The X Factor (Australian season 6)


The X Factor was an Australian television reality music competition, based on the original UK series, to find new singing talent; the winner of which received a Sony Music Australia recording contract. The sixth season premiered on the Seven Network on 13 July 2014 and ended on 20 October 2014. Luke Jacobz returned as host, while Ronan Keating, Natalie Bassingthwaighte, Dannii Minogue and Redfoo returned as judges. Comedy duo Luke & Wyatt joined the sixth season as the hosts of the online spin-off show The Fan Factor. The winner was Marlisa Punzalan and her winner's single "Stand by You" was released after the final. Punzalan became the youngest winner of the show at 15 years old and was the first contestant from the Girls category to do so. She was mentored by Keating, who won as mentor for the second time after previously mentoring season two winner Altiyan Childs in 2010.
Open auditions in front of the show's producers took place in 13 cities from November 2013 to January 2014. The successful auditionees chosen by the producers were then invited back to the last set of auditions that took place in front of the judges and a live studio audience in April 2014. Following auditions was super bootcamp, where all four judges worked together and collectively chose 24 acts, including six from each of the four categories: Boys, Girls, Over 25s and Groups. After super bootcamp was the home visits round, where each judge reduced their six acts to three, with assistance from guest mentors James Blunt, John Legend, Jennifer Lopez, Jessica Mauboy and Nicole Scherzinger. The live shows began on 10 August 2014. This was the first season of The X Factor Australia to feature a wildcard in the live shows as the thirteenth finalist.

Judges

In 2014 it was confirmed that Minogue, Redfoo, Bassingthwaighte and Keating will return for the series.

Selection process

Auditions

Open auditions in front of the show's producers took place in 13 cities and ran from November 2013 to January 2014. Online and DVD auditions were also held for those who could not attend the open auditions. The auditionees chosen by the producers were invited back to the last set of auditions that took place in front of the judges and a live studio audience. These auditions were filmed at the Hisense Arena in Melbourne on 4, 5 and 6 April, and at the Qantas Credit Union Arena in Sydney on 9, 10, 11 and 12 April.
CityDatesVenue
Canberra7 November 2013Rydges Lakeside Canberra
Adelaide9 November 2013AAMI Stadium
Newcastle13 November 2013Hunter Stadium
Cairns19 November 2013Shangri-La Hotel, The Marina
Darwin21 November 2013The Hilton Hotel
Brisbane23–24 November 2013Suncorp Stadium
Mackay26 November 2013Central QLD Conservatorium of Music
Coffs Harbour3 December 2013Opal Cove Resort
Albury5 December 2013Albury Entertainment Centre
Melbourne7–9 December 2013Flemington Racecourse
Bunbury16 January 2014Quality Hotel Lord Forrest
Perth18–19 January 2014Parmelia Hilton
Sydney24–26 January 2014Australian Technology Park

CityDatesVenue
Melbourne4–6 April 2014Hisense Arena
Sydney9–12 April 2014Qantas Credit Union Arena

Super bootcamp

The super bootcamp stage of the competition was held at The Star in Pyrmont, New South Wales. Filming began in late April 2014. The first day of bootcamp saw judges Ronan Keating, Natalie Bassingthwaighte, Redfoo and Dannii Minogue split each category into collaborations. The male and female soloists were put into ensembles of four within their category, the Over 25s were put into ensembles of three, and the acts from the Groups category were put into pairs. Each collaboration was given a list of songs which they had to choose from and only had 24 hours to rehearse. On the second day, each collaboration performed their chosen song for the judges. At the end of the day, a select group of soloists from the Boys and Girls categories were first requested by the judges to return to the stage to form a boy band and a girl group. The judges then sent home half of the 100 acts.
On the third day, each judge found out which category they would be mentoring, and the remaining 48 acts each had a one-on-one mentoring session with their mentor. Bassingthwaighte was given the Boys, Keating was given the Girls, Redfoo was given the Over 25s and Minogue was given the Groups category. On the fourth day, each act individually performed one song to the judges and a live audience of one thousand. On the fifth and final day of bootcamp, the judges revealed which acts they put through to home visits.
The 24 successful acts were:
The final round of the selection process, the home visits, saw each judge take their remaining six acts to exclusive locations around the world. Bassingthwaighte and Keating took the Boys and Girls to New York City, Redfoo took the Over 25s to Las Vegas, and Minogue took the Groups to an exclusive location in Sydney. On the first day, each act had a one-on-one mentoring session with their mentor. Minogue was assisted by Jessica Mauboy during the mentoring sessions for the Groups. On the second day of home visits, each act performed one song to their mentor and guest mentor. Bassingthwaighte was assisted by American Idol judge Jennifer Lopez, Keating was assisted by John Legend, Redfoo was assisted by former X Factor UK judge Nicole Scherzinger Contestants eliminatedWildcardsBassingthwaighteBoysNew York CityJennifer LopezJaymie Deboucherville, James JohnstonJesse TeinakiKeatingGirlsNew York CityJohn LegendShanell Dargan, Chloe PapandreaAlice BottomleyRedfooOver 25sLas VegasNicole ScherzingerStephanie Totino, Amali WardRyan ImlachMinogueGroupsSydneyJessica Mauboy
James BluntMajikHoney, Paris Inc.Brothers3
At the end of home visits, it was announced that each judge could bring back one eliminated act from their category, who did not make the top twelve, as their wildcard. Bassingthwaighte chose Jesse Teinaki, Keating chose Alice Bottomley, Redfoo chose Ryan Imlach, and Minogue chose Brothers3. The public then voted for which of the four wildcards would become the thirteenth finalist. Brothers3 were announced as the wildcard winners during the first live show on 10 August 2014.

Finalists

Key:
ActAgeHometownCategory Result
Marlisa Punzalan14Glendenning, New South WalesGirls Winner
Dean Ray22Narromine, New South WalesBoys Runner-up
Brothers3 16-18MudgeeGroups 3rd place
Reigan Derry26Maida Vale, Western AustraliaOver 25s 4th place
Caitlyn Shadbolt18Gympie, QueenslandGirls 5th place
Jason Heerah31Melbourne, VictoriaOver 25s 6th place
Tee24Sydney, New South WalesBoys 7th place
Rochelle Pitt41Cairns, QueenslandOver 25s 8th place
Sydney Carter16WannerooGirls 9th place
XOX17-21VariousGroups 10th place
Adrian Nookadu17Sydney, New South WalesBoys 11th place
Younger Than Yesterday16VariousGroups 12th place
Trill14-15VariousGroups 13th place

Live shows

Results summary

;Colour key
Notes

Week 1 (10/11 August)

; Judges' vote to eliminate
; Notes
; Judges' vote to eliminate
; Notes
; Judges' vote to eliminate
With the acts in the bottom two receiving two votes each, the result went to deadlock and reverted to the earlier public vote. Nookadu received the fewest votes and was eliminated.
; Notes
; Judges' vote to eliminate
; Notes
; Judges' vote to eliminate
;Notes
; Judges' vote to eliminate
With the acts in the bottom two receiving one vote each, the result went to deadlock and reverted to the earlier public vote. Pitt was eliminated as the act with the fewest public votes.
; Notes
; Judges' vote to eliminate
With Shadbolt and Tee both receiving two votes each, Heerah was announced safe automatically and the result went to deadlock and reverted to the earlier public vote. Tee was eliminated as the act with the fewest public votes.
; Notes
; Judges' vote to eliminate
With the acts in the bottom two receiving two votes each, the result went to deadlock and reverted to the earlier public vote. Heerah was eliminated as the act with the fewest public votes.
;Notes
; Judges' vote to eliminate
; Notes
;Judges' vote to send through to the Grand Final
With the acts in the bottom two receiving two votes each, the result went to deadlock and reverted to the earlier public vote. Punzalan advanced to the final as the act with the most public votes.
;Notes
;19 October
ActCategory OrderAudition songOrderDuetOrderWinner's singleResult
Marlisa PunzalanGirls 1"Yesterday"8"Never Be the Same" with Jessica Mauboy5"Stand by You"Safe
Brothers3Groups 4"Safe & Sound"2"Like a Drum" with Guy Sebastian7"The Lucky Ones"Eliminated
Dean RayBoys 9"Bette Davis Eyes"6"Dear Darlin'" with Olly Murs3"Coming Back"Safe

Brothers3 received the fewest public votes and were automatically eliminated.
;20 October
ActCategory OrderBest MomentResult
Marlisa PunzalanGirls 1"Titanium"Winner
Dean RayBoys 2"Budapest"Runner-up

;Notes
In September 2014, the top six finalists and Australian pop group Justice Crew recorded a cover of Pharrell Williams' song "Happy" for the Sony Foundation's youth cancer program, You Can. Their version was released on the iTunes Store on 29 September 2014, as a charity single to help raise funds for You Can to establish specialised youth cancer centres across Australia.

Reception

Controversy and criticism

XOX were criticised by Keating and Redfoo after their performance of Deee-Lite's "Groove Is in the Heart" during the third live show. Redfoo said they look "like a pop act but it's not sounding like a pop act", while Keating said their performance was lacking and "just didn't feel it fired, it just didn't happen. You've got to get it right." However, Bassingthwaighte disagreed with their comments and said she loved the performance. The criticism divided the judging panel as "it quickly became a battle of the sexes". XOX's mentor Minogue told Keating that she was personally offended by his comments because she felt it was hypocritical as he did not like her criticising his acts. She then went on to say, "We took on board the feedback so we took this song and did a club remix of it. If you're not used to that and you don't go to clubs anymore because you're too old then I'm sorry."
Following XOX's elimination in week four of the live shows, Minogue stated that she believed the group were the victim of unwarranted criticism, saying that "Other acts have faltered but have not had the same criticism. I feel really strongly about that." In an interview with TV Week, group member Nada-Leigh Nasser believed that Keating's consistently negative comments could have played a part in their elimination: "Ronan is very influential and his opinion does matter. We accept any criticism we get because we know it's all constructive in the end. But we do acknowledge that it would affect a lot of people's opinions."
More controversy occurred after Reigan Derry's performance of Radiohead's "Creep" during the ninth live show, when Minogue criticised Derry's outfit for being too oversexualised. Derry, who used to be a member of the girl band Scarlett Belle, had stated in her audition for The X Factor that she felt people did not get to see the real her because of how oversexualised the band was. Minogue told her: "I watched again your first audition and I listened to every word you said. You know, oversexualised and you just wanted to sing the song and you just wanted everybody to listen to your voice. In the close-ups of this outfit, if you don't want to be oversexualised...I'm getting mixed messages." Derry's mentor Redfoo defended her outfit by saying that it was not oversexualised, before taking aim at Minogue's outfit. He said, "Look what you're wearing! You want to talk about oversexualised, look what you're wearing! Let's get real. Let's get really real. This is see through!" During the ninth live decider show the following night, Redfoo apologised to Minogue for the comments he made about her outfit. Minogue accepted his apology and said "I've had a chat with Reigan and we've sorted it out. We are all moving on."

Ratings