Last night, Fleur East didn’t win The X Factor, despite everyone at Team Debrief – even those who would rather spend four hours each weekend* not* watching The X Factor – rooting for her.
Instead, mum-friendly crooner Ben Haenow (hey now, hey now, don’t dream it’s over) took the top spot of the competition, winning a contract worth about £6 million and a photoshoot with noted photographer Nigel Barker. Oh no, wait…
Anyway, Ben won. But the great thing about Fleur not winning is that all the best people never win, and quite a lot of winners have faded into obscurity.
We’d hate to use Olly Murs as a shining example for anything apart from the sort of man who’d chat you up using a line he’d learned from Dumb And Dumber, but he didn’t win The X Factor, and look at him now! Joe McElderry, meanwhile, is doing panto at the Bradford Alhambra. JLS and, of course, One Direction all did not win The X Factor, but the likes of Matt Cardle, Shayne Ward and James Arthur did. Plus, there’s the fact that Leon Jackson has actually become more famous for not becoming famous after winning* The X Factor* than for any pop-starryness.
Another thing to remember is that, despite Demi Lovato, Olly Murs, Sam Smith and One Direction (with actual Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood roped into guitar duty) on hand to perform at the event, only 8.4 million people watched the programme, which is only 300,000 more than 2004’s final, when Steve Brookstein won.
Maybe winning The X Factor, which itself seems to be dwindling in popularity, isn’t the be-all and end-all in a musical career? Plus, selfishly, we’re into the fact that Fleur won’t have to go into hiding as Simon Cowell’s latest signing always tends to do for about a year after they win. We get to hear her belt out new tracks for now and ever more!
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.