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| The Conways Go - Simon chooses Chico. |
From next week the act that leaves The X Factor will be determined solely by the public vote, so tonight's bottom 2 acts, The Conway Sisters and Chico Slimani, are the last to have their fate in the competition determined by the judges. |
| It's the sisters' third consecutive time facing the judges vote and it proved to be unlucky for them. They were voted off by Chico's mentor Sharon Osbourne and by their own mentor Simon Cowell. |
| Two weeks ago, after Simon voted to save the sisters in preference to Maria Lawson he told The Mirror, "I made the wrong decision. If I'd have had 5 minutes to think about it I would have sent The Conways Sisters home". |
| In spite of Simon's remarks, it's still a bit of a surprise that Simon has elected to keep Chico instead of the girls, because after Chico's original audition Simon walked out in disgust. Since then his position seems to have mellowed considerably towards Chico. Although Simon has never said Chico was a great singer he has acknowledged his entertainment value and seems happy on this occasion to yield to Chico's popularity factor. |
| Ironically the girls leave on the same day as The Sun newspaper reports a budding romance between Sharon Conway and... yes you guessed it, Chico! |
| The breakdown of Simon's relationship with The Conways rose to the surface after he dished out criticism of his act during the Final 10 show. It was the night The Conway Sisters sang Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse Of The Heart" and Simon was the only judge to give the girls negative comments! |
| On the Final 9 show the sisters told of how gutted they were, because they felt Simon's criticism was unfair. That night Simon selected Barry Manilow's theatrical sounding number "One Voice" and the girls received negative comments again, not only from Simon but this time also from Sharon and Louis. Since then the girls have been choosing their own songs. |
| On the Final 8 show Simon even told Kate he wasn't the girls' mentor for that week. The girls chose to sing Wilson Phillps' "Hold On" and found themselves in the bottom two for the first time. |
| They survived the judges' vote but were hurt by boos received from some of the studio audience, seemingly a backlash reaction after the shock departure of front runner Maria Lawson. |
Since then, at least in public, Simon and The Conway Sisters seem to have been on civil speaking terms and Simon's veto saved them again last week after they hit the bottom two. However, tonight, shortly after being given the chop, the youngest of the sisters, Laura braved more audience boos by snubbing Simon in an outpour of emotion, "I'd also like to thank Louis Walsh. You have been our mentor and you've really supported us, and thank you so much." |
Elder sister Marie quickly stepped in to readjust the balance, "okay, we have had a rocky road up here but Simon did give us this opportunity to be here and to showcase our talent. So thank you for that." Simon told the girls "I don't believe in patronising people, you've been a pleasure, and you grow from this point on." |
| Louis Walsh received a savage press 2 weeks ago when Maria left as a result of his vote to keep the sisters. This week he walked out on the show, blaming Simon's comments on Monday's This Morning show. Simon told presenters Lorraine Kelly and Philip Schofield that it would be hard to find someone "bland enough to replace Louis... it's hard being stupid... he does it brilliantly." |
| Louis returned in time for tonight's show. During the show he told Kate Thornton that he came back because he believed in Shayne Ward's talent and added "I'm back and I'm back with a vengeance." |
| Because Sharon and Simon voted first tonight, Louis didn't have to declare whether he would have saved the girls again, although in tonight's Xtra Factor he hinted that if his vote had been needed he may well have put it to a studio vote. |
| So, it's goodbye to The Conway Sisters, Laura, Marie, Sinéad and Sharon. They have been great entertainment throughout the series, both during the live shows and during our peeks behind the scenes with ITV2's "Xtra Factor". |
That the girls have excellent voices was strongly affirmed by the groups' vocal coach Dave Laudat on tonight's Xtra Factor. He told Ben Shepherd that The Conway Sisters are "quite possibly the four most talented female vocalists I've ever worked with". The girls were the biggest act left in the contest and they will surely be missed by viewers and contestants alike. We'll miss their humour, their gutsiness and their great Irish accents. Hopefully they will use their X Factor exposure as a springboard to a successful recording career. We wish the girls the luck of the Irish! |
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