REVEALED: X Factor semi-final themes and songs
There are two themes for this weekend's X Factor semi-finals: 'club classics' and 'any song that can get you through to the final'. The themes were confirmed on Matt Edmondson's F Factor show on Wednesday. It was also revealed by Louis Walsh that only one person will be elminated at the weekend, leaving four acts to battle it out in the final showdown. According to reports, Mary Byrne will be singing the Gloria Gaynor version of Never Can Say Goodbye and the Gladys Knight version of The Way We Were. Mary said: "This song I've been waiting the whole series to do. It's a very beautiful song with some beautiful lyrics. I just know I'll cry because I cried when I heard I was singing it. "It's my mother's song, she always asked me to sing it and I hope that she hears it wherever she is. "The nerves will turn to adrenalin and the adrenalin will turn to my heart and make me sing it." Speaking about their semi-final song choices, Matt said: "A song that's really going to make me look good. I'm just amazed that I'm still in." Rebecca said: "It's just one of those songs that everyone knows and loves. I'm excited and I'm proud." One Direction said: "It's going to be the biggest moment of ours on the show". Louis Walsh also revealed that the four judges have lost all their voting powers and from now on will have no say in who goes and who stays. On Sunday night, the unlucky contestant who goes home will miss out on the chance of singing with a big celebrity guest in the final show before the public crowns this year's winner.
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Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.
An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.