The X Factor: bye bye Belle Amie!

The X Factor: bye bye Belle Amie!
The X Factor: bye bye Belle Amie!

Girl group Belle Amie have become the latest act to get the boot from The X Factor after losing out in this week's sing-off. The four-piece band - who were formed by Simon Cowell from solo singers rejected at the boot camp stage of the competition - narrowly missed out on elimination a fortnight ago when they were saved by the judges. This week, however, their luck ran out after they found themselves singing for survival alongside Katie Waissel. For the first time this series the outcome was not decided on a majority vote, with two of the judges voting to save Katie and two voting to save Belle Amie. As a result the vote went to deadlock and was decided on the results of the public vote - whereupon Belle Amie were revealed to have received the lowest number of votes. It was a tense sing-off for both acts, with Katie singing Etta James's Trust In Me and Belle Amie opting for the Kelly Clarksonsong Breakaway. Simon - Belle Amie's mentor - acknowleded the quality of Katie's performance before casting his vote. "The most amazing thing is that every time you're in this position you sing better than you do on the main show," he told her. "But 100 per cent I'm going to stand by my girls." Both Cheryl and Dannii voted to save Katie, leaving Louis with the casting vote - and he handed the decision back to the public after voting to save Belle Amie. Afterwards the quartet - Rebecca Creighton, Sophia Wardman, Esther Campbell and Geneva Lane - tearfully said it would not be the end of the band. "We are not giving up, this is not the end of Belle Amie," they said. "We've only been together a couple of months but it has been amazing." Simon was also full of praise for them. "They have been a pleasure to work with," he said. "I don't think it's the end for this group, they're survivors." The band's departure means that Simon now has only one act - boy band One Direction - remaining in the competition. Louis Walsh still has two of his over-28s after both Mary Byrne and Wagner made it through to next week, while all of Dannii's remaining boys - Paije Richardson, Aiden Grimshaw and Matt Cardle - sailed through on the public vote. Cheryl Cole is the only mentor who has yet to lose an act, with all four of her girls still in the competition. Rebecca Ferguson and Cher Lloyd were both voted through to next week, as was Treyc Cohen, who avoided the bottom two after surviving last weekend's sing-off.

Patrick McLennan

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.