The X Factor Australia Eliminations: Week Four

This is the fourth in a series reviewing The X Factor results shows. Weeks 1-3 can be accessed from the archives listed on the right. Please note that no contestant or judge/mentor was harmed in the writing of this blog. The RRSPXFCJ (Right Royal Society for the Protection of X Factor Contestants and Judges) was in attendance in the shape of “The Drummer” (who practises ‘body percussion’ since giving up the drum kit and taking a more lucrative position with Muscles For Hire) with his signature accessory, steel-capped drumsticks (the concussion headaches should ease in a few days’ time).

Last night shockwaves once again crashed over social networks, threatening to shred the threads on The X Factor Forum, when judges went to deadlock and the first of Ronan’s stylists was sent packing amid a storm of controversy over Mel B’s contradictory remarks. The thunder created by this storm sent judges into lockdown as they reviewed events and discussed strategies for damage control, emerging two hours later with PR-generated scripts to soothe the seething masses. There was one slight hitch, however, when Mel B was accidentally handed the wrong script and declared “Let them eat cake!”

The controversy came about when Mel B began by asserting that she would not go to deadlock but then voted to save Luce Jacket and send Flower Power home thereby apparently contradicting herself and bringing the deadlock into effect.

In her remarks, Mel B noted that while Jacket’s stitching was “not the best in the competition”, the styling had “a certain something”. She went on to praise Power’s perfect seams week after week but did not feel that the designs had the international appeal that Simon Howler was looking for. This came as a shock to fans because the night before Flower had been told that her outstanding triple stitch work would “not be out of place on the catwalks of New York’s Fashion Week”.

One of Power’s most loyal supporters bemoaned that young fans today “are so superficial – they only see the surface of the cloth, how shiny and smooth it is; they have no appreciation for really strong, outstanding stitching”. Another declared that Power was “in synch with the cyclic nature of fashion trends” in that “everything old is new again”. However, the voting public clearly had little sentiment for the good ole days (most of them not having been born then) and were more forgiving of Luce Jacket’s outlandish and impractical shoulder wings design than Power's chilled-out look. It seemed that Power failed to take into consideration the temperature change in fashions brought about by global warming over the last 50 years. Back in the 60s 'cool' was 'hip' while today 'hot' is 'now'!

In radio and morning show interviews, Flower Power said she'd chosen designs that were comfortable to wear, an important consideration, she said, when on stage. Flower vowed to continue sewing and urged fans to look out for new releases on iStyles soon.

In the aftermath of the deadlock controversy, Mel B tweeted “Confused? Possibly... not sure... maybe... whatever!” followed by Ronan who declared that he was “gutted by FP departure” and that his remaining two stylists were “totally stepping up and sewing like mad” in preparation for next week’s show.