{"id":2176,"date":"2014-10-13T13:52:05","date_gmt":"2014-10-13T13:52:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/192.168.3.178\/?p=2176"},"modified":"2014-10-24T10:50:01","modified_gmt":"2014-10-24T10:50:01","slug":"5-surprisingly-good-songs-by-x-factor-contestants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/2014\/10\/13\/5-surprisingly-good-songs-by-x-factor-contestants\/","title":{"rendered":"5 surprisingly good songs by X Factor contestants"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After weeks of ear-piercing warbling and out-of-tune crooning, we&#8217;ve finally reached the business end of The X Factor: the live shows. In just a couple of months (stay strong, X Factor haters&#8230;) one act will take home The X Factor crown, and all the prestige that goes with it.<\/p>\n<p>Well, we say prestige&#8230;in actual fact, most songs released by X Factor contestants are either a) considered to be a bit rubbish or b) completely forgotten after a few months.<\/p>\n<p>There are a couple of honourable exceptions, however, some genuinely decent songs that we&#8217;re not (that) ashamed to say we enjoy spinning every now and again.<\/p>\n<p>Check them out (and remember: you can <a title=\"sell any X Factor CDs - no matter how embarassing - with musicMagpie\" href=\"http:\/\/192.168.3.178\/entertainment\/sell-cds\/\">sell any X Factor CDs &#8211; no matter how embarassing &#8211; with musicMagpie<\/a>!):<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h4>Ghost &#8211; Ella Henderson<\/h4>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/tA8AfQaUnXM\" height=\"315\" width=\"560\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Despite not actually winning The X Factor (or even reaching the final &#8211; she left in week 7), Ella Henderson has emerged as one of the show&#8217;s biggest successes &#8211; big name fans include Adele, Stephen Fry, Chloe Moretz, Cher and X Factor host Dermot O&#8217;Leary (he even called her the most talented performer to ever appear on the show) . <em>Ghost<\/em>, the lead single off her new album which comes out today, hit number one earlier this year (and it&#8217;s co-written by Henderson too).<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h4>Troublemaker &#8211; Olly Murs<\/h4>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4aQDOUbErNg\" height=\"315\" width=\"560\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s a piece of advice for the current crop of X Factor hopefuls: don&#8217;t win. Olly Murs came 2nd to Joe McElderry (who went on to be beaten to the Christmas #1 by Rage Against The Machine) yet has managed to carve a pretty successful career as a singer and a TV presenter. He even sells out the odd arena.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h4>Beat Again &#8211; JLS<\/h4>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/JEYhGhdwMKI\" height=\"315\" width=\"560\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nHang about: another act that didn&#8217;t actually win?! Yep, JLS came 2nd but outshone eventual winner Alexandra Burke with this top-notch slice of moody RNB goodness. They went on to have a successful career before splitting last year to focus on other things (such as enjoying all the money they made). Like we said, X Factor contestants &#8211; don&#8217;t win!<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h4>Bleeding Love &#8211; Leona Lewis<\/h4>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7_weSk0BonM\" height=\"315\" width=\"560\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nAh, finally, a winner! <em>Bleeding Love<\/em> needs no introduction: it was nominated for 2 Grammy&#8217;s, sold over 9 million copies worldwide (making it one of the top 5 bestselling songs of the decade)\u00a0 and hit number one in no less than 35 different countries. It&#8217;s the gold standard by which all future X Factor winners (and losers) will be measured.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h4>Under Pressure (Ice Ice Baby) &#8211; Jedward<\/h4>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/J8Cq6rVAWt8\" height=\"315\" width=\"560\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Oh yes, you knew it was coming. Lovable oiks John and Edward (later rechristened Jedward) caused chaos in series 9 of The X Factor, where they knocked out various &#8216;better&#8217; singers with their unique take on pop hits (including a great version of <em>Ghostbusters<\/em>). They were eventually voted out in favour of Olly Murs, but the best was yet to come: a cover of Queen and Bowie&#8217;s <em>Under Pressure<\/em>, for which they brought in Vanilla Ice from the cold (pun fully intended) to help them do the rap bits. It hit #1 in Ireland but didn&#8217;t quite give the boys the #1 they richly deserved in the UK, hitting #2.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Share your favourite X Factor tunes with us in the comments!<\/p>\n<p>And, if you&#8217;ve got a spare moment, why not see how much cash you could make for your CDs with musicMagpie? You can see <a title=\"Our Top Traded CDs: Ellie Goulding, Linkin Park and Bob Marley\" href=\"http:\/\/192.168.3.178\/2014\/10\/10\/our-top-traded-cds-ellie-goulding-linkin-park-and-bob-marley\/\">what other people have been selling by clicking here<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After weeks of ear-piercing warbling and out-of-tune crooning, we&#8217;ve finally reached the business end of The X Factor: the live shows. In just a couple of months (stay strong, X Factor haters&#8230;) one act will take home The X Factor crown, and all the prestige that goes with it. Well, &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[159],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2176"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2176"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2182,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2176\/revisions\/2182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}