List of The X Factor finalists (UK series 8)

The eighth UK series of The X Factor was broadcast on ITV from 20 August 2011, with the live shows starting on 8 October 2011. The winner was girl group Little Mix, while the runner-up was Marcus Collins.

As of October 2012, 11 of the 16 finalists are working on their debut releases: Frankie Cocozza, Little Mix, Marcus Collins, Amelia Lily, Misha B, Janet Devlin, Craig Colton, Kitty Brucknell, The Risk, Sophie Habibis and 2 Shoes; five of whom have released their debut single already or will do in the coming months: Collins released a cover of "Seven Nation Army" in March 2012, Misha B released "Home Run" in July 2012, Little Mix and 2 Shoes released "Wings" and "Turn Me On (Turn Me Out)" respectively in August 2012 and Lily released "You Bring Me Joy" in September 2012. "Wings" went to number one, giving Little Mix their second consecutive number-one single."You Bring Me Joy" charted at number two. Devlin is set to release her debut album in Spring 2013.

Boys

The boys were mentored by Gary Barlow

The "Boys" category was mentored by Gary Barlow. Contestants in this category are males aged 16 to 24. The eight candidates were Frankie Cocozza, Marcus Collins, Craig Colton, Joe Cox, Luke Lucas, James Michael, Max Vickers and John Wilding. Barlow chose:

Frankie Cocozza

Main article: Frankie Cocozza

Frankie Cocozza (born 17 January 1993) is a singer of British and Italian descent, from Brighton. He auditioned for The X Factor singing "Valerie" and got a yes from each of the four judges and was put through to bootcamp. He then sang "Iris" at bootcamp and was put through to the judges' houses with Gary Barlow as his mentor. At judges' houses he sang "What's My Name?" and was put through to live shows. For the first live show, he sang "The A Team" and was safe. In week two he sang "The Scientist" but was in the bottom two with Nu Vibe and had to sing again for survival. For his survival song, Cocozza sang "Red" and was saved by Rowland, Walsh and his mentor who the following week admitted that he should have been sent home. In week three, Cocozza sang "Get Your Rocks Off", and was saved. It was later confirmed that Cocozza had sworn on live TV. In Halloween week, he sang "Should I Stay or Should I Go" and was safe. In week five, Cocozza sang "I Gotta Feeling" and was safe. On 8 November 2011, Cocozza was axed from the show, for breaking the TV show's rules by his drug use.

On 5 January 2012, Cocozza entered Celebrity Big Brother 9 and came out finishing second to Denise Welch on 27 January 2012. He also presented MTV's My Super Sweet 16, which aired on 22 April 2012.^{[citation needed]} Frankie was also on The Million Pound Drop: Celebrity Games alongside his Celebrity Big Brother housemate Natalie Cassidy.

Marcus Collins

Marcus Collins

Main article: Marcus Collins (singer)

Marcus Collins (born 15 May 1988) is a hairdresser from Liverpool. Collins was a member of Eton Road, a band that competed during series 3 of UK The X Factor. Following their exit from the show in November 2006 and the departure of lead singer Anthony Hannah, Collins joined Eton Road as a replacement in August 2007. He stayed with the band for about 10 months before leaving to pursue a solo career. He is openly gay and The Sun newspaper reported that his boyfriend was Eton Road's David Heath. On 4 December, he was voted through to the live final along with Amelia Lily and Little Mix.^{[citation needed]} He reached the second half of the final on 11 December 2011 with Little Mix and finished second. His self-titled debut album Marcus Collins was released on 12 March 2012^{[citation needed]} with his debut single and the lead single off the album a cover of The White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army", which was released on 4 March, the song debuted at #9 on the UK Singles Chart.^{[citation needed]}

Craig Colton

Craig Colton is from Kirkby and is a student working in a biscuit factory in Liverpool. He is openly gay. He was voted out of the competition in week 7, after being in the final showdown with Amelia Lily and receiving the fewest number of votes, due to the judges vote being deadlocked. On 16 January 2012, Colton revealed he is working on his debut album. When asked about the album, he stated "it's very indie and it's very acoustic and it's got a nice little hint of jazz." Colton unveiled his debut single "Beautiful Surprise" on 12 February, and will go to Los Angeles in the summer to write and record new material with Robbie Williams. On 9 October 2012, he revealed to NOW that he was actually Bisexual.

James Michael

James Michael (born James Michael Stillings in Liverpool, Merseyside) (20) is from Widnes, Cheshire. The unemployed singer taught himself a few songs on guitar while job-hunting after finishing school at 16. He describes himself as "not academic" but realised he had a love for music and went to college to study music technology. He sang "Ticket to Ride" and was the first in the boys' category to be eliminated from the live shows on 9 October by decision of mentor Gary Barlow, as there was no public vote in the inaugural live show. After Frankie Cocozza was expelled from the show, the public voted for one act from the initial four eliminated from the first live show to replace him, but Michael lost out to Amelia Lily. The Liverpool Echo reported in early 2012 that Michael was recording material for an album.^{[citation needed]} Since leaving The X Factor, Michael has been taking an interest in modelling and has done many photoshoots since.^{[citation needed]}

Girls

The girls were mentored by Kelly Rowland

The "Girls" category was mentored by Kelly Rowland. Contestants in this category are females aged 16 to 24. The eight candidates were Misha Bryan, Janet Devlin, Sophie Habibis, Amelia Lily, Melanie McCabe, Holly Repton, Jade Richards and Sarah Watson. Rowland chose:

Misha B

Main article: Misha B

Misha Bryan (born 10 February 1992), better known as Misha B, is from Manchester. Born to a single mother Florence, she was raised from 3-months old on by her aunt Lily, as her mother could not take care of her. Her father is unknown. Misha started singing seriously aged 14, and says that singing was 'my way of understanding myself'. Before X Factor she sang on the open mic circuit and busked in Manchester to tackle her stage fright. She later claimed she prayed and chanted before her X Factor performances to calm her nerves.

For her audition song Misha sang "Respect". At bootcamp she sang her version of "Survivor" and at judges' houses she performed Nicki Minaj and Rihanna's "Fly". For the first three weeks, Misha sang "Rolling in the Deep", "Would I Lie to You?" and "Purple Rain". In week four she sang "Tainted Love", but was in the bottom two and had to sing for survival in the final showdown against Sophie Habibis. After singing "Use Somebody" as her survival song, she was unanimously saved by the judges, though Barlow's vote was unnecessary for the result. For the fifth week, Misha sung "Proud Mary". On week six, Misha sung "Born This Way", but again she landed in the final showdown against Kitty Brucknell and sang "Who You Are" as her survival song. Walsh voted to eliminate her, but Tulisa, Rowland and Barlow voted to save her. On week seven, Misha sung "I Have Nothing". Barlow also told Misha "I want to see the Misha B we saw at the first audition", which led to Misha singing "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" and "Killing Me Softly with His Song" on the eighth week. Misha B ended up in the final showdown for the third time in week eight, and sung "Out Here On My Own", with Walsh and Conotstavlos saving her, and Rowland refusing to vote between her and Janet Devlin, meaning Misha was saved. Barlow afterwards said that he would have also saved her. On 4 December, Misha sang "Dancing in the Street" and "Perfect", but she was voted out of the competition, finishing in 4th place.

Misha B was involved in a controversy during the third live show when judge Tulisa Contostavlos accused her of making "mean comments" and judge Louis Walsh accused her of being a "bully" backstage. Both later apologised. The other two panel members and several contestants defended Misha B during and after the show. Judge Gary Barlow later said he believed the wrongful allegations had ended her chances of winning the competition.

On 2 May 2012, Misha announced her debut single "Home Run", which was then released in the UK on 15 July. On 18 July 2012 three days after its release, her single entered the top 20 of The Official UK Singles Chart debuting at numer 11 as broadcasted by BBC Radio 1. She is currently working on her debut album with MNEK, TMS and Naughty Boy.

Janet Devlin

Janet Devlin (born 12 November 1994) is from Gortin, County Tyrone. Devlin had very little singing experience before The X Factor, only singing in her school, pubs and local talent shows.^{[citation needed]} She previously uploaded singing videos to her official channel on YouTube on a regular basis, where she has now received well over 10 million total views worldwide. Devlin performed "Your Song" by Elton John during the audition stage of the competition. For the first live show Devlin sang "Fix You", which was enough to convince Rowland that she deserved a place in the next live show. For the next live shows, Devlin sang "Can't Help Falling In Love", "Sweet Child o' Mine", "Every Breath You Take", "I Want You Back", "Somebody to Love", "Kiss Me". On week 8 she sang "MMMBop" and "Under the Bridge", but landed in the bottom two against Misha B. Devlin sang Chasing Cars for survival, but was voted out of the competition by judges Tulisa and Walsh. Rowland refused to vote, so the majority vote was used. Barlow said he would have eliminated Devlin as well. At the end of the series, it was revealed that she had received the highest number of votes for the first four weeks, which was the highest consecutive public vote out of all the 2011 contestants. She had also received more votes than Misha B on week 8.

It was reported that Devlin had been offered a recording contract by RKA Records, a record company partly owned by Dragons' Den star and entrepreneur Duncan Bannatyne, within 35 minutes of being eliminated from the competition.

At the end of May 2012 Devlin worked with singer-songwriter Eliot Kennedy, where she wrote and recorded 3 songs ('Crown of Thorns', 'Thinking Back Yesterday' and 'Who Am I Today?'^{[citation needed]}).

Janet has been writing most of her new music along with other songs being co-written for inclusion on an album. The album may feature her song "Crown of Thorns" which she has performed at recent gigs. Devlin used the website PledgeMusic to fund the album, only releasing it if sufficient pre-orders were received. In December 2012 it was stated that the album would be released in early 2013, having reached 45% of the pledge target within the first two weeks.

As well as working with Eliot Kennedy and his team, Devlin has written with songwriters Joe Janiak, Helen Boulding, Ethan Ash and Jack Savoretti. She has also written tracks for her debut release with the Faulkner brothers, Billy and Newton Faulkner.

Devlin performed at Croke Park, in front of a capacity 82,300 crowd, as part of the half-time show for the All Ireland Gaelic Football final on 23 September 2012. She performed a cover of "Fix You" and one of her self-penned original songs "Walk Away". She performed at the X Factor NSPCC Childline Ball on 18 October, again singing her original song 'Walk Away' and 'Fix You' by Coldplay, helping to raise over half a million pounds for the charity.

On 3 November 2012 she performed at Casement Park, as part of the pre-match entertainment, for the Michaela Foundation's charity Gaelic Football match in memory of Michaela McAreavey.

Janet performed for his Holiness, the Dalai Lama on April 18th as part of Irish charity, Children in Crossfire's ‘Culture of Compassion’ event in Derry. The event was broadcast live worldwide on both the charity's and the Dalai Lama's websites.

Sophie Habibis

Sophie Maria Habibis, (born 3 November 1991) is a 21 year old barmaid from London. She is the youngest of four children to a father of Greek descent. At judges' houses, she performed "He Won't Go" by Adele, and made it through to the Live Shows. In the live shows, Habibis performed Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream" in week one, convincing Rowland to keep her in the competition. In following weeks she performed "Wherever You Will Go", "Livin' on a Prayer" and "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)". In week four, Habibis was in the bottom two and had to perform in the final showdown against Misha B, she sang "Shelter" for survival. The judges voted 3-0 to eliminate her including her mentor Kelly Rowland voting against her, claiming Misha wanted to it more. Fellow judge Gary Barlow announced afterwards that he would also have eliminated Habibis. At the end of the series it was revealed that Habibis had received more votes than Misha. She has recently stated plans to release a song in November 2012.

Amelia Lily

Main article: Amelia Lily

Amelia Lily

Amelia Lily Oliver (born 16 October 1994) is from Nunthorpe in Middlesbrough, where she attends dance school at the Neptune Center With Dance Teacher Miss Viki, She grew up singing in her back garden with her friends Rosie, Abby and Amanda daily also taking part in musical theatre. She performed "Billie Jean" and was the first of the girls' category to be eliminated from the live shows on 9 October by decision of mentor Kelly Rowland, as there was no public vote in the inaugural live show. After Frankie Cocozza was expelled from the show for breaking one of the competition's rules, the public was given a choice to vote, from the 10th until 12 November, for one act who was eliminated on week 1 to return. Amelia won the vote with over 48% of the vote and replaced Cocozza. She went on to make the final and finished in 3rd place. Amelia has signed a £500,000 3-album record deal with Sony subsidiary Xenomania. Amelia is now coming to the end process of recording her debut album. Lily announced her debut album would be released on April 29. The video for "You Bring Me Joy", her debut single, was released in August 2012 in the UK.

Over 25s

The over 25s category was mentored by Louis Walsh

The "Over 25s" category was mentored by Louis Walsh. Contestants in this category are of either gender, aged 25 or over. There is no upper age limit. The eight candidates were Samantha Brookes, Kitty Brucknell, Goldie Cheung, Joseph Gilligan, Jonjo Kerr, Carolynne Poole, Johnny Robinson and Terry Winstanley. Walsh chose:

Sami Brookes

Samantha "Sami" Brookes is from Rhyl, Denbighshire. She replaced contestant Goldie Cheung, who left at the end of judges' houses. For the first live show, she sang Free, and was kept in the competition. The following weeks she sung "I Will Always Love You" and "If I Could Turn Back Time". She was placed in the bottom two in the third week, along with fellow over Kitty Brucknell. She performed "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" in the final showdown. The vote allowed Walsh to set the vote to deadlock, as although Rowland and Barlow sent Brookes home, Tulisa opted against Kitty. However, Walsh sent Sami home, thus eliminating her from the competition. It was later revealed that Brookes had more votes than Kitty, so if Walsh had gone to deadlock Sami would have stayed in the competition. Sami is openly lesbian.

Kitty Brucknell

Kitty Brucknell in 2012

Kitty Brucknell (born Kimberley Edwards) aged 27, is from Cheltenham. She used to be a Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and (more recently) Lady Gaga tribute act, and featured on Dinner Date programme and also on BBC Radio 1 BBC Three and several American TV shows.

Prior to appearing on the X Factor, Brucknell released the Stay EP.

In week one, Kitty sang "Who Wants to Live Forever" by Queen and was put through by her mentor Louis. After the show, Brian May from Queen spoke out in support of her and thanking her for her performance. In week two, Kitty sang "It's Oh So Quiet" with a theatrical Alice in Wonderland performance and was put through by the public vote. In week three she was in the bottom two after performing "Live and Let Die", along with Sami Brookes in spite of universal praise from the judges. She performed "The Edge of Glory" in the final showdown. Tulisa voted to eliminate her, but Gary, Kelly and Louis all saved her. In week four for Halloween, Kitty took to the stage on a rotating wheel with pyrotechnics and a circus theme to perform "Sweet Dreams" and was put through by the public vote. In week five, Kitty sang a classic Madonna song: "Like A Prayer", but she was in the bottom three along with The Risk and Johnny Robinson in a double elimination special. The Risk had the least amount of votes from the public and were eliminated. Brucknell and Robinson then sang again for survival in the final showdown. Her mentor Louis Walsh, Tulisa and Kelly Rowland all saved her and voted against Robinson. Although he wasn't required to vote as the judges had reached a majority verdict (like in the previous week), Gary confirmed he would have voted Robinson off. On the sixth live show, Kitty wanted to sing "Born This Way". Unfortunately, Misha B chose the song and had higher priority over her. Kitty then sang "Don't Stop Me Now" by Queen. Kitty was for the third time in the final showdown along with Misha B. She sang "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" and although Barlow had the opportunity to take the vote to deadlock, he voted Kitty off, claiming he felt she wasn't connecting with the audience. At the end of the series, it was revealed that Brucknell had received way more votes than Misha, so if Gary had gone to deadlock Kitty would have remained in the competition. Only her mentor, Louis Walsh, voted to save her. After her elimination, Lady Gaga ran on stage in tears to comfort her and took her back to her dressing room for 30 minutes for a glass of wine and a chat. In addition to Lady Gaga, Kitty has had support from Perez Hilton, Kylie Minogue, Nathan from The Wanted and Brian May from Queen. Brucknell appeared on Harry Hill's TV Burp on 19 November 2011 singing "Born This Way" in the final minute of the show.

Jonjo Kerr

Jonjo Kerr in Chorley, Lancashire^{[citation needed]}; 27, is an infantry soldier (in the Yorkshire Regiment) from Coventry (originally from Chorley, Lancashire). He was deployed to Afghanistan as part of his duties. He sang "You Really Got Me" and was the first of the overs category to be eliminated from the live shows on 9 October by decision of mentor Louis Walsh, as there was no public vote in the inaugural live show. The public voted over 10–12 November for one act from the initial four eliminated from the first live show, including Kerr, to replace the expelled Frankie Cocozza, but Kerr lost out to Amelia Lily.

Kerr made an appearance on choral group Military Wives' debut studio album, In My Dreams. Credited to his full name, Jon-Joseph Kerr, the singer appeared on the album's title track, "In My Dreams".

Jonjo signed with Duncan Bannatyne's Bannatyne Music record label in early 2013 where he is set to release his debut single 'You Are My World'.

Johnny Robinson

Johnny Robinson, aged 45, is from Harrow, London. Born to an Irish mother and an English father, Robinson has one older brother and an older sister and took part in Stars in Their Eyes when he was 24, as Boy George, and got through to the grand final. The Daily Mirror also revealed that he performs as a female impersonator in drag clubs around London under the name Sarah Lee. The Mirror also put a video of one of his performances in the clubs as a drag queen. In week five, he was in the bottom three along with The Risk and Kitty Brucknell. The Risk had the lowest amount of votes, and were eliminated. Brucknell and Robinson then sang again for survival in the final showdown. He was eliminated by his mentor Louis, Tulisa and Kelly, despite having more public votes than Brucknell. He went on to appear on The Saturday Night Show with Brendan O'Connor on 3 December 2011. On Thursday 9 February 2012, he made a short appearance on "Celebrity Juice". Robinson appeared in July 2012, on Daybreak, where he interviewed vacationers in Benidorm. In 2012, he was a relief Hub presenter on This Morning: Summer. In December 2012 Robinson released his debut single It's Christmas Time Again.

Groups

The groups were mentored by singer Tulisa Contostavlos

The Groups category was mentored by Tulisa Contostavlos. Acts in this category are duos or vocal groups. All members must be aged 16 or over. The eight candidates were 2 Shoes, The Estrelles, Girl v Boy, The Keys, The Lovettes, Nu Vibe, Little Mix (formerly known as Rhythmix) and The Risk. Contostavlos chose:

2 Shoes

2 Shoes are a duo from Brentwood, Essex, made up of Charley Bird (23), a telesales worker, and Lucy Texeira (21), a retail assistant. Bird became a mother to Beaux Bird, whom she gave birth to in December 2011. They were the first of the groups to be eliminated from the live shows on 9 October by decision of mentor Tulisa Contostavlos, as there was no public vote in the inaugural live show. They were in the running to replace Frankie Cocozza after he was eliminated from the contest, but received the lowest number of votes. Their debut single, a cover of Kathy Brown's "Turn Me On (Turn Me Out)" was set an initial release date of 13 August 2012, but this was later postponed to 3 September 2012. The music video premiered on 22 June 2012. 2 Shoes are signed to All Around the World Productions, the same record label as their former mentor, Contostavlos.

Little Mix

Little Mix

Main article: Little Mix

Little Mix (formerly known as Rhythmix) are a four-piece girlband made up of Essex barmaid Jesy Nelson (21), High Wycombe waitress Leigh-Anne Pinnock (19), and South Shields students Perrie Edwards and Jade Thirlwall (both 18). Originally known as Rhythmix, the band was formed at bootcamp from singers who auditioned as soloists but failed to make it through the Girls' Category. On 26 October 2011, Rhythmix announced that they would change their name following a dispute with a children's music charity of the same name, after the programme tried to trademark "Rhythmix" in Europe. After some disagreement between Syco and the charity, a resolution was reached and Cowell donated an undisclosed sum to the charity. A spokesperson for The X Factor said, "At the request of the charity Rhythmix, the members of the girl group Rhythmix have decided to change their name, a decision which has the support of Syco and TalkbackTHAMES. The group's new name will be announced in due course". It was reported that the band decided to make the change, despite no legal reason to do so, to avoid any difficulties for the charity. They announced that they would now be known as Little Mix on 28 October 2011 following on from this, the band said: "We all agreed on it, including Tulisa, because it just felt right". Little Mix became the first girl band in the history of The X Factor to make it to the final live show. They reached the final two on 10 December 2011, and won the show on 11 December 2011, making them the first group to win The X Factor. The prize was a £1 million recording contract with Syco, in association with Sony Music, although the majority of it goes towards recording and marketing costs. It also includes a stated cash advance of £150,000.

Little Mix have since released four singles as of March 2013, "Cannonball", "Wings", "DNA" and "Change Your Life", and their debut album DNA charted at number 3 in the UK albums chart.

Nu Vibe

Nu Vibe were a five-piece boyband made up of Jordan Higo (16, from Huddersfield), Stefan Romer (19, from Hampshire), Bradley Johnson (16, from Rainford), Richard Milford (16, from Birmingham) and Ashford Campbell (19, from Huddersfield). The band's members successfully auditioned as soloists, but they were knocked out of the competition at the bootcamp stage. The judges then called them back and put them together as a group. They were put through to the live shows by their mentor Tulisa. For the first live show they sang Chris Brown's "Beautiful People". Tulisa then sent them through to the first public vote after the first live show. For the second live show Nu Vibe sung U2's "With or Without You". After the first public vote, Nu Vibe were in the bottom two and had to perform in the final showdown against Frankie Cocozza. Nu Vibe performed "Promise This" by Cheryl Cole and were then eliminated from the competition with only their mentor, Tulisa voting in their favour. On 28 October, it was announced that Ashford Campbell would join The Risk after Ashley Baptiste decided to leave the group. After announcing the news that the group is being disbanded, Bradley Johnson revealed that he has signed a record deal as he had a keen interest in pursuing a career as a solo artist. His debut single is called "Boomerang"

The Risk

The Risk are a four-piece boyband that were initially composed of Ashley Baptiste (22, from London), car salesman Andy Merry (20, from Ayr), Burger King chef Derry Mensah (21, from London), Marlon McKenzie (28, from Manchester), and Mitchell McPike. Charlie Healy (25, from Coventry) was brought into the band, while Marlon and Mitchell were removed from the group at judges houses stage of the competition. Healy originally auditioned in another group, The Keys, while the other three auditioned as soloists. Andy previously auditioned for The X Factor in 2008, and came second in the United Kingdom selection for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in 2004. The band came under criticism from a Scottish band from Prestwick, who have been performing together for several years as The Risk. They asked The X Factor management to change the name of its contestants to avoid confusion.

On 28 October 2011, just before week four's live show, it was announced that original member Ashley Baptiste had decided to leave the band after stating that his heart did not lie within a boyband anymore. He was replaced by Ashford Campbell, as a fourth member. Campbell had been previously a member of Nu Vibe, but his original band had been eliminated on 16 October in week two of the competition. In Week 5, they received the fewest public votes and were sent home, after finding themselves in the bottom three with Johnny Robinson and Kitty Brucknell. Later on, Ashley went on to release his debut single, Show The People (How To Love)

In January 2013, they released their debut single: "Missiles", which charted at number 60 the UK singles chart.