The contestants are closely monitored like they are in a Big Brother or Love Island mansion. The purpose of this is to ensure any crazy moment gets captured. Despite hours of footage being recorded, only a small portion of it gets to be used for TV and promotional material.
Better to cover everything and pick what to use than cover a few moments only to miss out on crucial details. Those who make it through the grueling audition process tend to enjoy a number of perks during the period in which they are on the show. They earned it after all. As contestants work hard to get the mega recording contract, they are normally provided with personal chefs to make sure they eat healthy at all times. They are also provided with glam squads to make them look like a million bucks.
To top that, there are personal entertainment lounges where they can play games or watch movies. Acts in recent installments have been allowed to sing their own songs but a few years back, that wasn't possible.
The contestants were only allowed to choose from a limited pool of songs. And that's not the only limitation that's present. Contestants aren't allowed to wear what they like either. Louis Tomlinson was a huge start during his One Direction days. The band had actually been formed on X-Factor back in when Simon Cowell teamed the boys up.
Sadly, the band broke up and life hasn't been so good to the members. At some point, Tomlinson was close to bankruptcy and desperately needed a major gig to boost his finances. Cowell this offered him a job as a judge because they were close. However, the two ended up falling out later on. The X-Factor might be a lucrative gig for the judges and the producers but not so much for the contestants.
The major way they benefit is by becoming famous and having a platform to launch their careers. According to contestant Lauren Murray , the contestants aren't given much money.
Speaking to The Mirror, she said: "For two months I haven't been earning anything. Send in a video of yourself singing to the X Factor website.
Can you come down to London in two days? They look after you. And it was really fun to be fair. We all lived in this mansion and it was brilliant. I would sit down with the producers and my mentor Kelly Rowland and there would be three songs picked out and you could pick one. The least of my worries was how I looked, though! But there was no time to panic — you just had to get on with it and hope for the best. Remember that it is all about the ratings in this industry!
I have heard some people singing in those booths who sounded amazing and were turned down. I know for a fact that the bosses at X-factor do get literally anyone to judge the pre-auditions and not anyone who has even worked in the music industry.
There have even been rumours that Leona Lewis was turned down at pre-audition stage the year before she went on to win it! You want to look good and actually look like a pop star. I remember Simon Cowell said once that very often if someone walked in for an audition who looked like a pop star he would already be secretly wishing they could sing good too.
He even admitted that there have been times when someone has had an average voice but they looked so good he would send them through based on that and hope that they can improve their vocals during boot camp. So you can see just how important it is to wear the right thing to your audition. However, it is also important not to overdo it or look silly. If I had a dollar for the amount of people who came dressed up like Michael Jackson thinking that would help them then I would be a very rich man indeed by now!
I would advice you wear something that just makes you look cool. If you look at what some contemporary pop stars are wearing in music videos then go with some of those styles.
I would suggest the smart to casual style seems to work best. So its important to not go too far over the top but its also just as important not to look too casual and like you just walked in off the street. The song you choose to audition with really can make or break you. It might sound obvious but you need to pick a song you actually know the words too.
When you're picking a song to confront the judges with, it's often best to pick a song that the judges will know. If you are unsure as to what type of songs these judges would be aware of, pick a song that has either done well in the charts or is a classic. Bear in mind that these judges are music experts in their own right, so stick to this selection method and you shouldn't have a problem.
When picking a song to sing on your audition day, it's always a good idea to pick a few potential songs, and narrow it down from there. The reason you do this is because you can not only see which of the songs you can perform best, but because you also learn more then one song along the way. The additional songs you learned can be used as back up songs for your final chosen song, but we'll speak more about why that's important later.
But first, I want to say one thing:. When looking for a song to choose, the first thing you should do is make a list of songs that are personally close to your heart. The good thing about these type of songs is that they usually have a story behind them, and a nice, or emotionally tragic, story will always touch the heart of the judges. As we've mentioned before, getting the judges to emphasise with you and feel like they know something about you on a personal level is a really strong tool at your disposal, so without abusing it use it to your advantage.
Otherwise, the judges will see you're playing a game and be turned off you. To add to your list you can also look through the charts of an era of your choice, and pick a song that matches your style and what you have to offer. If you really are stuck for song choice I would suggest going on a site like Amazon and listening through some popular compilations.
You will get lots of ideas in no time. Also, you could just simply leave a music channel or the radio on all day long to get some ideas. There are also list compilations of the best love songs , top songs about friendship , good songs about change and more. So check those out and see if you can get any song ideas.
Once you've got a list of these songs, you can narrow them down based on which you feel you can perform best, which one has the best story associated with it, and which one you feel will give the best show to the judges. It's often a good idea to get other people's opinion on the matter too, so perform your top three songs in front of family and friends and see which ones they feel would be the most suitable. Don't perform to them all at the same however, you don't want their opinions affecting each others.
People tend to go with what's being said by the person with the loudest voice, so get the opinion of one or two people at a time. With this you'll get a true view of what other people think, and have more information to choose your final song from.
At the end of the day though, it's down to you. Your final song should be something you feel comfortable with and be able to perform without any faults. If you're not sure if there's any faults in the way you sing the song, you can always record yourself singing the song and listen back to hear for yourself. If you've got a video camera to do so that is ideal, as you can study your whole performance rather then just your vocals.
If not, a voice record will do just fine. I suggest you go out and buy a decent quality voice recorder as they are generally cheap these days. You are investing in your career after all, so there's no real excuse not to do this, but if you really don't want to buy one lower quality voice recorder come as standard on most modern day phones.
What ever you do, make sure you analyse the recording in an unbiased manor. Don't make excuses for yourself if you hear something that doesn't sound right. Be real with yourself and if you even have the smallest doubts then change it and keep working on it. Make sure you record yourself performing all the songs and see which one you sound best singing. Which ever one you find that to be, that should be your final audition song!
On a side note, I've often seen people make one killer mistake when deciding on an audition song, and that is choosing a song that they personally made themselves. Surely that's a good idea as they'll get to hear you song writing abilities?
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