I watch the X Factor religiously, discuss it endlessly with my friends, and often count down how many days it is until the next episode. However, they have done something that has upset and angered me so much, that if I find out it was (as I suspect) Simon Cowell who was responsible for this, I will actually hate him more than I hate Louis. And that is A LOT.
The problem is this: The winner’s single for 2008 is going to be… Hallelujah. When they included this as one of the songs contestants could sing in boot camp, I had the scary thought that it might be a test to see if the public liked it enough for it to be chosen as Westlife’s next single. The contestants, apart from Diana, are allegedly angry because she sang it during boot camp, so it seems like a set-up for her to win. This is bad enough, but since it seems unavoidable that she or Eoghan will win this year, it doesn’t make much difference.
The problem really is that when Diana (or worse, Eoghan, who it won’t suit at all) releases this song, it will become public property and absolutely ruined forever. I usually can’t stand poncy ‘music lovers’ who get worked up about their favourite songs being covered by mainstream acts, but this is just unforgivable. The lyric I used to title this post is completely fitting – whoever chose this to be the winner’s single doesn’t care for music at all.
In fact they don’t care for The X Factor either, because any one of the millions of people who, like me, love this song when performed by Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley or (my favourite) Rufus Wainwright, will feel just as sickened by even the thought of this impending cover version as I do. While it belongs to the genre of popular music, there is something about this particular song (like many others by Rufus, and probably the other two singers) which separates it from commercial, capitalist pop music. I love the crazy world of pop, but this special song does not belong in it, and using it to heartlessly rake in money is just horrible.