seems to have finally
dropped for "Mentor" Louis Walsh (see our "What mentor" preview) http://specialbets.blogspot.com/2005/12/x-factor-preview-1012-mentor-louis.html

We've discussed Louis' poor song choices for Shayne and Shayne's sore throat but tonight we heard something new from Shayne - his voice actually breaking down on stage. We're not clever enough to host the actual sound file (yet) at Special Bets but here's what we heard;

.....There’s no stopping me
I’m burning through the sky yeah!
Two hundred degrees
That’s why they call me mister fahrenheit (Shayne goes flat on 'fahrenheit')
I’m trav’ling at the speed of light
I (voice breaks) wanna make a supersonic man out of you ('you' sung out of tune & poorly)
Don’t stop me now I’m having such a good time
I’m having a ball don’t stop me now
If you wanna have a good time just give me a call - (to protect his voice Shayne sings this all an octave lower - that's 8 notes lower for non-musos).
Don’t stop me now (’cause I’m havin’ a good time)
Don’t stop me now (yes I’m havin’ a good time)
I don’t want to stop at all
Don’t stop me don’t stop me
Don’t stop me hey hey hey!
Don’t stop me don’t stop me ooh ooh ooh (I like it)

The defining moment came from Shayne's own "mentor" - Louis Walsh. The camera turned to Louis as Shayne was finishing this tragic showing;

*Ben Shephard - "Louis, talk us through the song ..."

*Louis - "Its a very... (hard song to sing?)... nobody can sing a Freddie Mercury song like that, that is...you really have to be a good singer to do that"

*Ben Shephard "He's had a bad throat all week hasn't he... GENUINELY "

*Louis "Yes he had the doctor... but Shayne's a PERFORMER as well as a singer and he's a very versatile singer.. versatile, he can do anything, he can do The Darkness, he can do Take That .."

Interview ends with..

*Ben Shephard "feeling confident Louis?"

*Louis "No, I'm not confident...(no irony or cleverness in Louis' voice) "look at what happened last year... I'm hoping people vote for Shayne Ward"
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Special Bets think Saturday is going to be the defining moment of the show... Shayne's voice is wrecked & Louis has not helped - meanwhile Brenda sounded amazing and Simon Cowell is being highly effective with Journey South.

We fear that on Saturday Shayne may lose his status as favourite, Journey South will challenge for the top spot, Brenda will become the new contender for 2nd favourite and poor Andy will sing his swan song. Special Bets.

Current Betfair outright odds; Shayne 2.24 Journey South 3.7 Brenda 5 Andy 12

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