It’s not been a good year for X Factor – despite Simon Cowell showing confidence with the new panel by saying he was confident that the X Factor would beat Strictly Come Dancing in the ratings war every week before X Factor even started, the show didn’t beat them once. X Factor consistently scored lower ratings than it’s BBC rival by an average of four million, and the Strictly final managed to score double the ratings as X Factor’s final did. The new panel and presenters were negatively received and it failed to become one of the years most watched TV shows, and though it’s finished, the shows troubles have yet to let up.
Last week the show crowned it’s latest winner, Louisa Johnson, who at 17 is the shows youngest winner in it’s 12 year history, and who celebrated her victory with the release of her debut single and her “Winners song”, a cover of Bob Dylan’s Forever Young. Less than a week after her victory when the official charts were announced, Louisa’s debut came in at Number 9, thus making her the first X Factor winner ever to not hit number one with their Winners single!
She is at a slight disadvantage; the charts have since been changed to mean that she did not have the full week to sell her single like all of the other X Factor winners, and she does still have time to climb up to number one (both Joe McElderry and Steve Brookstein hit number one in their 2nd week of release, not the first), but it does look unlikely for Louisa, who has yet to comment on the situation.
With only 39,000 sales of her debut, Louisa’s winners single has become the slowest and lowest selling X Factor winners song by quite a long way, ending the series on an unprecedented low.
The news will undoubtedly leave a bitter taste in Simon Cowell’s mouth, who has defended the show amidst harsh criticisms, and who called Louisa the best singer X Factor has ever had, and proclaimed she would go on to be a superstar. Along with this, a number one from Louisa was desperately needed to show that the X Factor’s importance and influence on the UK music scene was not fading.
One thing that is clear is that Louisa needs to release an excellent smash-hit for her follow up if she hopes to stay at SyCo and carve herself a career as a sustainable music artist!
Either way, we wish her the best of look, and will be keeping an eye out on what she’s doing next!
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