I must admit I feared the often illustrated racism would kick in; thank God it didn't and the two best finalists by far, JLS and Alexandra, fight it out.

I tipped Alex in the auditions but the little singer in JLS is fabulous too. I'm happy whichever wins and I have to admit; both versions of Hallelujah were damn good.

Well I'm delighted Alexandra won; she's far better than Leona Lewis in my opinion and the first reality TV winner with a real shot of becoming a real star.

The real winner, of course, being Simon Cowell who got his karma boost 8 years ago.

i dont normally like simon but he made me like him when he said he realised not everyone will like the music

Agree that Alexandria has star potential. Unlike Leona Lewis she seems to have a real personality and a warmth that somehow lacks. A star is born!

JK2006 wrote:
Well I'm delighted Alexandra won; she's far better than Leona Lewis in my opinion and the first reality TV winner with a real shot of becoming a real star.

The real winner, of course, being Simon Cowell who got his karma boost 8 years ago.

Was that boost achieved by a certain "investment" he made in you?

Who knows Dixie - Karma is earned in many ways but genuine friendship with no strings is certainly one way.

Delighted Eoghan didn't win and I think Simon was as well, the two best acts of the competition were in the Final.

I really like Alexandra and having seen her perform in our local pub, the girl has got a great personality and is a really lovely bubbly person. She will have a great career as will JLS.

It is a shame that Leona hasn't got a personality as she is a great singer as well.

Do you still keep in touch with Simon JK? His comments at the end were very classy.

Two major points/questions...

1) Is it perhaps crucial that Alexandra failed to make the X Factor cut 3 years ago and thus has had three years to develop and improve which, I think, makes her far better than any other winner?

2) Is SYCO going to put all 4 finalist/semis up and available on iTunes? If not, why not? Several thousand (mad people) may prefer Diana's Hallelujah - so why not make it available? The beauty of not needing release dates anymore.

JK2006 wrote:

2) Is SYCO going to put all 4 finalist/semis up and available on iTunes? If not, why not? Several thousand (mad people) may prefer Diana's Hallelujah - so why not make it available? The beauty of not needing release dates anymore.

A most interesting point there JK.

Considering that phone voting is constantly being queried or criticised, would it not perhaps be embarrassing if all four versions were made available only for the public to "vote" with their wallets and send one of the runner ups to the number one spots instead of the winner?

They can't risk that humiliation, so my guess is, they wouldn't dare release all 4 versions simultaneously. I wish they would... just purely out of interest to see what would happen. Just imagine... they're missing the chance to make pop history here... imagine, 4 versions of "Hallelujah" in the top 5. All produced by the same man, all the same song... just different singers. That would be unique to see.

I just read that Alexandra's single has become the fastest selling download in Europe... 105,000 sales in less than 48 hours. Quite an achievement by todays standards.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/dec...xfactor-digitalmedia

The best thing I can say about it is, at least Leonard Cohen should have some nice royalty cheques to come... he deserves it too.

I don't think she's in the same league as Leona vocally. Throughout the live shows they've pared back many of the songs as she hasn't got the range and gets very raspy trying to go for the big notes. Where she will do well is on the pop scene as there's a Jamelia-shaped hole in the UK.

The last two series of X-Factor have given Brian Friedman much greater control over staging. As a result the uptempo numbers from the last two years are very different from the first three years. The extensive use of "support vocals" and greater choreography has neutered the vocal aspects of these performances. And it's in these numbers that Alex has really excelled as she looks like a pop star on stage.

On the personality front she's been very OTT, there's been constant crying, faux shock and a needy desperation at times that has crossed a boundary or two. The whole Beyonce thing was pretty cringeworthy as well. She needs to tone it down.

Leona? She's doing ok as she is - part of her attraction is she just gets on with it in an understated way and delivers on stage time after time as she showed at Madison Square Garden on Friday night with 20,000 fans singing her songs back to her.

Personality is often interpreted as being loud. But empty vessels often make the most noise ...