Dedicated euro-fans will have experienced regular bouts of deja vu as they watch the latest series of The X Factor UK, because thus far it has prominently featured two performers with a Eurovision related past. Joseph McCaul, one half of Ireland’s brother-sister 2005 duo Donna and Joe, auditioned for the Overs category. While Josh Standing, who sang with Clarissa in Finland’s 2014 UMK selection, is a member of The First Kings who tried out for the Groups category. This weekend saw the end of the brutal six-chair challenge element of the competition, but sadly only one of our boys made it to the next stage. Let’s start with the bad news.

Joe McCaul fails six-chair challenge

The “Love?” singer hasn’t had the easiest time on the show. At bootcamp, Simon Cowell openly wondered if he could swap bodies with another contestant. The issue of Joe’s looks was raised once again on Sunday’s show, when Cowell labelled him “a librarian who sings”. Despite delivering a spirited performance of Duffy’s “Mercy” and receiving almost universal praise from the other three judges, the Irish singer failed to hold onto his seat and was eliminated.

Love Cowell can build you up, love Cowell can tear you down

Josh Standing and The First Kings through to Judges’ Houses

Joe’s X Factor stint may be over, but Josh Standing is definitely “On Top Of The World”. On the 11 October episode, he and his bandmates wowed Cheryl Fernandez-Versini (née Cole née Tweedy) with a crowd pleasing, all-dancing version of Natalie La Rose’s “Somebody”. The band will now battle it out with five other groups next week. If successful, they will progress to the live shows.

Joe and Josh are just the latest in a long line of Eurovision stars to tackle reality tv. Viktor Király, a veteran of Hungary’s A Dal, recently auditioned for The Voice USAnd on the Russian version, the country’s first ever representative Youddiph sailed through the blind auditions. In a rather ironic twist, Polina Gagarina, Russia’s most recent contestant, was one of the judges to turn.

What do y’all think? Did Joe deserve to go? Can Josh and friends make it all the way? Let us know below.

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Deven O'Kearney
8 years ago

I totally agree with Darren. The McCauls seem like nice people and Joe is quite a good singer. But, as we saw, many times over with both Donna and Joe, the music industry is not for them. It’s not to be.

Darren
Darren
8 years ago

Hopefully the McCaul’s will finally realize that its just not meant to happen, and stop this whole charade. Its beyond tedious now. Nothing against them as people, they are probably nice, but they really need to see that they will never make it in the music industry, if it was going to happen to them, it would have done so, long before now, maybe they could do weddings or church on a Sunday, but that’s about it really. Obviously we will see one or both of them pop their heads up on something else, but again, they will fail miserably,… Read more »

Peyton
Peyton
8 years ago

Viktor won his battle just now on The Voice as well!!

Freyah
Freyah
8 years ago

Just goes to show how much of a d!ck Simon Cowell is, raising someones looks in a singing competition.