The X Factor (British TV series) series 3

Template:The X Factor UK The third UK series of The X Factor was broadcast on the ITV network in the United Kingdom and TV3 in the Republic of Ireland. The first show aired on 19 August 2006. Twelve million people tuned into the final on 16 December 2006, which saw Leona Lewis declared winner.

Auditions began on 7 June 2006. Simon Cowell said on ITV's This Morning that he was looking for the next Boyzone or Spice Girls: "The next international boyband or girlband is what I want to see in this year's show". 100,000 people applied to audition, the most so far. Nearly 20,000 attended an open audition at Old Trafford Football Stadium, Manchester on 18 June 2006.

All three judges, Simon Cowell, Sharon Osbourne and Louis Walsh, returned. Hints by Cowell and the surrounding media that a fourth full-time judge mentoring a fourth category of contestants might be added proved to be false. However, American Idol judge Paula Abdul did make an appearance as a guest judge at the London auditions, and further celebrity guests appeared during the live shows. Simon Cowell had also stated that there could be a 14-24s category but during the audition process the category was named as 16-24, as in the previous two series. Simon mentored the 16-24 year olds, Sharon had the 25 and overs, and Louis mentored the Groups. (Both rumoured changes – the lowering of the age limit and the addition of a fourth category – were actually implemented in series 4.)

Kate Thornton returned as the host of the main X Factor show, with Ben Shephard again presenting The Xtra Factor on ITV2. This was both Thornton's and Shephard's last series of The X Factor, as Thornton announced her departure on 8 March, 2007 and Shephard resigned after being passed over for promotion to main presenter.

Instead of the earlier red and purple colour scheme, this year's theme was red and blue. A new-look website for the third series was launched on August 11 2006.

Winner Leona Lewis's debut single was as a cover of the Kelly Clarkson song "A Moment Like This", and was released on December 20, 2006. Contestant Ben Mills reportedly claimed that the contest had been fixed for Leona Lewis to win, as the winner's song was more suited to a female vocal. This rumour subsequently proved to be unfounded and show bosses said that they had made arrangements for the song to fit any singer's voice.

After the December 9 show, Simon Cowell became the winning judge even though the series had not finished, as two of his acts, Raymond Quinn and Leona Lewis, became the two finalists.

Bootcamp and visits to judges' houses

It was originally intended that 21 acts (seven for each judge) should remain by the conclusion of the bootcamp stage. However, Simon Cowell decided that he had made a mistake with his seven by failing to include Raymond Quinn, and asked the producers to allow one more contestant or act to go through. The other two judges were then allowed to increase their quota to eight as well, giving a total of 24 acts. In the "judges' houses" round this was cut down to 12 to go through to the live finals. Avenue were chosen to go through but were later disqualified, having misled the judges over an existing record contract with a manager who was no longer associated with the show. As a consequence of this disqualification, Eton Road were put through in their place.

The acts in the final 24 who failed to make the final 12 were:

• Groups: Dolly Rockers, Pure Liberty, Brother's One and Avenue
• 16-24s: Shaun Rogerson, Stacey Barnes, Gemma Sampson and Carlo Muscutelli
• 25 and overs: Katie Angus, Jonathan Bremner, Lyn Fairbanks and Tigwa Savage

Finalists

The following artists made it to the live shows. The act in green is the winner and those in pink were eliminated.

Category	Acts
16-24s (Simon Cowell)	Nikitta Angus	Leona Lewis	Ashley McKenzie	Raymond Quinn
25 and overs (Sharon Osbourne)	Robert Allen	Kerry McGregor	Ben Mills	Dionne Mitchell
Groups (Louis Walsh)	4Sure	Eton Road	The MacDonald Brothers	The Unconventionals

In the biographies below, time references are as of 2006.

16-24s

Nikitta Angus

Nikitta Angus (born 19 October 1988) is from Glasgow. Her aunt, Katie Angus, was in Sharon's category but failed to make the final 12. At her audition Nikitta performed the Richard Thompson song "Dimming of the Day", which she recorded with her aunt for her mother's funeral in 2005. Nikitta was due to be a contestant in 2005 but was knocked down by a car ten minutes before her audition.

She was eliminated in the fifth week after appearing in the final showdown with Raymond Quinn.

In late 2007 Nikitta signed a record deal with Brown Moose Records. Her official website is located at www.NikittaOnline.com. Her debut single is set to be released Spring 2008 with an album following later.

Leona Lewis

Leona Lewis (born 3 April 1985) grew up in North London listening to her father's record collection. She says "I loved listening to Minnie Ripperton and Anita Baker, plus 80s big vocalists Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Oleta Adams and more recently Eva Cassidy, and at the age of six I decided to be a singer". Her favourite album is Thriller.

Leona wrote her first song at the age of 12, and attended the Sylvia Young stage school and the Brit School. Her audition performances for The X Factor were "Over the Rainbow" (originally performed by Judy Garland), "I Have Nothing" (Whitney Houston), and "Without You" (Badfinger).

Leona went on to win the contest, becoming the first woman to do so. Her first release was the song "A Moment Like This".

Leona's vocal talents were consistently highly praised by all three judges throughout the competition, and on occasions she was compared to Mariah Carey. On the 9 December show Simon remarked that of all Pop Idol and The X Factor performances, her performance of "Over the Rainbow" was the best he had ever witnessed. The only criticisms she received, both from the judges and in the press, were related to her confidence. Cowell also commented throughout the show that Leona's lack of awareness of her talents was what made her special.

Following the release of Lewis's second single "Bleeding Love" and debut album Spirit, she became the biggest selling X Factor contestant and the first to have international success. On the 17th April 2008, Spirit debuted at number 1 on the American Billboard 200 album charts simultaneously reaching the top spot with her single, "Bleeding Love."

Ashley McKenzie

Ashley Frank McKenzie (born 1986 in Croydon, Surrey) is one of five children; he has two brothers, David and Rory, and two sisters, Leah and Ella. Ashley's cousin is the Coventry City footballer, Leon McKenzie. Ashley is very interested in gymnastics and has won many awards for his skills. He has done modelling work for Storm and Topman in the past.

Ashley was in the bottom three during the third week of the live shows but avoided elimination. He was eliminated in week four.

Ray Quinn

Ray Quinn (born 25 August 1988) lives with his parents in Liverpool. He has two older brothers who own a carpet warehouse. He is currently (as of 2006) studying Performing Arts at The Merseyside Dance and Drama College and has a year of his course remaining. At college he has received some vocal training and has also learnt to dance to quite an advanced level. Raymond is also known for playing Anthony Murray in the TV soap opera Brookside. This role won him the 2002 British Soap Award for Best Dramatic Performance, and the storyline in which he featured won Best Storyline. Raymond has also appeared in a children's drama called Cactus Jack.

Many of Ray's X Factor performances had an old-fashioned feel, and in the earlier stages of the competition he was criticised by Louis for repeatedly performing swing-style numbers. Sharon Osbourne christened him "panto boy" and the judges generally queried his ability as a pure singer as opposed to a "song-and-dance man". In the later stages the judges seemed satisfied that the range of his performances had widened.

Ray was in the bottom two in the fifth week along with Nikitta, but survived elimination. Ray was the runner up, finishing in second place behind Leona Lewis.

25 and overs

Robert Allen

Robert Allen currently lives in Essex with his girlfriend Samia, whom he met at an open mike event. Robert has one brother and one sister. He used to be in a gospel group called The Continentals and another group called Citizen K. Robert has trained in method acting, had professional dance tuition and can play clarinet to grade 4. Robert's audition performance of "Let It Be" was well received by the judges, and at bootcamp he sang "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley.

Robert was in the bottom two three times, and was eliminated the third time, on 18 November.

Kerry McGregor

Kerry McGregor is a full-time mother from West Lothian. Kerry broke her back when she was 13, and was left paraplegic, dependent on a wheelchair and crutches to get around. In 1997, she entered A Song for Europe but lost out to Katrina and the Waves. She has also sung on the track "Freedom" by dance act QFX, which reached #21 in the UK Singles Chart. In 2003 she appeared in three episodes of the Channel 4 comedy The Book Group, playing Carol Ann.

In the X Factor audition stages, she performed the songs "Show Me Heaven" (Maria McKee), "Something" (The Beatles), "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me" (Dusty Springfield) and "You've Got a Friend" (Carole King).

Kerry was eliminated by the judges in the third live show.

Ben Mills

Ben Mills comes from Ashford, Kent. He has been running his own marquee company for the past four years. His claim to fame before taking part in The X Factor was putting up a marquee for Jools Holland. He has one sister and one brother. Ben has a Diploma in music and has been singing for twenty years. He also plays piano and guitar, and currently performs in the pubs and clubs in his local area. Ben's biggest performance to date was at the Guildford Folk and Blues Festival. Ben was also a keyboard player in the tribute band to The Doors called The L.A. Doors.

He was in the bottom two for the first time in week seven alongside Eton Road but survived elimination. Ben was voted off The X Factor in the semi-final, finishing in third place.

Dionne Mitchell

Dionne Mitchell was born and raised in London and currently lives with her parents. Dionne has two older sisters and four older brothers; the oldest is in his 40s. She has been singing for the past six years after joining a theatre company and performing in a play. After the show the company asked her to stay on. She has performed in clubs and as a backing singer at concerts.

Dionne was in the bottom two in week one, but avoided elimination. However, she was automatically eliminated by the public in the third week, having received the fewest votes in the special double-elimination show.

Groups

4Sure

4Sure are Andrew Fisher, Kriss Jones, Donovan Bailey and Jermaine Sanderson.

Donovan formed the band in 2005 after asking Kriss to sing to him over the telephone. Jermaine and Andrew are mutual friends who joined the group at the same time. They have performed around the country at various holiday parks and pubs. They chose the name 4Sure because they are "four guys sure of their destiny". In fact, their destiny was elimination in week two.

Since leaving The X Factor 4Sure have been busy writing and recording new songs and have also supported Boyz II Men on their UK Tour as well as other American artists.

Eton Road

Eton Road was originally made up of Anthony Hannah, Danny Morris, David Heath and James Edwards. The name was spelled "Eton Rd" in the show's captions.

The four have known each other since they attended a dance school called Chiltern Casting on Eaton Road together when they were younger. They named themselves after the road, slightly changing the spelling. They have all been singing for a number of years in shows, competitions and cabarets. However, they had only been together as a group for four days when they auditioned for The X Factor. From their first audition, Simon branded Anthony as "the odd one" in reference to his distinct look. At the age of 14, Anthony took part in Stars in Their Eyes Kids, performing as Robbie Williams. He also performed with Gareth Gates on Top of the Pops in 2003, after winning this opportunity in a competition.

Eton Road were in the bottom two for the first time on 18 November, but were saved by Simon Cowell. The following week they were in the bottom two again, and were eliminated by Cowell, who had the casting vote on both occasions.

Since The X Factor they have performed at over 300 gigs and have a very big fan base. In August 2007 Anthony Hannah left and was replaced with 19 year old Markus Collins. Anthony has since been in the recording studio and has gigged up and down the country. Including Londons' biggest gay club, G-A-Y. (www.myspace.com/anthonyhannah)

Eton Road's debut single, "Wishing", received its first airplay on Thursday 4th October 2007 on a local Liverpool late night radio show, but they have yet to be signed to a record label. In September 2007 their official website (http://www.etonroad.org.uk) and official MySpace site (http://www.myspace.com/officialetonroad) were launched. Their debut single, "Wishing", was released in January 2008 and reached #5 on the IndieStore.com charts. In January 2008 Malcom Feld signed Eton Road, and is now working with them on all future plans. In March 2008, a meeting was held and Markus Collins thought it would be best if he left the group, as things were not working out with James and Danny. Markus is now persuing a solo career and writing new material to perform with a 10-piece band. David, James and Daniel have decided to carry on as a trio.

The MacDonald Brothers

The MacDonald Brothers are Brian MacDonald and Craig MacDonald.

Brian (born 28 November 1986) and Craig (born 16 December 1985) live with their parents and have a half brother from their father's previous relationship. The MacDonald Brothers have been singing together seriously for three years at weddings and clubs, and occasionally perform backing vocals. One of their biggest performances as The MacDonald Brothers was in front of Hugh Grant at the Ceilidh Dance.

The MacDonald Brothers were repeatedly rubbished by Simon Cowell, who called their performances "dreary" and "pointless" and expressed amazement as the pair continued to survive the vote. They were finally eliminated on December 2, 2006, finishing in overall fourth place. At the series 4 Glasgow audition, Cowell made a "formal apology" to Scotland that they had been represented by the brothers in series 3.

The duo have, however, been popular in their native Scotland, with their first album reaching number 1 in the Scottish charts, number 18 in the UK charts, and their second album The World Outside is due for release.

They have also toured with Westlife and are currently signed to Scottish music label The Music Kitchen.

The Unconventionals

The Unconventionals are Andrew Newey, Drew Jaymson, Elizabeth "Liz" Ewing, Lucy Newton, Nicola Dawn and Tom Newman.

The Unconventionals came together just a few months before their appearance on The X Factor. Drew and Andrew have known each other since 1990 when they both performed at a charity gig. They now work together at the London Palladium where Drew is an usher and Andrew works in front-of-house sales. Liz was brought into the group after working with Drew on the musical Grease where they played boyfriend and girlfriend. Nicola and Lucy knew Drew from their time working on the Boy George musical Taboo. Tom is the only member who was previously unknown to most of the group. He is Nicola's boyfriend. The Unconventionals have had only one performance of note, a charity performance at the night club Too 2 Much.

They were eliminated in the first week.

Their debut single, "Strawberry Sunshine", was due for release in May 2007. The song was recorded in December 2006, at the Penarth studios of record producer Danny Chang.

Results Table

The Contestants labeled yellow were Sharon's Contestants (Over 25s), the Contestants labeled light blue are Simon's Contestants (16s to 24s) and the Contestants labeled dark blue are Louis' (Groups).

		Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4	Week 5	Week 6	Week 7	Week 8	Week 9	Week 10
	Leona Lewis	Safe	Safe	Safe	Safe	Safe	Safe	Safe	Safe	Safe	Winner (Week 10)
	Raymond Quinn	Safe	Safe	Safe	Safe	Bottom Two	Safe	Safe	Safe	Safe	Runner-Up (Week 10)
	Ben Mills	Safe	Safe	Safe	Safe	Safe	Safe	Bottom Two	Safe	Bottom	Eliminated (Week 9)
	The MacDonald Brothers	Safe	Safe	Safe	Safe	Safe	Safe	Safe	Bottom	Eliminated (Week 8)
	Eton Road	Safe	Safe	Safe	Safe	Safe	Bottom Two	Bottom Two	Eliminated (Week 7)
	Robert Allen	Safe	Bottom Two	Safe	Bottom Two	Safe	Bottom Two	Eliminated (Week 6)
	Nikitta Angus	Safe	Safe	Safe	Safe	Bottom Two	Eliminated (Week 5)
	Ashley McKenzie	Safe	Safe	Bottom Three	Bottom Two	Eliminated (Week 4)
	Kerry McGregor	Safe	Safe	Bottom Three	Eliminated (Week 3)
	Dionne Mitchell	Bottom Two	Safe	Bottom	Eliminated (Week 3)
	4Sure	Safe	Bottom Two	Eliminated (Week 2)
	The Unconventionals	Bottom Two	Eliminated (Week 1)
Bottom Two		Dionne, Unconventionals	4Sure, Robert	Ashley, Kerry	Ashley, Robert	Nikitta, Raymond	Eton, Robert	Ben, Eton	-	-	-
	Simon's Vote	Unconventionals	4Sure	Kerry	Robert	Nikitta	Robert	Eton	-	-	-
	Sharon's Vote	Unconventionals	4Sure	Ashley	Ashley	Nikitta	Eton	Eton
	Louis' Vote	Dionne	Robert	Kerry	Ashley	Raymond	Robert	Ben
Eliminated		Unconventionals 2 of 3 Votes	4Sure 2 of 3 Votes	Dionne Bottom	Ashley 2 of 3 Votes	Nikitta 2 of 3 Votes	Robert 2 of 3 Votes	Eton Road 2 of 3 Votes	MacDonald Brothers Bottom	Ben Bottom	Raymond 40% to win
				Kerry 2 of 3 Votes							Leona 60% to win

Live show details

14 October 2006

• Theme: Motown
• Celebrity guest: Lionel Richie

Order	Artist	Song (original artists)	Results
1	Robert Allen	"All Night Long (All Night)" (Lionel Richie)
2	Eton Road	"My Girl" (The Temptations)
3	Nikitta Angus	"Heaven Must Have Sent You" (The Elgins)
4	Ben Mills	"The Tracks of My Tears" (The Miracles)
5	The MacDonald Brothers	"Three Times a Lady" (Commodores)
6	Raymond Quinn	"Ben" (Michael Jackson)
7	Dionne Mitchell	"I'm Gonna Make You Love Me" (Dee Dee Warwick)	Bottom two
8	The Unconventionals	"Dancing in the Street" (Martha and the Vandellas)	Eliminated
9	Ashley McKenzie	"Easy" (Commodores)
10	Kerry McGregor	"You Are the Sunshine of My Life" (Stevie Wonder)
11	4Sure	"What Becomes of the Brokenhearted" (Jimmy Ruffin)
12	Leona Lewis	"I'll Be There" (The Jackson 5)

Judges' votes to eliminate

• Louis: Dionne Mitchell
• Sharon: The Unconventionals
• Simon: The Unconventionals

21 October 2006

• Theme: Rod Stewart songs
• Celebrity guest: Rod Stewart

Order	Artist	Song (original artists)	Results
1	Leona Lewis	"The First Cut Is the Deepest" (Cat Stevens)
2	Kerry McGregor	"I Don't Want to Talk About It" (Crazy Horse)
3	The MacDonald Brothers	"Sailing" (Rod Stewart)
4	Ashley McKenzie	"I'd Rather Go Blind" (Etta James)
5	Dionne Mitchell	"Tonight's the Night (Gonna Be Alright)" (Rod Stewart)
6	4Sure	"You're in My Heart (The Final Acclaim)" (Rod Stewart)	Eliminated
7	Nikitta Angus	"Bring It On Home to Me" (Sam Cooke)
8	Robert Allen	"Try a Little Tenderness" (Ruth Etting)	Bottom two
9	Eton Road	"This Old Heart of Mine (Is Weak for You)" (The Isley Brothers)
10	Raymond Quinn	"What a Wonderful World" (Louis Armstrong)
11	Ben Mills	"Maggie May" (Rod Stewart)

Judges' votes to eliminate

• Louis: Robert Allen
• Sharon: 4Sure
• Simon: 4Sure

28 October 2006

• Theme: Big band
• Celebrity guest: Tony Bennett

Simon Cowell appeared on GMTV on the morning of Wednesday 25 October and said that "something big is going to happen this week that none of the contestants know about – a change that will shake some of them up." It was revealed on the show that this surprise was to be a double elimination.

Order	Artist	Song (original artists)	Results
1	Raymond Quinn	"Ain't That a Kick in the Head" (Dean Martin)
2	Dionne Mitchell	"For Once in My Life" (Jean DuShon)	Eliminated
3	Nikitta Angus	"Sway" (Dean Martin)
4	Ben Mills	"Smile" (Charlie Chaplin)
5	The MacDonald Brothers	"Can't Take My Eyes Off You" (Frankie Valli)
6	Leona Lewis	"Summertime" (from the opera Porgy and Bess)
7	Kerry McGregor	"They Can't Take That Away from Me" (Fred Astaire)	Eliminated
8	Ashley McKenzie	"Moondance" (Van Morrison)	Bottom three
9	Robert Allen	"Mr. Bojangles" (Jerry Jeff Walker)
10	Eton Road	"Mack the Knife" (Bobby Darin)

The act with fewest votes was automatically eliminated; this was Dionne. The other two acts in the bottom three then performed again for the judges to decide the second elimination.

Judges' votes to eliminate

• Sharon: Ashley McKenzie
• Simon: Kerry McGregor
• Louis: Kerry McGregor

Louis, who held the casting vote, explained that he felt Kerry had reached the limit of her abilities, while Ashley had, in his view, further potential, although that night he did forget some of the words.

4 November 2006

• Theme: ABBA songs
• Celebrity guest: Björn Ulvaeus

Order	Artist	Song (original artists)	Results
1	Nikitta Angus	"Dancing Queen" (ABBA)
2	Eton Road	"Does Your Mother Know" (ABBA)
3	Robert Allen	"Take a Chance on Me" (ABBA)	Bottom two
4	Leona Lewis	"Chiquitita" (ABBA)
5	The MacDonald Brothers	"Fernando" (Anni-Frid Lyngstad)
6	Raymond Quinn	"Waterloo" (ABBA)
7	Ben Mills	"SOS" (ABBA)
8	Ashley McKenzie	"The Winner Takes It All" (ABBA)	Eliminated

Judges' votes to eliminate

• Sharon: Ashley McKenzie
• Simon: Robert Allen
• Louis: Ashley McKenzie

11 November 2006

• Theme: Love songs
• Celebrity guest: Julio Iglesias

Order	Artist	Song (original artists)	Results
1	Ben Mills	"I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" (Aerosmith)
2	The MacDonald Brothers	"She's the One" (World Party)
3	Raymond Quinn	"Crazy Little Thing Called Love" (Queen)	Bottom two
4	Nikitta Angus	"Last Dance" (Donna Summer)	Eliminated
5	Eton Road	"From Me to You" (The Beatles)
6	Leona Lewis	"Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word" (Elton John)
7	Robert Allen	"Always and Forever" (Heatwave)

Judges' votes to eliminate

• Sharon: Nikitta Angus
• Louis: Raymond Quinn
• Simon: Nikitta Angus

18 November 2006

• Theme: Number ones
• Celebrity guests: Westlife and Delta Goodrem

Order	Artist	Song (original artists)	Results
1	Raymond Quinn	"Livin' la Vida Loca" (Ricky Martin)
2	Robert Allen	"You Are Not Alone" (Michael Jackson)	Eliminated
3	Eton Road	"I Don't Feel Like Dancin'" (Scissor Sisters)	Bottom two
4	Leona Lewis	"Bridge over Troubled Water" (Simon and Garfunkel)
5	Ben Mills	"With a Little Help from My Friends" (The Beatles)
6	The MacDonald Brothers	"Love Is All Around" (The Troggs)

Judges' votes to eliminate

• Sharon: Eton Road
• Louis: Robert Allen
• Simon: Robert Allen

25 November 2006

• Theme: Songs from the movies
• Celebrity guest: Il Divo

Each act performed two songs; one slow and one up-tempo.

Order	Artist	First song (original artists)	Second song (original artists)	Results
1	Leona Lewis	"Lady Marmalade" (Labelle)	"I Will Always Love You" (Dolly Parton)
2	The MacDonald Brothers	"When You Say Nothing at All" (Keith Whitley)	"I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" (The Proclaimers)
3	Ben Mills	"Live and Let Die" (Paul McCartney and Wings)	"Your Song" (Elton John)	Bottom two
4	Eton Road	"Everybody Needs Somebody to Love" (Solomon Burke)	"Can You Feel the Love Tonight" (Elton John)	Eliminated
5	Raymond Quinn	"The Way You Look Tonight" (Fred Astaire)	"Jailhouse Rock" (Elvis Presley)

Judges' votes to eliminate

• Louis: Ben Mills
• Sharon: Eton Road
• Simon: Eton Road

2 December 2006

• Themes: Barry Manilow songs; contestant's choice
• Celebrity guest: Barry Manilow

This was the first show of the series without a final showdown. The act with the fewest public votes was automatically eliminated. Each act sang one Manilow song and one song of their own choice.

Order	Artist	First song (Barry Manilow song)	Second song (original artists)	Results
1	The MacDonald Brothers	"Can't Smile Without You"	"Shang-a-lang" (Bay City Rollers)	Eliminated
2	Raymond Quinn	"Mandy"	"My Way" (Frank Sinatra)
3	Ben Mills	"I Made It Through the Rain"	"Somebody to Love" (Queen)
4	Leona Lewis	"Could It Be Magic"	"Without You" (Badfinger)

9 December 2006 (Semi-final)

• Theme: "Songs to get you into the final" (no specific theme)
• Celebrity guest: Gloria Estefan

Order	Artist	First song (original artists)	Second song (original artists)	Results
1	Raymond Quinn	"Smile" (Charlie Chaplin)	"You'll Never Walk Alone" (from the musical Carousel)
2	Leona Lewis	"I Have Nothing" (Whitney Houston)	"Over the Rainbow" (Judy Garland)
3	Ben Mills	"(Everything I Do) I Do It for You" (Bryan Adams)	"I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" (U2)	Eliminated

16 December 2006 (Final)

• Theme: No theme
• Celebrity guests: Take That and Westlife

The finalists sung their best performed song (as decided by Cowell), two songs they have not sung before, and the winner's single ("A Moment Like This")

Order	Artist	First song (original artists)	Second song (original artists)	Third song (original artists)	Winners song (original artists)	Results
1	Raymond Quinn	"My Way" (Frank Sinatra)	"That's Life" sung with Westlife (Frank Sinatra)	"Fly Me to the Moon" (Kaye Ballard)	"A Moment Like This" (Kelly Clarkson)	Runner up
2	Leona Lewis	"I Will Always Love You" (Dolly Parton)	"A Million Love Songs" sung with Take That (Take That)	"All by Myself" (Eric Carmen)	"A Moment Like This" (Kelly Clarkson)	Winner

After Ray and Leona sang their first songs, highlights from the series were shown, followed by a performance of "Right Here Waiting" by Shaun Rogerson who failed to make the live shows. After Ray and Leona sang their second songs, some of the more memorable auditions were shown, followed by a performance of "Earth Song" by some of the auditionees. After their third songs, the acts from the final 12 sang "That's What Friends Are For".

External links

• The X Factor at itv.com