Sting slams 'appalling, cynical' X Factor

Sting slams 'appalling, cynical' X Factor (Image credit: EMPICS Entertainment)

Sting has hit out at The X Factor calling it 'appalling' and claiming that the contestants are 'going nowhere'. The singer told The Evening Standard that he feels sorry for former hopefuls such as Rachel Adedeji and Lucie Jones and the 'humiliation' that they faced when they were ditched from the show. Sting said: "I am sorry, but none of those kids are going to go anywhere, and I say that sadly. They are humiliated when they get sent off. How appalling for a young person to feel that rejection. "It is a soap opera which has nothing to do with music. In fact, it has put music back decades. Television is very cynical. "I tried to keep an open mind, but basically I was looking at televised karaoke where they conform to stereotypes. They are either Mariah Carey or Whitney Houston or Boyzone and are not encouraged to create any real unique signature or fingerprint. That cannot come from TV. "The X Factor is a preposterous show and you have judges who have no recognisable talent apart from self-promotion, advising them what to wear and how to look. It is appalling." http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/

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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.