X Factor 2009

[Siobhan]

She defo looks like a bloke

My daughter is convinced she was a man.. there is no changing her mind but she still likes her music... Santa is bringing her "the Fame" cd so I have to endure it over the next few months (althought I am not happy about the lyrics to love game but it is one of my favs)

[Chris_2k11]

She defo looks like a bloke

My daughter is convinced she was a man.. there is no changing her mind but she still likes her music... Santa is bringing her "the Fame" cd so I have to endure it over the next few months (althought I am not happy about the lyrics to love game but it is one of my favs)

she said shes at the O2 next year, fancy going Shiv

[Siobhan]

I am switch my phone to O2 as we speak so I can get priority tickets

[crystalsea]

Did you see Janet Jackson being left on the stage on her own, without Dermot talking to her! Must have run out of time, but I thought that was bad considering all the hype about it being Michael Jackson night and that Janet was coming on the show etc. etc.

You would have thought they would have chatted to her and not to Gaga - what was with the bath by the way?

[Siobhan]

Did you see Janet Jackson being left on the stage on her own, without Dermot talking to her! Must have run out of time, but I thought that was bad considering all the hype about it being Michael Jackson night and that Janet was coming on the show etc. etc.

You would have thought they would have chatted to her and not to Gaga - what was with the bath by the way?

I was thinking same thing.. they could have made the effort cause all the showed after the break was the contestants talking about what the final means to them.. they could have talked quickly to her, then went on a break... she ran of the stage.. bless her

[Perdita]

Lady Gaga is only 70 minutes late, which I suppose (sigh) is quite good by pop-star standards. This gives me ample time to case the pavements round the May Fair hotel for the packs of paparazzi who are supposed to follow her everywhere she goes — but there are disappointingly none.

Her young English PR, Adrian, tells me that she is busy putting on her make-up, to which I respond rather forcefully that she really need not bother because I won’t notice whether she’s wearing 10 layers of slap or none. But according to Adrian, she won’t ever leave her room without full make-up. He takes me up to the penthouse suite where the interview will take place. All very Kelly Hoppen, black-and-gold upholstery, lacquer tables, buddhas, white orchids, bamboo, the usual. “Have a look at the bathroom!” Adrian says excitedly. It has a freestanding granite tub exactly like a sarcophagus. “And the master bedroom!” Circular white bed, ginormous flatscreen, more white orchids. Yes, the decor is impressive, but the waiting is long.

Eventually she appears, a frail little body tottering along on absurdly high platform heels, in fishnet tights, a rather skewwhiff Marilyn Monroe wig, and a short, black silk wrap, which keeps falling open to reveal her somewhat undernourished breasts. I preferred the photos of her at Glastonbury with flames shooting out of her bra. Her skin is pale, almost milk-white, but she has thick black hairs on her arms and a hodgepodge of tattoos (a ban-the-bomb sign, some lines of poetry), which spoils the porcelain effect. But she is very polite. She takes her sunglasses off as soon as we start talking, revealing lovely, big hazel eyes, and — best of all — produces two ashtrays, some cigs and a lighter, and tells me that, though she doesn’t smoke on performance days, she can today.

If you google Lady Gaga the first thing you see is a related search asking “Is Lady Gaga a hermaphrodite?” Naturally this question has been weighing on my mind and I have spent an unseemly amount of time studying close-ups of her crotch on YouTube. Jonathan Ross raised the question when she came on his show and received the immortal reply “I do have a really big donkey dick,” which certainly shut him up. Her early career seems to have been dogged by rumours that she was a man in drag, and Christina Aguilera said dismissively: “I don’t know if it is a man or a woman.” But why should she be a man, or even a hermaphrodite? She does have a deep voice but she is quite clearly a woman. The whole hermaphrodite story has the feel of a rather desperate publicity ploy.

One of the problems with — and for — Lady Gaga is that the music industry and publicity machine don’t quite know what to make of her. She writes these catchy, feel-good electro-pop tunes that go down a storm in clubs, but then talks a load of impenetrable art bollocks in interviews. Her heroes are the utterly predictable Andy Warhol, David Bowie, Madonna, Grace Jones, and of course she claims to be a “performance artist” rather than a singer. Don’t they all? She complains that just because she is blonde, people treat her like an airhead, but she has to dye her hair, she explains, because otherwise she gets mistaken for Amy Winehouse, and I can see that — yes — with her long face and big schnozz there is a distinct resemblance.

She is a 23-year-old New York singer-songwriter, née Stefani Joanne Germanotta, daughter of an Italian-American internet entrepreneur. She went to the same Convent of the Sacred Heart school in Manhattan as Paris and Nicky Hilton (though she didn’t know them), and says she got “an incredible education”. She started at the Tisch School of the Arts at 17 but dropped out after a year when her singing career took off. She began singing at open-mic nights from when she was 14 — her mother accompanied her — and was contracted to write songs for Britney Spears and the Pussycat Dolls by the time she was 20. Eventually she was signed by Interscope and released her first album, The Fame, in 2007. It has sold 4m copies worldwide and spawned two No 1 singles — Just Dance and Poker Face.

Now it is being re-released with eight new tracks (including a duet with Beyoncé) as a two-disc set called The Fame Monster. She is currently on a tour called the Monster Ball, and coming to the UK in February and March, playing the O2 Arena on February 26 and 27. Whether or not she will prove to be “the next Madonna”, as frequently promised, she is more than happy with the idea: “I love and appreciate Madonna comparisons. I know her and I think she’s wonderful. And I love pop music done the right way.” Her ambitions are actually limitless: “I don’t wanna be one song. I wanna be the next 25 years of pop music.”

She is here in London to work on the visuals for her new show with the photographer Nick Knight and is wildly excited. “I love Nick Knight’s work, I’m such a fan — he’s like God. I was in America, shooting another video, and the whole Haus of Gaga [her retinue] was, like, sitting round talking about video, and I was saying I hate just hiring these hack photographers — it’s meaningless. So they said, ‘Who do you want?’

I said, ‘Well, Nick Knight is God.’ And they all go, ‘Yes, Nick Knight is God. Why don’t we just give God a call?’ So we called him and he was up for it — he knew my work and liked it, or I hope he liked it. I don’t know much about the enigma of Nick Knight, but I know I love his work.”

“What are visuals?” I ask casually, and then regret it as she spends the next half-hour showing me designs for sets and costumes on her manager’s computer. Every time she hits the wrong button, we revert to a screensaver of the manager’s dog. Gaga insists on explaining the concept of her show, which is on the wildly original theme of evolution. “It’s part pop show, part performance art, part fashion installation. It came about because as an artist, as a writer, as a woman, I feel I’ve evolved so much.”

So far so predictable, but then she goes on: “My evolution is from the beginning of time, so I start as a cell [she shows me a costume like a geodesic dome], and then I become a vertebrate, and then I become a full animal, and there’s the birth of the economy, and trade and war, and then it’s the Apocalypse. Because we as a society are taught politically and religiously that the Apocalypse is coming, it’s on its way. But what I’m saying with my show is, ‘We’re there right now: this is the Apocalypse.’ The fact that we’re surrounded by cement and we’ve already killed everything means the Apocalypse has happened.

So the idea for me is to give a sense of repose and solace to my fans, that we’re here, we did it already, and now it’s about accepting where we are and looking more joyfully into the future. And then the Apocalypse is over and the stage becomes very minimal and all that’s left is me with a piano, in the middle of the destruction

http://entertainment.timesonline.co....cle6940885.ece


Strange person

[tammyy2j]

Did you see Janet Jackson being left on the stage on her own, without Dermot talking to her! Must have run out of time, but I thought that was bad considering all the hype about it being Michael Jackson night and that Janet was coming on the show etc. etc.

You would have thought they would have chatted to her and not to Gaga - what was with the bath by the way?

Yes that was bad

I hope Olly wins but it all seems to be set for Joe (Mr. Junior Boring) to win

[tammyy2j]

Just minutes after Danyl was booted off, an X Factor source revealed: “It might have been all smiles in front of the cameras but it was a different story backstage.


“Nerves were really playing havoc with them all. There was a lot of bickering and back-biting about the songs which had been selected.


“Several of the contestants were far from happy with their choices.


“Olly and Danyl hadn’t been in the best of humour all week.


“Meanwhile, Stacey also seemed to be struggling with her toothache.


“Only Joe appeared to rise above it all and just got on with performing his songs. But the fact that he was praised by all the judges caused even more backstage tension.


“It’s the hardest week of all because the contestants know one will miss out on the final.”


Olly, 25, and Danyl, 27, have already been involved in a long-running feud and have not spoken to each other for three weeks, sources claimed.


And, it was alleged, the pair squared up to each other in the X Factor house last week during an angry row.


A source claimed the pair’s moods were caused by “jealousy” and the feeling they had been “stitched up”.


They were said to be “devastated” to learn Hannah Montana track The Climb was show boss Simon Cowell’s choice for the winner’s first single as it would suit a younger singer.


Meanwhile, cocky reject Danyl - who now faces a return to his teaching job in Kent - upset sexy single mum Stacey, 20, by claiming she should be at home looking after her 18-month-old son.


To add to the drama, the judges have also been bickering and back-biting about each other’s acts, with Simon, 50, upsetting both Louis Walsh, 57, and Cheryl Cole, 26.


Meanwhile, Aussie panelist Dannii Minogue, 38, and Cheryl have also angered Simon over their alleged verbal “bullying” of Danyl.


But they all agreed on Geordie sensation Joe, 18. The bookies’ favourite rose above the squabbles to let his

performance do the talking, with blistering versions of Michael Jackson’s She’s Out of My Life and Journey’s Open Arms.


Louis gushed: “You have the talent to sell millions of records. There’s a big, big gap in the market for someone like you.”


Dannii added: “You just sing like a dream. I can hear you all over the radio, all over the records.”


Simon confessed: “I’m proud of you.” And Joe’s mentor Cheryl added: “I’m prouder.”


The semi-final shows, capped by last night’s performances by Janet Jackson, 43, and Lady GaGa, 23, had a total audience of over 30million.


Danyl, 27, said: “I might have gone out in the semi-final but I’ve gone out to some of the best people I’ve ever met.”


Mentor Simon Cowell said he was “genuinely upset” at his exit.


The pop mogul told host Dermot O’Leary: “There is nothing more I could have done. It’s just one of those things. He has gone out on a high.”

[Siobhan]

I don't believe it... it makes good tv if we think they are all fighting... and Joe is the only one not affected (he is going to win this cause of his clean image while everyone is made out to be a drama queen).. Bull****

[Trinity]

I accidently could a few minutes of this show on Saturday. The blonde afgan hound had just finished singing, reasonable well, I might add, and then decided (rather less successfully) to give talking a go.

Was she on some extra strength toothache medication or something?