In my opinion, each year the same types of artist’s step onto the stage and sing the same predictable songs. This year, a new type of artist was found, and this new artist came in the form of 17 year old, Cher Lloyd from Malvern in Worcestershire. As soon as she stepped onto the stage, she commanded the arena with her edgy fashion and quirky looks. When she unveiled her song choice, Keri Hilson’s version of ‘Turn My Swag On’, the judges looked puzzled; firstly, I doubt they even heard the original, and secondly, they knew that the audition could go one of two ways...
Cher Lloyd’s audition was, personally, my favourite ever X Factor audition; she was fresh, edgy, and young and she oozed confidence. Although she’s not the best MC and sometimes tries a bit too hard when she raps, she CAN sing, and the singing and MC’ing work well together – it sets her apart from the other acts in the competition. And my thoughts were reflected in the judge’s comments too with all four judges being impressed by Lloyd’s audition. Cheryl Cole commented, saying: “Cher, you are right up my street!” and Simon Cowell said: “That was a great, great audition!” However, although most loved her, other parts of the nation began to form a hate campaign against her.
The further she progressed in the competition, the harsher the scrutiny was from the public, yet the judging panel still favoured Cher and her talent. Cher was labelled ‘fake’, a ‘copycat’ and a ‘mini-Cheryl’; with many saying that Cher was trying too hard to be like Cole. Lloyd also came under fire for using another artists lyrics that she tried to pass off as her own. Admittedly, that was stupid; she has the talent and shouldn’t need to use someone else’s work as her own. Although the British public appeared to slowly be turning against her, A-List artists such as Usher and Keri Hilson were praising her.
Inevitably, Lloyd made it to the live shows of the competition, amidst the ‘Gamugate’ drama, and once securely in the live finals, Lloyd came out each week proving she deserved to be in the competition. Below is her week one performance from the live shows where she sung ‘Just Be Good to me’, originally made famous by the SOS Band.
That performance is a sign of things to come; as the weeks progress, Cher will prove why she’s in the competition. Although she may not win the X Factor, she’s going to be around for a long while yet and people are just going to give themselves a migraine if they keep hating on her because, eventually, she’ll change all the hater’s opinions and the hater’s will hate admitting to that. At the end of the day, the X Factor is a talent contest and Cher Lloyd IS talented; wasn’t it the British public that kept tone-deaf twins Jedward in the competition last year? They had no talent but didn’t get as much bad publicity as what Cher has received. Don’t hate the player, hate the game.
So, the original question I had was ‘Cher Lloyd – cheap impersonator or the next big thing?’ My answer: the next big thing.
