From Ayr to eternity for X Factor brothers?

From Ayr to eternity for X Factor brothers?

WEEK after week, two fresh-faced Scottish brothers have been publicly panned on television talent show, The X-Factor.
But despite the best put-downs of the toughest of judges, Craig and Brian MacDonald are through to the competition's final four and stand a strong chance of claiming this year's Christmas number one.

Even by The X Factor standards, the Ayr brothers have been subjected to exceptional humiliation in front of an audience of ten million viewers. Now, as the only Scottish act left in the contest, they have the advantage of an entire country behind them as the show's third series draws to a close and the fates of the final four acts are decided by public phone-ins.
The brothers even received grudging praise from Cowell after their rendition of The Proclaimers' Five Hundred Miles on Saturday evening's show.

Their mother Margaret, who works in Asda in their home town of Alloway, is reported as saying: "If I was up there on stage I'd give him what for. I think part of what Simon says is for TV, but I also think he's a nasty man."
The X Factor has transformed the lives of the 20-year-old ex-bank teller and his 19-year-old former bed salesman brother.

Before the show, their performances were almost exclusively confined to Brunston Castle golf club, where they have performed for weddings and functions for the past four years. The owners have been casting more than 2,000 votes per week on the brothers' behalf, drawing on support from 300 club members and 22 members of staff.
Manager Michelle Edens said Saturday's show was screened at the club even during a wedding.

She said: "There was a fantastic reaction when they got through to the final, but I was not at all surprised because they did brilliantly. I think Simon Cowell doesn't like the Scottish accent. He told the brothers he thought they had done well, but I think it nearly killed him to say that.

"
The brothers have also divided professional opinion north of the Border. Producer Marc Andrew of Splash Productions in Johnstone, near Paisley, said: "I'm Scottish so I would like to say the brothers deserve to be where they are, but I just don't get it. They should stick to duets.

They are good singers and I wish them all the best.
"It's good to see Scottish guys in the final, but I don't think they will win it, although they will benefit from being the only Scottish act left.
"I think they have a good career in front of them.

Someone will snap them up and hopefully I'll be able to get them to record in my studio some time."
Perth-born Jim Allen, who now lives in Hull, has nearly 30 years' experience as a voice instructor and has taught singers who took part in early rounds of previous series' of The X Factor.
He said: "I think the MacDonald brothers are brilliant and they are far better than they have been portrayed.

I have been teaching voice for many years and these guys have got good voices.
"The only thing that is wrong is the presentation. When they were performing Five Hundred Miles they should have had a guy on drums and another on the pipes.

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Cowell made the casting vote on Saturday's show to give Liverpool boy band Eton Road their marching orders after their two songs, Can Your Feel The Love Tonight? and Everybody Needs Somebody To Love, failed to impress the voting public.
SCOTLAND'S most successful talent show graduate is perhaps Sheena Easton.

The US-based singer shot to fame in 1979 after she was plucked from a drama course at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama for the TV show The Big Time, and won a record deal.
Lena Zavaroni won the 1970s TV show Opportunity Knocks for five weeks in a row, aged just nine. She had her first No 1 single at the age of 12 and went on to perform with Frank Sinatra and Lisa Minelli.

She fought a long battle against anorexia and died of the disease in 1999, aged 35.
Darius Danesh had a No 1 single and platinum-selling album after coming third on Pop Idol in 2002.
Michelle McManus won Pop Idol in 2003 and her debut single in 2004 went straight to the top of the charts.

Vote McDonald - it's time.
The fall outs, the tantrums, the controversy, the water pouring by that dirty mouth Osborne, the insults to competitors..

.. all stage managed to keep viewing figures up in the battle between Come Dabcing and X-Factor.

And now, in addition to my missus, the Scotsman has fallen for it. Geee.
The MacDonald Bros are truly outstanding .

.. as the most dire act I've ever seen from Scotland in years.

They totally murdered Craig and Charlie's classic song 500 Miles as they have everything else they touched. Louis Walsh and his boyband fixation will hopefully kill off this kind of thing for years to come.
Oh and by the way, it's NOT the entire nation behind them.

No-one I know voted for the McD's. They want Leona or Ben to win ..

.
Personally ..

. I think Ray, the underdog but a born performer ..

. might just beat them to the prize. He's able to switch genres with much more ease than the others.

Lena Zavaroni, Darius, Michelle McManus, Sheena Easton...

and now the McDonald Brothers...

.Scotland must be so proud..

...

Annie Lennox, Belle and Sebastian, Franz Ferdinand,
Deacon Blue, The Waterboys, Billy Mackenzie,The Associates, Average White Band, The Blue Nile, Eddie Reader, The Proclaimers, Arab Strap, even dance artists like Slam (who discovered daft punk), Silicone Soul and many more...

...

.. Yes, I would say Scotland should be very proud.

Good artists will always be famous regardless of where they come from. Raw talent will never need to be packaged and voted for.
I don't know anyone who has voted for the McDonald brothers, could it be a fix?

! If the Scottish people really wanted some Scottish talent on the show then why did Nikitta go? She had a better chance than those two.

Eton Road were in the bottom 2 on Saturday because Louis made it public that he was going to give them a record deal anyway, so what the point in voting for them!
Leona has to win. She was amazing on Saturady, sent shivers down my spine!

I say vote for the talent and not the people who are Scottish.
#5, dont forget Primal Scream, The Jesus and Marychain Mogwai!!

Will the McDonald Brothers ever get an invitation to share a stage with Primal Scream, like Shane McGowan does?? That's the question!

!
Vote on talent alone, not because Simon C thinks less of them. The brothers have never been in the bottom two and every week they get better
I was refering to the 'artistes' that the Scotsman made reference to as winning talent contests not the real Scottish talent that doesn't need to enter such rubbish talent shows.

...

.
Can't really put Michelle McManus and Darius in the same category as Franz and Deacon Blue eh?
Lets face it.

..the McDonald Brothers are no way in the same class as the likes of Leona.

If they win because of a biased Scottish push then it will not only be a real shame, but also a genuinne embarassment.
Good luck to them, who cares if they're mince. At least they'll have fun while it lasts!

I can hardly make out a word that those two pasty faced idiots say, and their singing is an embarrassment.
I don't know anyone who is voting for the MacD's. I would imagine that many in the UK are voting because of the attraction to see underdogs beat Simon Cowell.

I don't mind his honesty but at times he has gone too far and behaved like a child...

.the judges seem more hell-bent on being the winner than seeing the best singer (Leona) win..

.and then we hear that the judges are betting on the winner as well..

..
They have finally ditched Celebrity Love Island - now if we could just get rid of the rest of garbage.

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How many X Factors have there been now? How many of the winners are still in the public eye? The only one I can think of is Will Young - maybe because he can actually sing!

!!!

!!
Good luck to them.

Personally, I don't believe they are up to the same standard as, say Leona, but they have taken all the harsh comments in good spirit every time. Nice lads, but probably not the winners.
JG,
I think most of them sink with out trace after a few months of 'living the dream'!

Which is just as well!!
I read recently that a previous winner - Steve Brookstein - sang in front of 17 people and a dug!

! And that was on a good night!!

On a serious note, a lot of the kids really believe this is it...

.the big time, and end up getting dumped on their a*ses. It's a wee bit unfair to use them in this manner!

The McDonald Brothers will be taking bookings for weddings again, pretty soon!
Somebody mentioned Will Young. He's been doing what exactly recently?

Yup, real big star!
Naebody's mentioned Kenneth MacKellar,Moira Anderson, or Andy Stewart!
Will Young actually came from Pop Idol (like Darius).

No X-Factor winner so far has gone on to stardom. Will Young was recently out in the Middle East entertaining the troops. I think he has a beautiful voice and his last album was excellent.

Unfortunately, the MacDonald Brothers are the worst of the final four. It's Leona, Ben and Ray for the final three - in that order!
Sorry Mouldydc.

Ray will be gone next week and the macs will be 3rd in the competition. No point asking who will win because leona is a world class singer.
Scotland is producing a lot of talent on the music scene just now.

Paulo Nutini from Paisley is a class act and Saidi Thom although bizarre withing she was a punk rocker with flowers in her hair is still done brilliantly through internet publicity.
At the moment the UK is producing the best acts in the world (not talking about xfactor here) and coming from each part of the UK makes it even better!
I mean saidi thinking she was a punk rocker with flowers in her hair.