The X Factor (British TV series) series 3

Template:The X Factor UK The third UK series of The X Factor is currently in broadcast on ITV1 in the United Kingdom and TV3 in the Republic of Ireland. The first show aired on August 19 2006 and the series is scheduled to end on December 16, 2006.

Auditions began on June 7 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 June 18.

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 it has been hinted that more guest judges may appear 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 is mentoring the 16-24 year olds, Sharon has the 25 and overs, and Louis is mentoring the Groups.

Kate Thornton returned as the host of the main X Factor show, with Ben Shephard presenting The Xtra Factor on ITV2.

Instead of the red and purple colour scheme, this year's theme will be red and blue. [1] A new-look website the third series was launched on August 11 2006.

Bootcamp

It was originally intended that 21 acts (seven for each judge) should remain by the conclusion of the bootcamp stage, however, Simon Cowell decided he had made a mistake with his seven by failing to include Raymond, and asked the producers to allow for 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. This was then 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.[2]

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

• Groups, Dolly Rockers, Pure Liberty and Brother's One
• 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 acts in green remain in the show and those in pink have been eliminated

×	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

16-24s

Nikitta Angus

Nikitta Angus is a 17 year old from Glasgow. Her mother, Linda, died from cancer in 2005, and her aunt, Katie Angus, was in Sharon's group but failed to make the final 12. At her audition, Nikitta performed a song by Bonnie Rait called "Dimming of the Day" which she recorded with her aunt for her Mum's funeral. Nikitta was also due to audition in 2005 but was knocked down by a car 10 minutes before her audition.

Leona Lewis

Leona Lewis grew up in North London listening to her Dad'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". Leona wrote her first song at the age of 12. Her X Factor audition performances were "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" (Judy Garland), "I Have Nothing" (Whitney Houston), "Hero" (Mariah Carey), "Without You" (Mariah Carey) and "I'll Be There" (Jackson 5).

Ashley McKenzie

Ashley McKenzie is 20 years old, and from Croydon. Ashley is one of five children; he has two brothers, David and Rory; and two sisters, Leah and Ella. 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.

Raymond Quinn

Raymond Quinn is 18, and lives at home with his parents in Liverpool. He also has two older brothers who own a carpet warehouse. He is currently studying performing arts at The Merseyside Dance and Drama College and has a year left to go. There he has had some vocal training and has also learnt to dance to quite an advanced level. Raymond’s claim to fame is starring as ‘Anthony’ in Brookside. He even managed to win himself a Soap Award in 2002 for ‘Best Dramatic Performance’ and the storyline he was part of won Best storyline of 2003. He has been in a children’s drama called Cactus Jack.

25 and overs

Robert Allen

Robert Allen is 27, and currently lives in Essex with his girlfriend Samia who he met at an open mic gig. 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 training and can play clarinet to grade 4.

Kerry McGregor

Kerry McGregor is a 31 year old 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 sang 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 Kenny's love-interest 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).

Ben Mills

Ben Mills is 26, and currently runs his own marquee company and has been doing it for four years. His claim to fame before taking part in The X Factor was putting a marquee up for Jools Holland. Ben has one sister and one brother. He has a Diploma in music. Ben has been singing for twenty years, and currently plays in the pubs and the clubs in his local area. Ben also plays piano and guitar. Ben’s biggest performance to date was at the Guildford Folk and Blues Festival.

Dionne Mitchell

Dionne Mitchell, aged 26, was born and raised in London, and currently lives with her parents. Dionne has four brothers and two sisters, but she is the youngest. 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.

Groups

4Sure

4Sure are Andrew Fisher (30), Kriss Jones (24), Donovan Bailey (38) and Jermaine Sanderson (23).

Donovan put the band together just over a year ago, after getting Kriss to sing to him down the telephone. Jermaine and Andrew are mutual friends and joined the group at the same time. They have performed around the country at various holiday parks and pubs. They called themselves 4Sure because they are four guys sure of their destiny.

Eton Road

Eton Road are Anthony Hannah (17), Daniel Morris (17), David Heath (19) and James Edwards (20).

They have known each other since they went to a dance school together called Eton Road when they were younger. They have all been singing for years in shows, competition and cabarets. From their first audition, Simon branded Anthony as "the odd one" in reference to Anthony's distinct look.

The MacDonald Brothers

The MacDonald Brothers are Brian MacDonald (19) and Craig MacDonald (20).

Brian and Craig live with their mum and dad and have a half brother from their dad's previous relationship. The MacDonald Brothers have been seriously singing together for three years at weddings, clubs and occasionally doing backing vocals. They have been singing and playing the accordion and the fiddle together ever since they were children. One of their biggest performances as The MacDonald Brothers was in front of Hugh Grant at the Ceilidh Dance.

The Unconventionals

The Unconventionals are Andrew Newey (38), Drew Jaymson (41), Elizabeth "Liz" Ewing (37), Lucy Newton (35), Nicola Dawn (33) and Tom Newman (39).

The Unconventionals have only been together for two months after Drew decided to form a group that sounded great, but didn't visibly conform to what every other group looks like. Drew and Andrew have known each other since 1990 when they both performed at a charity gig. They now both work together at the London Palladium, 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 met Drew from their time working on the Boy George musical Taboo. Tom is the only member that was unknown to most of the group. He is Nicola's boyfriend. They have only had one performance of note, a charity performance at the night club Too 2 Much.

They were eliminated in the first week.

Results summary

Pink indicates elimination

Date	Bottom Two
October 14	Dionne Mitchell	The Unconventionals
October 21	4Sure	Robert Allen

Show details

Live Show: 14 October 2006

• Theme: Motown
• Guest judge: Lionel Richie

Order	Artist	Song (original artists)
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

Live Show: 21 October 2006

• Theme: Rod Stewart songs
• Guest judge: Rod Stewart

Order	Artist	Song (original artists)
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)	Bottom two
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" (The Faces)

Live Show: 28 October 2006

• Theme: Rat Pack songs
• Guest judge: Tony Bennett

External link

• itv.com - The X Factor - Series 3