X Factor Review: Frankie Cocozza's Disgrace Means The Show Goes On For Amelia Lily

X Factor Review: The Show Goes On For Amelia Lily

X Factor's headline tonight wasn't anybody being voted off, but who was going to come back and replace disgraced Frankie Cocozza.

Dermot O'Leary frantically tried to explain the goings-on, about phone lines and all, but basically what it amounted to was that Amelia Lily received another chance to become a unique star (the fact that she's already been dismissed as a no-hoper obviously being overlooked for now). Her share of 48% of the vote vindicated her inclusion and, as Louis commented of her return, "everyone loves a comeback story."

Huge technical problems at the beginning of the programme summed up the wider shenanigans that have plagued this series so far, but things later went smoothly.

We saw a sentimentally-edited round-up of Frankie's exit, before we ploughed into business as usual - which means Queen and Lady Gaga week.

Kitty Brucknell, the only remaining Over-25, kicked off proceedings, although we learned her favourite Gaga song had been bagged by "somebody else". This turned out, inevitably, to be Misha B (was this editing by the anti-Katie brigade or Misha's non-fan-club? Not sure).

Kitty's rendition of Queen's Don't Stop Me Now demonstrated her star quality still working for her, and even Gary Barlow admitted afterwards that "Louis always chose a good song".

Gary Barlow still has two Boys in the competition. Craig Colton performed a plodding version of Lady Gaga's Paparazzi, although, to be fair, the contestant had not had the chance to rehearse, due to a sore throat, so it was pretty valiant. Louis later praised him as "a young Gary Barlow", while Gary commented it was time to discover who Craig was as an artist.

Marcus Collins channelled even more of his inner Bruno Mars, giving us a jazzy version of Queen's Another One Bites the Dust. There was nothing wrong with it, but... as Tulisa commented, "That was new from you... last week."

Kelly Rowland also has two remaining Girl acts. Irish songstress Janet Devlin admitted that the previous week had been "dreadful" for her, and tried to redeem herself with Queen's Somebody to Love. While Louis confidently predicted she would be in the final, Tulisa called it "one-dimensional", while Gary went lower. He told her, "I'm starting to lose interest in you. That bordered on boring."

Misha B wasn't boring, bashing out Gaga's Born This Way. The quality of her performance was unsurprisingly high, and the gap between her and the other contestants is becoming embarrassing. Tulisa said what didn't need saying "you are one of the strongest vocalists in this competition". (Along with...?)

Of Tulisa's Bands, she only has Little Mix left, but she confidently predicted, "I know my girls," She obviously knew that they would perform Gaga's Telephone in tune and, let's face it, four girls singing harmoniously into hairbrushes never did the Spice Girls any harm.

Judges Gary and Kelly were both disappointed, saying they had heard better in rehearsals. Gary even commented, "I'm around the house..." Who was that a dig at?

Meanwhile, Tulisa implored of the wider audience: "I want Essex to pick up the phone."

Check out our slideshow of all the weekend's X Factor acts and click on who you think should be walking off with this year's title...

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