21 December 2006
Here’s another example of British TV dominating Ireland’s pop-cultural marketplace: the X Factor winner’s single was now as much an automatic Irish chart event as a UK one. And lest you think this was all just enthusiastic Irish boyband balladry fans lapping up the Irish boyband balladry style whatever the source, the only other country where this 2006 single charted was Hungary, at a lowly no. 31. The show wouldn’t be carried by an Irish channel until 2014. This all seems obvious and understandable: such a relationship exists to some degree wherever neighbouring countries of unequal size or clout share a lingua franca. Also, every country in the world, whatever their colonial history, is in the shadow of the US entertainment industry. Still, it’s interesting to stop and notice it occasionally, plus it adds to the story of our home-grown chart-toppers: what additional local context—usually novelty or comedy—helps them repel the pop-cultural gravitational forces from across the water, even just for a week? Is the playing field forever to be tilted against ‘Aon Focal Eile’ and ‘Jumbo Breakfast Roll’, and could we tilt it a bit more?
Anyway, I have an excuse for not following The X Factor in its febrile ’00s: I was living in France, where the writ of Simon Cowell did not yet run. So, I’m going to assume Leona Lewis sailed through this series from audition to final with ease. She’s so obviously the real deal that I’m only surprised a competent record company hadn’t already made her a star. Could it be that The X Factor served a purpose after all? In 2006 at least, perhaps it did.
Yes, ‘A Moment Like This’ is indeed the pro forma winner’s single: dream; inspiration; journey; vague ‘you’ to cover off the romantic ballad angle. However, there’s a neat aptness in it being a cover of the winner’s single by another worthy find of the format, Kelly Clarkson from her American Idol triumph. American big-budget largesse clearly went into the writing, with some pleasing chord sequences in the pre-chorus and mid-section to lend some variety and sparkle. Of course, Lewis’s considerable strengths—presence; charm; that voice!—can only do so much with a production of inherent schmaltz and blandness. Happily, we’ll meet her again at number one with better output than this, notably something spectacular in a chart-year from now. Thanks, Simon!
