55 acts remained and their  chances of making it to the next stage rested on a crucial live performance at Wembley Arena in front of 5000 people.

With only a night’s preparation the remaining 55 performers had to learn a song and perform their own version of it. The message of the night was to stand out.

Starting the show was 19 year-old Misha Bryan delivering her personal take on Destiny’s Child’s Survivor. It was a strong performance in which Misha truly made the song her own by beginning it with a rap that reflected what the song represented to her.

Misha Bryan, "Surviving" in the competition...

As is expected at such an advanced stage in the competition, the remaining contestants were all good. The favourites continued to dazzle, Amelia Lily and Jade Richards both gave outstanding performances; but it was Janet Devlin who stole the show with her rendition of Aerosmith’s I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing. The performance in Louis Walsh’s words made her “the one to beat”.

The underdogs, who all seem to be in the over 25′s group, were not best represented by David Wilder, the aged rocker, who was booed off stage for talking too much. While his antics proved less charming the second time around, Goldie  Cheung’s provocative performance retained its “entertainment” value. She ended her performance by chasing Gary Barlow through the audience in the hopes of hugging him. The Take That star was eventually cornered despite his best efforts to evade her.

Goldie, baring her soul...

Not to be out done, Kitty Brucknell unveiled the costume that cost her £2000. A paltry sum to pay for the approbation and XFactor glory/notoriety. The glowing corset detracted from a powerful and emotionally charged performance of Nina Simone’s Feeling Good.

The remaining Boys are an interesting contrast, albeit within the perimeters of a Topman floor plan. Frankie Cocozza delivered his impassioned take on the Goo Goo Doll’s, Iris. The song was also covered by Max Vicker’s interestingly awkward singing style. Both proved they deserved to go through to the next stage. Luke Lucas and James Michael also progressed to the next stage.

David Wilding, Kendro, and surprisingly Lascel Woods did not make it through.

Only 187 acts have made it to the boot-camp stages.

After two days the Judges will have decided on the 32 acts they will take to the Judge’s House Stage.

This year, however, the process of selecting the final 32 was expedited by a series of unwelcome twists for the unsuspecting acts.

After only a night in the hotel, 40 acts had been axed before boot-camp had ‘officially’ begun. The disorientating selection process continued with the remaining acts forced into randomly selected groups and given a choice of six songs to perform. The groups were given only 4 hours to practice before they performed for the judges at Wembley Arena.

A thumbs up for Frankie Cocozza's performance

The first round favourites continued to impress, despite the pressure. Janet Devlin and Frankie Cocozza were both stand outs in their separate groups.

Unfortunately for Derry Mensah, his unrequited love, Kelly Rowland was not impressed with his performance, “Derry didn’t make me anything…I was not happy at all.”

Other groups fell apart from internal disputes. Terry Winstanley delivered a strong performance despite the ‘sing-off’ between Kitty Brucknell and Honey Shazab overshadowing the rest of the performances in the group.

Terry Winstanley, this year's underdog, impressing the judges.

Goldie Cheung delivered another energetic performance in her trademark sparkling Lycra dress. Her audition divided the judges again, with Louis protesting, “It’s not all about singing.”

Goldie made it through to the second day along with Janet Devlin, Luke Lucas, John Wilding, Frankie Cocozza, Amelia Lily, Jade Richards, Johnny Robinson and Kitty Brucknell.

But there was some small mercy at the end of a gruelling first day. 24 of the the rejected acts were given the chance to return to boot-camp, but as part of a group.

While they fought for a place in the Judges’ Houses, the remaining finalists faced their second challenge: to learn a song and perform their unique interpretation in front of an audience of 5000 people.

The auditions this week were held in Cardiff.

The judges were welcomed by a Welsh choir singing a medley of songs for each of them. Kelly arrived to a rendition of Destiny’s Childs Survivor, for Louis they sang Welcome, Rule the World introduced Gary Barlow and Tulisa took to the stage while they sang Number 1.

First to take to the stage was Natasha Paton Ali, 23. Unfortunately her singing was not as well received as her love for Gary Barlow, “Drop dead gorgeous you are!”

Dafydd Morgan entertained the crowds with his dancing, though missed the point of the show by failing to sing along with his choice of song, Meatloaf’s Bat Out of Hell. Tulisa and Kelly, however, were left unnerved, both likening his ‘performance’ to a voodoo spell.

Morgan’s performance was not the only supernatural performance Cardiff had to offer. Ceri Hoey’s ‘singing’ emitted a sound Louis Walsh described as “odd, odd strange and crazy” while Gary observed “It wasn’t human that voice.” Presumably, he found the sound inhuman.

John Adams proved to be the male counterpart to Week 1′s Janet Devlin. The unassuming Mathematics teacher from Aberdare sang Damien Rice’s, Cannonball. Gary admitted Cannonball was his favourite song and that he had never heard a satisfactory cover of it, but he, after a dramatic pause, finally declared “you absolutely nailed that vocal!”

Tulisa was left in tears by Michelle Barrett’s rendition of Whitney Houston’s ‘All The Man I Need. The former N-Dubz singer sobbingly admitted Barrett reminded her of her mother who also had “a beautiful voice” but “didn’t do anything with it.”

Michelle Barrett was voted through to the next round along with a clutch of potentials for the Girl’s category. There were promising preview clips of auditions by Melanie McCabe, Sarah Watson, Holly Repton and Sophi Habibis. All will be competing in the next round.

Michelle Barrett, mum of four, delivering the performance that brought Tulisa to tears

The final ‘story’ of the night was the return of John Wilding. The 18 year-old had reached the Judge’s house in the previous series but was turned down by Danii Minogue before he could make it to the live show.

His performance of Jennifer Hudson’s Love You I Do earned him four more yes’s and a standing ovation to see him through to the next stage.

This week’s auditions were held in Liverpool. It appeared that the Merseyside had plenty of talent on offer to entertain the judges, especially Tulisa who was celebrating her 23rd birthday. Fellow judges Gary Barlow, Louis Walsh and Kelly Rowland were kind enough to provide her with a man servant to wait on her throughout the day.

The show began auspiciously with a confident interpretation of Stevie Wonder’s, ‘Signed, Sealed Delivered’ by Marcus Collins, a 23-year old hairdresser.

The performance received a unanimous “yes” from the judges and gushing approval from Tulisa, “I didn’t even feel like you were auditioning, I felt like I had come to see you perform.”
Other successful contestants included James Michael, 20, offering his own interpretation of Adele’s Hit single, ‘Make you Feel My Love’, and Emma Wright, 19, who wowed judges with her take on the Christina Aguleria hit, ‘Ain’t no other man’.

The Birmingham auditions provided the show’s cringe-worthy moments. Graham Bennett and Tara Burgin’s performances created a symmetrical display of grotesqueness. Graham – a muscular 52 year old – slurred his way through Ricky Martin’s “She Bangs” and Shaggy’s “It Wasn’t Me”, while Burgin failed her way through an embarrassing attempt at Beyonce’s ‘Crazy in Love’ with only an unflattering pair of gold spandex and “booty shaking” to prop-up an otherwise forgettable audition.

Soldier Jonjo Kerr “dramatically” faltered his way on to the boot-camp stages. The soon-to-be father of two had to fight his nerves in order to deliver a cover of ‘Handbags and Glad-rags’ that was more triumphant for the on-stage drama and slow motion camera shots than any vocal affectation.

This episode’s show stopping performance had to be, 16 year-old, Amelia Lily’s powerful rendition of Janis Joplin’s ‘A Little Piece of My Heart’.

This week’s X factor continued with the usual assortment of highs and lows.

The producer’s decided to open up the episode with an entertaining oddball. David Wilder, a 42 year-old wannabe rockstar, initially seemed a guaranteed “no” – an assessment based strictly on his appearance. Wilder’s performance certainly won over the audience, as they got to their feet and sang along with Life on Mars as he ran among them, but the Judges were clearly confused.

Gary admitted he “absolutely loved it” despite Wilder’s “bad tuning, bad timing, bad diction.” The four yes’s from the Judge’s seemed to emerge from the ambiguous semantic relationship between “x-factor” and “talent”.

To serve as a contrast, the next acts were all talented sixteen year olds. Lemuel Knights cover of Jessie J’s Do it Like a Dude and Max Mackay’s version of John Legend’s ordinary people earned both a place in the next round.

A strong contender emerged from the unlikely 16 year old Luke Lucas, whose confident rendition of Michael Jackson’s Who’s loving You garnered high praise from the Judges.
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Gary Barlow has unsurprisingly been put in charge of the boys’ group. He is set to take the boys to Robbie William’s house in LA, where the Take That stars will pick the final four. However, not all the boys will be making it to LA. Due to his criminal record, Derry is unlikely to be granted a US visa and will instead be flying out to Greece with Tulisa who is mentoring the Groups.

Kelly Rowland is in charge of the girls. A logical choice by the X Factor producers undoubtedly influenced by her time spent in the girl group, Destiny’s Child and her own solo career.

Of the judges she is best positioned to understand girl group dynamics. The producers are probably hoping she select four divas from the group. Rowland must already have her hands full , after becoming auntie to former band mate and best friend Beyonce Knowles-Carter’s child. It is uncertain how Beyonce’s pregnancy will affect the judge’s house stage as Beyonce is due to mentor alongside Rowland.

The producers must be convinced Louis is best suited to the Over 26’s as he is set to mentor them again, and with the added pressure from the show’s bosses to “pick another Wagner” – the bizarre Brazilian singer from the last series. He is said to be unhappy with the injunction to specifically find a ‘novelty’ act – i.e. an act that has no chance of winning. But if past seasons are anything to go by he is more than competent at finding and managing them – he helped Wagner get to the final six, and, Jedward (an act he had previously mentored) have managed to build a more ‘successful’ career than previous X Factor winners. Kitty Brucknell is a favourite to make it to Louis’s final cut.

Earlier we told you about Gary Barlow´s collaboration with guest judge Tinie-Tempah on the up coming Children in Need track.

Barlow has since recruited more of the UK´s finest in an attempt to give the charity track a more urban appeal. He has even got fellow X Factor judge Tulisa to guest on the track.

The annual charity single is usually a light hearted take on a pop song, but, suitably for X Factor’s Mr Serious, the organizers have opted for a cover of Massive Attack’s, Teardrop.

X Factor star judge is recruiting artists to help him releasing a single...

Joining Tulisa will be other upcoming British artists that complement Gary’s attempt at an urban feel to the record. They include Tinchy Stryder, Chipmunk and Wretch 32. Current UK chart topping producer and singer, Labrinth is also working on the song and believes it is a welcome break from the usual charity records which he has described as either, “cheesy or comical”.

The single will be released before the live show which airs on 18 November. We wonder if any of the X Factor contestants will feature on the track. We can definitely hear Janet Devlin delivering the opening lines, “Love, Love is a verb, Love is a doing word.” Let’s hope she makes it that far.

The first show of the series started off with the usual mix of odd balls and front runners – Janet Devlin, the shy 16 year old from Northern Ireland has become an overnight sensation and a clear contender for X Factor glory.

Shaking as she took to the stage, the unassuming teen left the audience at the Liverpool Echo Arena silent in awe while she performed an astounding version of Elton John’s, Your Song. As Kelly Rowland observed, “you could hear a pin drop.”

The feeling of disbelief will not be nationwide. Hailing from a small town in Gortin, Omah, the young singer managed to find a small worldwide following by uploading videos of her singing on YouTube. Her most popular video, a cover of Many of Horror by Biffy Clyro, has over 200,000 views.

Opening night was not only made unforgettable by Devlin’s performance. Returning to the XFactor auditions, George Gerasimou had previously been rejected from the audition stages with the his fellow boy-band members in 2009 for a significant lack of talent and equally egregious lack of manners.

His solo efforts this year drew an equally embarrassing rejection. Unable to deal with the booing and unanimous rejection from the judges, the 19 year old vented his frustration at Tulisa, branding her a “scumbag from the block”. The N-dubz star retorted, “You have embarrassed yourself in front of the nation”.

The show did have its moments of comic relief. Frankie, an 18 year old from Brighton, flashed his fundament to show his tattoo – a ‘register’ of the seven different girls he met on holiday. His antics and a solid performance of ‘Valerie’ earned him a second appearance.

As for the Judges, there seems to be real chemistry between them – especially between Kelly and Gary. In a recent interview the Bootylicious star admitted she has a crush on Take That songwriter, Barlow, but she was quick to state nothing would happen as he is a married man.

The opening show is estimated to have had a viewing audience of 10.5 million people in the Uk.

It’s the run up to XFactor, and while the producer’s have been busy securing celebrity judges there are the usual jitters to deal with…problems worth £12m!

While the show’s PR has been in over drive promoting the new Judge’s and reminding us that they are stars that we all love, doubts still remain over whether they will be welcomed by the viewers.

Today’s Metro warns that the new line up could cost ITV £12 million in advertising. The concern is that the new judges, Gary Barlow, Kelly Rowland and Tulisa Contostavlos will not be able to attract the attention that drew 15.9 million viewer’s for last year’s final.

It’s a bit of a stretch, especially when you consider the rest of the argument for the projected losses.

Experts examining the dwindling viewing figures for previous shows have estimated that as much as 10 per cent of viewers could skip the early stages of the show before the ‘star contestants’ of the show emerge. Though, surely they need to watch the early stages in order to begin forming any opinions of the potential ‘favourites’?

As a result of the 10 per cent drop off, advertising during the show will cost less meaning significant losses to the show. The previous cost of airing a 30 second advert was £165,000 which may now drop to £154,000 this year.

Given this, Cowell’s change seems a logical choice – surely new faces will generate new interest? After all, we not only want to see how the contestants perform in the early stages, but how the new judges cope and what they bring to the show. Will Gary really be as nasty as Simon? Can Tulisa deliver the feistiness lost by Dannii Minogue’s absence?

Cowell has already recruited Usher and Beyonce to guest mentor on the show, and is now reported to be finalizing talks with Mariah Carey.

Both Usher and Brit winner, Tinie are really close friends with the rest of the judges on the show.

Tinie Tempah is set to help Tulisa Contostavlos in the judges’ houses stage after bootcamp is complete at the end of this week. Tinie and Tulisa are close friends, but was invited to mentor on the show by Gary Barlow who is currently working with the star on the new single for Children in Need.

The Grammy award winning RnB artist, Usher Raymond has previously mentored on Simon Cowell’s other hit show, American Idol and has performed several times. The introduction of Usher is a massive boost to the contestants, especially those lucky enough to be in Kelly Rowland’s group as he will be helping her in the Judges’ house stage.

Both Gary and Louis are yet to name their mentors but it is believed Take That band mate, Robbie Williams will be helping Gary and that Louis is likely to pick veteran X Factor judge Sharon Osbourne to advise his group.

Even with the addition of superstar mentors the contestants lucky enough to make it past boot camp have more to look forward to as they join their respective mentors in glamorous locations around the world.

Although not confirmed, it is thought Tulisa’s group will be heading to Athens, Louis to St Tropez, Gary may be taking them to Los Angeles and Kelly Rowland is likely to jet to Miami.