By Last week's group challenges brought us plenty of ups and downs (and an unforgivable number of missed lyrics). We're at the second stage of Boot Camp this week, and we're in for plenty more drama as the contestants will be singing individually.
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We've heard there's going to be a wardrobe malfunction to rival Madonna's amongst plenty of other memorable moments and we're already on the edge of our seats. Join us from 7pm as we bring you all the action from Boot Camp as it happens...
20:59So that's it for this week! Thank you for joining us, as always it's been loads of fun. Next week it's time for the Six Chair Challenge. The trailer looks particularly dramatic and best of all, it looks like Simon will be sporting some interesting facial hair! Join us on Sunday 4th October at 7pm and we'll be liveblogging it as it happens!
20:56It has made our evening that Lovely Anton is through, and we're pleased to see that Kiera Weathers has made it as well. Her "OH MY GOD" reaction is priceless.
20:55The judges send Holly home, and then change their minds and bring her back and decide to give her a second chance.
20:54WHY do the judges have to do the... "it's bad news....BUT YOU'LL BE SEEING US AGAIN!" thing? Imagine if that happened in real life, in a job interview? Cruel, if you ask us.
20:53Of course 4th Power/Impact, Che and Josh Daniel are all through too!
20:53Papasidero: Angel of Death, Joseph 'The Fly' McCaul and Silver Tone are all through!
20:52We're sad to see that Gifty hasn't made it. She's so upset that she denies hugs from Olly and Caroline.
20:51Monica reminds us YET AGAIN that she got up to the Six Chair Challenge last year. Luckily for her, her, Louisa and others are through to the Six Chair Challenge again this year.
20:50Seann Miley Moore, Upsettingly Young Charli and others are also through!
20:50A group including Lauren the Dental Receptionist, Simon From the Isle of Man, Chloe Who Improved Take Me To Church, Alien and others are all through!
20:49Rita calls in a group that includes Ankush and Jamie "Olly Murs" Benkert, who unfortunately haven't got through. Rita describes it as "the most difficult thing she's ever had to do." Let's break down that statement: The. Most. Difficult. Thing. She's. EVER. Had. To. Do. Wow. Still, it isn't easy watching.
20:47It's time for an eternal feature of all Boot Camp episodes: a very long montage of cryptic comments whilst judges peer pensively at Polaroids of the contestants that we can't see. The one difference of this series is that Nick is up on Skype. Simon strangely refuses to address him directly, asking Rita if she can ask Nick his opinion rather than speaking to him himself, and then in frustration shuts the laptop so Nick can no longer contribute. We wonder if Simon has any regrets. Louis Walsh never had radio commitments.
20:44Since when has Mark Wright been advertising yoghurt waving about a giant white feather?!
20:41We agree. Also: Can you imagine sitting in a job interview and spending the whole time slagging off your previous miserable job?!
Can you imagine sitting in a job interview and whinging about your childhood? #XFactor
— The Guyliner (@theguyliner) September 27, 2015
20:39Charli sings 'Without You' by David Guetta ft Usher, and it's very good. Cheryl loves her, but Simon's not quite as sure. We wondered if this live blog would continue on into our seventies, but unbelievably enough Charli was the final audition, so all we have left is the results of who's through to the Six Chair Challenge...
20:37Charli was ABOUT FIVE when X Factor started. We literally feel TWELVE BILLION YEARS OLD. Imagine being ABOUT FIVE. She probably doesn't even remember Steve Brookstein properly. God, she was an INFANT for POPSTARS.
20:36Gifty is up next singing 'Stand By Me'. We aren't sure about her take on the chorus to be honest, and don't love it. Rita feels that "it's all there, but needs to be put together".
20:35Chloe the market trader is up next. She does the unthinkable and makes the chorus to 'Take Me To Church' sound like ACTUAL SINGING rather than the INANE HUSKY SHOUTING of the original. We personally love it.
20:34Louisa has to battle her nerves for the next performance, and she touchingly (read: oddly) shares her concerns with several different members of the production team. Simon's not that sympathetic when it comes to nerves: in the real world you have to compete with the greatest.
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Louisa sings 'Lay Me Down' by Sam Smith (an artist she already outstrips by miles), starting off a bit nervous but gradually coming into her own and sounding amazing. We love her flares.
The judges love it, and it's Odd Judge Analogy o'clock, with Cheryl commenting that we "opened the gate and LET her through" complete with bizarre hand gestures.
20:26Next up is 18-year-old Kiera Weathers. She sings 'Me and My Broken Heart' by Rixton, which is basically our FAVOURITE SONG. We have been known to frighten strangers on the tube by suddenly and unexpectedly grinning when it comes on shuffle. Honestly, you should see the smile on our face RIGHT NOW for the reminder that this INCREDIBLE PIECE OF MUSIC exists. Our obsession with this song is SO WELL KNOWN throughout the community our phone is currently BLOWING UP with notifications that our favourite song is currently on ITV. Seriously. Anyway, our love for this song aside, we aren't sure that this song is the right choice to show off her voice. Rita and Cheryl agree with us, and Simon comments that he doesn't like her voice.
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20:22Jennifer is up next. We love Jennifer. She sings 'Without You' and we must admit it is not full of the absolute joy that made her previous performances so special. She can really sing. Cheryl loves her, but Simon agrees with us - he prefers her when she sings songs a little more gospelly.
20:21Ankush is up next singing 'Love Me Like You Do'. Simon comments: "He obviously was listening to something we weren't because he was all happy. I can't think of anything positive to say about that." Ouch. Someone's in a bad mood today! We kind of miss the bizarre sci-fi references from the earlier auditions.
20:20Holly Johnson is up next singing 'Like I Can' by Sam Smith. She sounds great, Rita loves her voice, but Simon thinks she has no personality.
20:19First Kings sing 'Just Be Good To Me' complete with N*Sync style dance moves. Olly comments that there's too much dancing, and that's coming from the man who did the 'Thinking Of Me' video. There's tension as Cheryl feels it was dated, but Rita thinks it was really good. Cheryl comments on the dance moves, but Rita can only sigh and say, "I kind of was LISTENING to their VOCALS." Ouch.
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20:16We're into day 2 of the auditions, and Nick isn't in today because of "radio commitments". First up is First Kings, the boy band that auditioned with 'Uptown Funk' and that everybody loved.
20:15Side note: What is this "Release The Hounds" gameshow that was just advertised?! Are we living in a Mr Burns themed episode of Black Mirror, or what?!
20:104th Power (4th Impact) sing 'Titanium'. They sound amazing and their dance moves are as always, on point. Simon feels it wasn't as strong as previous performances, but was still excellent compared to everyone else. The judges then proceed to argue over who will mentor the groups, which results in this incredible display of shade:
Cheryl: Has anyone ever been in a group?
Rita: I've been in a group. I've been in THREE.
Nick: (side-eye) A SUCCESSFUL group.
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Of course, we now know that Cheryl has the groups!
20:074th Power (since renamed as 4th Impact) are up next! It's their first time ever in London, and they've selfied themselves proud. (We've lived in London seven years and still take a selfie every single time we walk past a landmark).
20:05Ben Clark is up next singing 'Stay' by Rihanna. We love the song already, and it sounds great in his voice. What we don't love is Rita describing the performance as "real". We're a bit tired of discussion over Real Music after all the tweets we've seen about Ryan Adams' version of 1989 this week, and we really thought X Factor of all places was a safe space from discussion of "Real Music". All we shall say is that Ben's performance was just as corporeal as Bupsi's was.
20:04Bupsi isn't very well, and has had to get her chest x-rayed. She sings Paul Young - 'Every Time You Go Away', and we must admit, it's not up to her usual standard. Simon says he loves her to death, but there's better singers. We'd have to reluctantly agree, but we hope Simon remembers she's been poorly! We definitely haven't reached our Bupsi quota yet.
20:02BUPSI IS BACK! We love Bupsi. Almost as much as we love the sound of Cheryl saying "Bupsi".
20:01Mason Noise has no doubt he could be one of the biggest acts X Factor has ever seen. He describes his main ambition as to "not having to introduce himself anymore" (and with a name like Mason Noise, who could blame him?) He sings a mashup of 'Gonna Give It Up' and 'Uptown Funk'. We know that he's likely to divide opinion, as generally society doesn't like us to be fans of people that are confident in their abilities, but you have to admit it, Mason is great and absolutely oozes stage presence. He's an exciting contestant.
19:59Next up we've got an intercut montage of Havva, Jamie "Olly Murs" Benkert and Ebru. They're all quite clearly nervous and have lost their confidence to the point it's quite uncomfortable to watch. Not least because Havva sings 'Budapest', which might be our ULTIMATE LEAST FAVOURITE SONG. Not for the song itself, but for all the "real music" it stands for. Anyway.
19:57Doesn't the house look LOVELY in the dark? We will not shut up about those patio heaters.
19:56Imagine.
No more A Song For You now pls. Can someone just do Put The Needle On It or something? #XFactorBootCamp
— David Lim (@feedlimmy) September 27, 2015
19:52Next we've got Che Chestermen. He has issues with nerves and feels it's hard to stand out. Unfortunately we have yet ANOTHER performance of 'A Song For You' - this week's 'Blank Space' - but Che is incredible and we're blown away. Cheryl comments on the effortlessness on his performance, but Simon is worried that he has no personality or presence.
Olly comments that if he could only hit one of those notes IN HIS LIFE he'd be delighted. Vaguely worrying coming from someone that literally once came second place in the entire competition...
Simon's back with yet another bizarre analogy following The Fly comments earlier - "Imagine you get a Kinder Egg, and out comes a fully grown chicken." We would love to get an understanding into how this man's brain works.
19:48Andre is up next, wearing an incredible polka dot shirt. He has an amazing habit of throwing ticker tape in the air wherever he goes. We might start doing this at the start of all of our conversations. He embarks on a very strange performance of 'No No No' by Dawn Penn. Cheryl is in absolute fits of laughter and needs he makeup fixed. As Anton exists the stage he calls Caroline "Auntie Carol." Amazing.
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19:47Gem is up next, singing 'Heroes' by David Bowie. It is honestly appalling, but Gem "seriously thinks he should go through". Simon, correctly, wonders how he got this far.
19:45Today Papasidero is going to tell us his story with his song and will show some surprises with his exhibition.
He sings 'Titanium', and sheds his wings as he's going into the chorus. It appears that he's trying to shed his cloak but just can't quite manage it.
This is one of the strangest performances we have ever seen, and we saw Atomic Kitten at the Big Reunion. Simon compares attempting to shed his cape to a straitjacket. Nick has wise words of comfort: even Madonna couldn't get her cape off.
Papasidero doesn't feel it went well, and breaks down into tears talking to Olly and Caroline. It is very upsetting to watch. We want to see more of him!
19:42Next up we have Papasidero, who has literally come dressed as the Angel of Death. Literally.
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19:37This elicited a real life LOL from us...perhaps Simon will get his sci-fi Joseph McCaul moment after all.
can't wait for joseph to reveal that he is in fact louis walsh. #xfactor
— Becca! (@Becca_DP) September 27, 2015
19:36Next up we have Monica 'Earrings' Michaels who reminds everyone for the millionth time that last year she got as far as the six chair challenge and then went home. We expect she accosts people with that fact in the street. She also reminds everyone that last week she had a falling out with the fabulously dramatic Princess Diamond (we hardly knew ye) and at the last minute Simon changed his mind about putting her through. She sings 'Ain't No Sunshine' - she's good, but personally we feel the choice is safe and boring. Cheryl agrees with us that Monica needs some help with song choices, but overall the judges like her.
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19:33Joseph McCaul up next, comparing himself to Ed Sheeran because he is ginger and has freckles. We aren't quite as sure. He sings 'Same Love' by Macklemore. Simon comments "Is there any way, you know like that movie, The Fly, that we can put that voice into another contestant?" OUCH. Also, we're pretty sure the movie The Fly is actually about Jeff Goldblum combining his own DNA with a housefly and contains a dream sequence about a woman giving birth to a giant maggot. I mean, Joseph's stage presence isn't THAT BAD.
19:30Tonatha, a secondary school teacher from Kent, comes on stage wearing an incredible outfit and sings 'Love Runs Out' by OneRepublic. It's a great, energetic performance and the judges like it.
19:29Alien sing a version of 'Diamonds' remixed for a post-apocalyptic Earth where all pop stars have been enslaved by robots. We aren't fans. Nick doesn't love the vocals, but Simon thinks they're interesting.
19:28Next up is girl group Alien. "We will Alienize the competition". Oh dear. More like they will Alienate the viewers HAHAHAHA (OK that's enough).
19:27Lovely Anton (as he will forever be known on this live blog, as the Loveliness exudes from every pore) forgot a lot of lyrics in the group challenge, and feels he was lucky to get through.
He sings 'A Song For You' (AGAIN?!) and it's very emotional. When he sings "I've acted out my life in stages with ten thousand people watching" we can't help but feel it's from the heart.
The performance brings a tear to Olly's eye. Simon thinks he's kooky, but he likes him. Well done Lovely Anton.
19:24Next up we have 45-year-old Lovely Anton who has been a backing vocalist for Elton John, Tina Turner and Sting amongst others. (Out of interest - Elton John, Tina Turner and Sting - snog marry avoid?)
19:23What do you think? We agree, but only if Lil Kim's rap is intact.
Why have they made Lady Marmalade SMM's official theme? No complaints but he better perform it on the lives #xfactor
— J.Lou Bradley (@loubradley) September 27, 2015
19:18Seann is going to sing 'A Song For You' by Ray Charles. "I don't think my heart can take it," says Lovely Anton backstage. Seann does so well and it's a beautiful, memorable performance.
At the end, he breaks down into tears. We hope so much for Seann that he does well in the X Factor and that one day somebody else has HIS crying photo as THEIR phone case.
19:15Seann Miley Moore is up next. We don't know if you've all clocked this, but HIS PHONE CASE IS A PHOTO OF KIM KARDASHIAN CRYING. WE ARE OVERWHELMED.
19:14Josh Daniel sings 'Want To Want Me', which is actually our favourite song from 2015. This is the best so far - he's so likeable and a great performer who actually moves around the stage! Cheryl agrees with us, commenting he's one of the best in his category, but all Simon can reply is "Really?"
19:13Next up it's everyone's favourite from the Isle of Man, Simon, singing 'The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face'. He describes this song as a "big risk" but we aren't so sure. We know for a fact this is performed on the X Factor all the time mainly because it's our mum's favourite, which she comments to us every single time a contestant performs it. We're expecting a text any minute. Anyway, he does quite well, but we aren't as impressed as we were by Matt Cardle's performance a few years ago. Nick is also disappointed.
19:11A poor lad named Brodie we don't think we've seen much of before sings 'Diamonds' by Rihanna and gets completely lost in it. He finds it very emotionally draining and needs a big hug from Olly and Caroline afterwards.
19:10Next up we've got Lauren the Dental Receptionist singing 'If You Love Me' by Brownstone. She MISSES A LYRIC. Did these people learn NOTHING from last week's episode? She's okay, but Rita comments that she's got lost in it. The judges aren't blown over.
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19:07Simon isn't happy. He feels Silver Tone have gone back to some of their old habits. We're not sure about it either - we definitely don't think it was the right song choice. Cheryl comments "That audition was the same colour as their coats. Beige." Incredible. Simon retreats to the cross headmaster routine and doesn't mince his words - "that's really frustrated me....that was stupid."
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19:05We're back outside on the same stage as last week (with the lovely patio heaters again). Whilst the acts are performing, all the other contestants can watch backstage on a big screen. The judges have their huge ridiculous sunglasses back on. First up, we've got Silver Tone, singing 'Changing' by Sigma ft Paloma Faith. Previously at auditions Simon emphasised to them the importance of sticking to their gospel roots, and they insist they've tried to take on board his comments.
19:03After the big emphasis on "WHO WILL SURVIVE??" last week, there's a lot of emphasis on "I FEEL MY WHOLE LIFE DEPENDS ON THIS" in the opening montage tonight. Louisa is literally seventeen years old and feels her WHOLE LIFE depends on this. Sobering.
19:02A whopping EIGHTY SEVEN acts went home last week, and one in three will leave tonight. Challenge two involves all the acts singing individually. The judges will decide who makes it through to the (famously brutal) Six Chair Challenge.
19:01Here we go! Last week, emotions were high. There was a lot of dramatic and perhaps overly literal emphasis on "survival".
18:55It's on in five minutes, so you'd better get the kettle on (or get the wine out of the fridge - it's a long episode).
18:45Every week the rugby is still on we are going to comment on how much more interesting we would find it if it was just a little bit more like big weekend event entertainment television. We just aren't sure there's enough backstory and we definitely feel the backing soundtrack needs work. Currently some kind of rugby player is discussing the need for renewed focus in his next game - Footprints in the Sand would go great with this.
18:40Boot Camp is very long this year, isn't it? In some ways we find it quite refreshing to only have one episode a week, and we feel we're getting to know the contestants better than we may have done at this stage in previous years. But in others, it feels a bit odd and disjointed to have the events of a few days in a country house spread over several different weekends of television. The first live show isn't until Hallowe'en!What do you all think? Do you wish the live shows were starting a little sooner?
18:35Hello everyone! We've still got nearly half an hour to go until the episode starts, but if you feel like preparing yourself, we've got a full list of all the contestants featured and the songs they are performing! (Spoilers, of course).
