2011 Essex Round-Up!

As we draw close to the end of 2011, reflecting upon the year, Essex has played a bigger role in the media than ever before.

With the continuous influence of The Only Way is Essex in the media, or TOWIE as it is better known, Essex has been finding common ground in day-to-day life across the country. ‘Shuuut-Up’, ‘well jel’, and who could forget Joey Essex’s signature word ‘reem’ have all been widely recognised not just in Essex but throughout England and the UK. It’s difficult to watch the television for one week and not see one of the TOWIE characters popping up on chat shows or game shows. Some of our favourite TOWIE characters have even left the show to appear on reality TV, with Amy Childs appearing on Celebrity Big Brother, placing fourth, and of course Mark Wright just losing out to McFly’s Dougie in the I’m A Celebrity final.

Dougie’s bandmate Harry Judd, born in Chelmsford, had a very successful 2011 as he lifted the Strictly Come Dancing glitterball this month. Alongside dance partner Aliona Vilani, he fought off competition from Waterloo Road’s Chelsee Healey and Jason Donovan to claim the top spot.

This year has seen the country fall further in love with Essex boy Olly Murs as he jumps from one success to the next. Starting off the year by trekking across the Kaisut desert in Kenya for Comic Relief alongside 8 other celebrities, including fellow Essex boy Dermot O’Leary, Murs’ year began with a bang. The sound of the summer was Olly’s ‘Heart Skips a Beat’ featuring Rizzle Kicks, which reached the number 1 spot in August. Olly’s third number 1 single came in December with ‘Dance With Me Tonight’, which he also performed on The X Factor this year. One of Olly’s biggest successes this year would be his weekly role on ITV2’s ‘The Xtra Factor’ alongside Caroline Flack. The pair have been heavily praised by the media for what many people would argue has been the best series of Xtra Factor to date. 2012 should be an even bigger year for Witham’s Murs as he starts his first ever Arena tour in February, which kicks off in Cardiff before moving to The O2 Arena.

Another huge success story from Essex in 2011 has come from Romford, birthplace of popstar Jessie J. After starting the year as BBC Sound of 2011 and as the Brits Critic’s Choice, big things were predicted for Jessie J. With 4 Mobo awards and a #1 single in ‘Price Tag’, these predictions were very true. It has been recently announced that Price Tag was in the Top 3 of the most downloaded songs of the year. It was also announced this year that Jessie J would star as a judge on new BBC One talent show ‘The Voice’, where she will star alongside Tom Jones, Will.I.Am and Danny O’Donoghue in the new year.

Other Essex singers who have been successful this year include Pixie Lott, whose single ‘All About Tonight’ entered the chart at #1. Also, Matt Cardle has had a successful year following winning the X Factor in 2010, with The Guardian calling his album ‘Letters’ the best of 2011. 

Each year the X Factor gives us a fantastic contestant from Essex, with Matt Cardle, Olly Murs and Stacey Solomon coming to mind, and this year has been no exception with one quarter of winners Little Mix coming from Essex. Jesy Nelson, from Romford, was put together with Perrie, Leigh-Anne and Jade at bootcamp and was mentored by Tulisa.

2012 is set to be an even bigger year for Braintree’s Louie Spence, who was this year announced to be a judge on ITV’s Dancing on Ice. The new series is set to begin in January.

Lets hope that this time next year, there will be even more news about these Essex stars and many more new faces who will appear across 2012. Happy New Year to everyone in Essex and beyond!

The EsseX Factor

Having already been to Birmingham, Manchester, Cardiff (just to name a few), this week the X Factor auditions finally reach London. The auditions for the 8th series of the hit TV show will be held at the O2 Arena in North Greenwich, where hundreds of contestants will be joined by brand new judges Gary Barlow, Tulisa Contostavlos and Kelly Rowland, as well as Louis Walsh - the only judge who has taken part in all eight series.

In previous years, Essex has played a huge role in the final rounds of the X Factor, and we hope that this year will be no exception! In 2009, Olly Murs reached the final of the series, coming second to Joe McElderry. Murs' debut album has gone two times platinum, with his debut single 'Please Don't Let Me Go' reaching #1 in the Official Chart. Now currently on tour with previous X Factor finalists JLS, Olly has been one of the biggest success stories from the past seven years of the X Factor, and one of the biggest celebrities to have come out of Essex in recent years.

And of course, 2010 saw Essex take the X Factor crown when Halstead's Matt Cardle beat One Direction and Rebecca Ferguson to become the seventh winner of the TV show. His debut single 'When We Collide' was the Christmas #1, and his forthcoming debut album, due to be released in October, is bound to be a big hit.

With stars like Olly Murs, Matt Cardle, and of course 2009 runner-up Stacey Solomon, putting Essex on the map throughout the past years of the show, we have big hopes that this can continue in the 2011 series of the X Factor, due to start in August.

If you are going to the auditions at the O2 this week (Wednesday 6th July/Thursday 7th July/Friday 8th July), keep your eyes and ears peeled for the talent that Essex has to offer!

Essex wins at the NTAs!

The annual National Television Awards took place this week at the O2 Arena with the ceremony broadcast on ITV. Hosted by Colchester's Dermot O'Leary, he started off the celebrations for the evening.

The show opened with a performance from our very own Stacey Solomon, who captured our heart's last year on X Factor, as well as last Autumn on I'm A Celebrity. Solomon performed with her fellow campmate, Shaun Ryder. Stacey started the performance singing 'Feeling Good', formerly by Nina Simone - a song that she performed whilst competing in The X Factor alongside Joe McElderry and Olly Murs. Ryder then joined her on the stage to sing Happy Mondays hit 'Step On'.

Stacey was soon on the stage again whilst collecting the award for Entertainment Programme, that was deservedly won by 'I'm a Celebrity'. Stacey graced the stage again towards the end of the night whilst presenting the award for Most Popular Serial Drama to Eastenders.

However, Stacey wasn't our only X Factor star performing at the ceremony. Matt Cardle took to the stage to perform his Christmas Number One hit single, When We Collide. Singing and playing the guitar, Cardle wow-ed the audience with the incredible voice that won him last year's X Factor. He also took to the stage alongside Simon Cowell and Cheryl Cole to collect the award for Talent Show, that X Factor beat Strictly & Dancing On Ice to.

The Inbetweeners picked up the award for Digital Choice - a new award that is awarded to the best TV show on digital channels. Alongside fellow co-stars Simon Bird (Will) and Blake Harrison (Neil), Essex boy Joe Thomas (Simon) collected the award with his girlfriend and co-star Hannah Tointon, also of an Essex background and sister to Strictly Come Dancing winner, Kara Tointon. Joe Thomas attended King Edward Grammar School for boys (KEGS) in Chelmsford before attending Cambridge University.

Congratulations to all the winners from the night, especially to I'm A Celebrity, X Factor & The Inbetweeners.
Roll on The Brits on the 15th February for some more Essex award-winners!

X Factor Final Weekend!

Matt Cardle has been crowned the winner of the X Factor 2010!

After reaching the final on Saturday, despite being ill for a fortnight, Matt sung his heart out to reach Sunday's show. His steamy performance with Rihanna amazed the nation as all of Essex watched on to see Matt's dream of performing with Rihanna come true!

Alongside One Direction and Rebecca Ferguson, Matt joined the Take That boys with a performance of Never Forget. As the phone lines were frozen, everybody in Essex sat on the edge of their seats willing Matt to reach the final two. One Direction were surpringly knocked out with Matt and Rebecca going on to sing their winner's singles.

Matt then went on to absolutely smash 'When We Collide', previously performed by Scottish rockers, 'Biffy Clyro'. There was then no surprise that our Essex boy Matt Cardle was announced as the winner of the hit show!

It has now been revealed that Matt had the highest number of votes EVERY week throughout the series, with one exception of Week One where Matt came second behind Ireland's Mary Byrne. In the final of the series, Matt had 44.61% of the vote and was the deserved winner of the X Factor!

Congrats Matt!

Semi-Finals for local boy Matt!

The country's most popular TV show is nearing it's end - the Semi-Final of X Factor is this weekend and the county all need to get behind Matt Cardle!

Matt has done amazingly well throughout the whole competition, being one of the three contestants in the semi-finals who have never faced the 'dreaded sing-off', out of the 5 who are now in the semis.

Matt faces competition from One Direction, Cher Lloyd, Rebecca Ferguson & Mary Byrne. However, Matt is bookies favourite to win with 8/11 odds.

Matt is the last remaining boy from Dannii's category.

Please come back to this blog during the week for more Matt Cardle & X Factor news!

Chelmsford Christmas Lights!

On Sunday 28th November, thousands of fans queued down Chelmsford High Street to watch X Factor Finalist and Essex-Boy, Olly Murs, turn on the Christmas lights!

The event ran all day with many local up-and-coming acts performing in the bitterly-cold weather!
From 4:00, the Under-16s singing competition started, with UK Eurovision entry, Josh Dubovie, as one of the judges. Ellie Smit, from Moulsham High School, (and a great friend of mine), sung 'Let It Snow' and was fantastic!

Following on from this, Josh took to the stage to sing to the audience with songs such as 'Just Haven't Met You Yet', made famous by Michael Buble, and 'Cooler Than Me', a recent Top 10 hit by Mike Posner.

The acts prior to this only had to mention 'Olly' to be followed by screams erupting from the very eager audience of 'Ollyettes'! When Mr Murs finally came to grace the stage, with 'Please Don't Let Me Go' playing to the crowd, the tech-team had a slight failure as Olly had to chat to the audience whilst his microphone and track were fixed!

Olly charmed the crowd with three songs: his number one, hit debut single 'Please Don't Let Me Go', the B-Side to this single, 'This One's for the Girls', and his brand new single, 'Thinking Of Me'. All girls in the crowd who had come to their local high street for the exclusive gig were hugely pleased to hear the B-Side to Olly's debut single, where Olly sings about Essex girls and finished the song by saying 'you can't beat you Essex girls!'

Olly said he was 'delighted' and 'honoured' to be back in his hometown to be turning on the lights. He said that 'he hoped to be home again soon' and wished the crowd a huge thank you for all the support they gave, and contine to give, to him over the past year.

He also wished for the county to back current X Factor contestant, and fellow Essex boy, Matt Cardle. 'Please support Matt like you supported me', said the Essex heartthrob, just before he left the stage to the sound of screaming fans!

Thank you Olly for a great evening. Maybe we'll have Matt next year?