New Release: The X Factor Finalists 2011 Featuring JLS and One Direction - Wishing On A Star

November 28, 2011 Critic Jonni 0 Comments



This is the X Factor Finalists' charity released song, every single year the contestants create a single with all proceeds going to a certain charity, over the past few years it's always been the "Help for Heroes Charity", however this year they've changed the charity. Now all proceeds are going to "Together for Short Lives" charity.

Differently, this year the finalists have collaborated with One Direction and JLS, making this one of the most ultimate line-ups ever, and begs to question why Simon Cowell decided to make it a collaboration... Rumours suggest that he doesn't think this years finalists are good enough, however in my opinion I think he wanted to make sure the charity got the most amount of money possible, and in this case managing to get One Direction and JLS fans to also buy the single.

The X Factor Finalists include: Jonjo Kerr, James Michael, 2 Shoes, Nu Vibe, Sami Brookes, Sophie Habibis, The Risk, Johnny Robinson, Frankie Cocozza (doesn't appear in the video, or radio edits, but does appear in the single as he recorded his part before being ejected from the show), Kitty Brucknell, Craig Colton, Janet Devlin, Misha B, Amelia Lily, Marcus Collins and Little Mix. One Direction and JLS also feature on this single. But will it reach number one? With all those high charting positions and those incredibly talented artists right at the top at the moment, will they have a chance at getting to the top spot? We'll just have to wait and see.

The song is "Wishing on a Star", first released by Rose Royce, and it became quite a hit in the UK managing to get to number 3. It has been covered by a number of artists including: The Cover Girls, Jay-Z featuring Gwen Dickey (the most well-known version), Beyoncé and Seal. The X Factor Stars perform it amazingly, but I do feel sorry for the ones who were evicted early and who didn't have their own solo part, and I think it's a little unfair how some of the finalists who were evicted early got a solo part, whereas others who went further in the competition didn't.

The music video is definitely pretty good, it's nice to watch and I like how it's been edited, although sometimes I dislike it because of the editing. It's definitely one of those music videos you'll watch if there's nothing better on, and one of those videos you'll probably only ever watch once, I definitely wouldn't go out of my way to watch it again, and although it isn't rubbish, it's not amazing either. It's just your typical average multi-collaboration music video.

I like the idea of the video footage of "Together for Short Lives" in black and white, it makes it more emotional and you can feel what they want to get across. However black and white videos annoy me, purely because we have colour now and they can film in colour, so why not make it as emotional in colour. Personally I think they use this effect because they don't think they'll get the message across as clearly enough. So they try to make it sad and upsetting using the black and white editing tool.

The finalists in the music video are displayed really good, and you know that they mean every word they are singing, I like the fact that they went to visit some of the children, which makes it more personal to them. However the editing got on my nerves. During some points a new finalist would start singing, and the video wouldn't cut back to the finalist who was singing, and so at some points you haven't got a clue who actually sung a certain part.

Overall it's an average music video, and a really emotional song, but it's not much of a collaboration as each of the finalists do not have a solo part, which isn't their fault as they all deserve to be on the single. The music video is okay but I wouldn't watch it any more than I have to. I'm sorry to give this rating, but this definitely could have been a lot more.

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