Television: X Factor's Janet Devlin changes her tune
Every week after she performed on the X Factor, Janet Devlin had a look on her face that alternated from distress to petrification to infuriation. I believe she was very nervous backstage the majority of the time and it wasn't easy, and perhaps being so young I can't be too critical, but except for her questionable silent annoyance, quite frankly she had reason to be distressed, petrified and infuriated - she was up against stiff competition.
After being voted out on Sunday night, it comes as no surprise to me that Janet Devlin has now turned on the show's producers and claimed that they turned her into a karaoke singer every saturday night. At last, it explains the look of infuriation or silent annoyance..
The seventeen-year-old lost out to fellow singer Misha B the other night, but said she could have gone further if she'd have been a 'puppet' and done exactly what she was told.
She lashed out on the Lorraine (Kelly) show on Monday morning telling the chat show host: "To me the sad thing about X Factor - and it's brought me down a lot - is the fact that I've just been covering other people's songs".
Ok has this girl just arrived into town on a pick up truck with her guitar, country denims and big hair?
Has she not SEEN the X Factor television show before she decided to enter the X Factor competition??
Aww, diddums. If she honestly thought she was going on stage every night to strum her guitar and sing her own tunes, well then she's kind of missing the point of what the whole X Factor show and machine is really all about. Maybe Britain's Got Talent would have suited her best, huh?
She went on: 'From the start of the show I wanted to be myself and I didn't really care, in the sense that I just did what was me. I could have been a puppet and done a lot better but why would I do that?' If the show was such a threat to her own identity or the 'real her', well then why didn't she bow out earlier and not stay on the showbiz train ?! Actually, stupid question, don't answer that.
However, it was no surprise to most of us that she got the boot this week (in fact I thought she would have gone last week) considering she forgot the lyrics to her first song on saturday and having made the same mistake the week previously. While singing Hanson's hit MMMBop in the 'Guilty Pleasures' round, she came in too early then missed singing a whole verse. Surely you couldn't forget your guilty pleasure song, presumably something you quite like to sing alot ?? And for pop's sake it's a Hanson song - technically, all their songs are earworms!
Although the redhead did perform well in the sing-off - tapping into the innocence of her very first audition with a rendition of Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol, it was clear who was safe after Misha B belted out a hit from the Fame soundtrack, nailing her version of Out Here On My Own by Irene Cara.
It seems throughout the competition Janet Devlin was seen to be a 'talk-singer' or possess a folk sound, a genre I myself enjoy at times. She sang into every word separately alright and her voice was of deep emotional quality but she never
displayed much range. The screeching echo at the end of every line she
bellowed like she was in great banshee turmoil also became a bit much. (I must state here I ain't no soprano myself but then again I don't claim to be..!!)
My guess that she was the passive aggressive sort turns out to be true as her first interview on live television post X Factor goes to show. I am not sad that your gone Janet, sorry but I don't believe you have what it takes to be a big star and I do believe you were something of a one trick pony - you could prove me wrong of course? But for now, good luck with the yawning of the haunting ballads, in fact that should be your first album name: 'Yawning of the Haunting Ballads". Track one: "I just don't know what happened noooyyyyyyy"...