Quote The Red Bladder:

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The arrangers, beavering away in ProTools and/or Logic, are asked to reconstruct the songs for the losers, so that one or more crucial notes are at the very edge of the contestants range. In extreme cases, when the contestant is just too good a singer, the whole tune has to be taken out of key, so that any viewers who do not have a musical education, just assume that the singer is weak. We saw this on last week's X-Factor, with Marcus Collins having to sing one of his songs well below the key it was originally written in.

The arranger is given a map of the singer's voice and asked to re-pitch the song, so that key notes in the song are also the weakest in that person's range. This is usually does at the same time that it is that contestant's turn to be right at the front of the show. At the same time, perhaps the costumes are not as good as the might have been.

The great thing about fixing these shows this way, is that you have not really fixed them in the classical sense and even the contestants do not notice. They are even told that the arranger is 'working around their range to get the best results' and they actually assume that poor notes are just their own fault! The viewers at home who are stupid enough to waste a Pound to vote for the person they think did the best job, have no idea that the contestants have been set up to perform well or badly.

This week and next, Amelia Lilly is going to get wonderful power ballads and up-tempo songs right, slap-bang in the middle of her range, whereas Marcus Collins and Little Mix will be strangely weak a couple of times.

Amelia Lilly is going to win, not because she is the best, she is not. She is actually quite weak, vocally, but her 'type' will provide the best viewing experience and sell more records.

How do I know?

Don't ask!

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I am not going to ask how....

Interesting though, I thought they were cherry picking the candidates with singing problems that they could easily fix in boot camp, and present the illusion of a magical progression in ability. Simon Cowell was a vocal coach after all.

I saw it last weekend and I thought that it looked like they had been drilled in boot camp, gone over every single sylable so the performances lacked emotion, all correct but cold. I noticed the low notes sounding a bit weak too.

I am not at all surprised to hear you say their approach is in fact even more cynical than I imagine.....

I never really liked the programme on the grounds that the message is that it is the music industry that controls and defines what talant is, it is the music industry that makes our choices for us. It is no wonder people complain about the lack of talant when so much of what is presented to us as talant is merely illusion.

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