Marcus The Big Threat To Muffins’ Victory
We’re still struggling to see Amelia winning this year’s X Factor and that will be the main thrust of this final preview. Regardless of the HMV story, we cannot see how someone who has finished in the bottom 2 and was parachuted back into the competition on a whim – effectively receiving a bye for 4 weeks – is someone TPTB wish to see crowned this year’s winner. She has a cold, harsh veneer and her duet with mentor Kelly Rowland is not going to aid her one iota. Set alongside Marcus’s bright and breezy persona, and the uplifting story of the Little Muffins against-the-odds progress through this series, Amelia surely does not have the same sort of warm, feel-good elements that go a big part of the way to gaining a series-winning vote.
Kelly has hardly been taken to the public’s hearts over here and if anything is someone XF viewers merely tolerate. Gary has labelled Amelia as a shouter, and it is surely likely he will say the same sort of thing at some point this weekend. Overall, Amelia looks a stand out to us to finish 3rd so we recommend the widely-available 11-8 Amelia is next eliminated.
The big question is, who wins, as some things have come to light that damage LM’s chances in our view, the main one being, no text voting. Their biggest core support must be among the teens so will they be bothered to phone their votes instead? It could easily knock a good few percentage points off their grand vote total. Singing with Tulisa… we’re not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing, but what we can say is that Marcus getting to sing with Gary is definitely a good thing for him.
Gary is the best known of the mentors and has the biggest following. Gary and Marcus combined will powerfully plug into the middle-of-the-road vote that plays a big part in XF final outcomes.
We think Marcus should be near joint-favourite with Little Mix, possibly even edging favouritism. We didn’t understand the drift on Marcus following last week’s show, and as the MOR contestant he always looked in prime position to hoover up the older votes in the final. If Barlow is allowed to go to town again telling viewers how brilliant Marcus is, while dissing LM and Amelia it could be all over.
The LM de-ramp last Saturday certainly surprised us and also disappointed us. We still hope it’s set up for Perrie to smash it on the lead vocal this weekend and the girls to hit a home run in at least one of their performances, but those vocal frailties exposed last week do concern us and could be exposed again in the vast amphitheatre of Wembley Arena.
Given series-long book positions and sitting on a huge green if you followed our LM backs going all the way back to when they were called Rhythmix, it would be prudent to back the straight forecast of 1st Marcus 2nd Little Mix at 5-1 with Boylesports and Marcus on the Outright at a widely-available 9-4. Overall, we advise keeping LM as your biggest winner, but ensuring Marcus is your 2nd biggest winner.
Rob Furber