He’s the Irish Eurovision star who has been battling it out in the X Factor UK. But the journey is now over for Brendan Murray. The “Dying to Try” singer was eliminated from the show’s semi-final, which had an ABBA theme.
Brendan was eliminated from the show on Saturday night. After the acts performed two songs each, voting lines were frozen and the two acts with the lowest number of votes were instantly eliminated — no judges’ vote, no sing-off.
Before his elimination, Brendan had performed Snow Patrol’s 2004 anthem “Run”, along with the ABBA ballad “I Have a Dream” in a group medley.
The show had an ABBA theme, and featured appearances from Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, one half of the iconic pop group. Benny taught a masterclass with the X Factor contestants, working through songs with each act, while Björn joined the judges’ panel.
Brendan had a one-on-one session with Benny on piano. The multi-platinum-selling hitmaker commented, “I like his voice. There’s a softness to it.”
On the live show, Brendan performed ABBA’s 1979 hit “I Have a Dream” as part of a group medley, paying tribute to the music icons and Eurovision winners.
But despite two strong performances, it wasn’t enough to save Brendan. He was eliminated from the show along with Overs singer Danny Tetley.
Brendan — whose Eurovision past and professional relationship with Louis Walsh was never mentioned on The X Factor — lasted six of the seven weeks of live shows. In the second week, he was voted into the bottom three, but escaped elimination after winning the sing-off against the LMA Choir.
Despite that rough start, Brendan managed to avoid the sing-off again. His elimination comes after three more weeks of solid performances, including a week-four performance of REM’s ballad “Everybody Hurts”.
While Brendan won’t have the opportunity to do a Saara Aalto and make the X Factor UK final, his music career is in a stronger place than a year ago.
What do you think? Should Brendan have made The X Factor grand final? What former Eurovision stars would you like to see on the X Factor? Sound off below!
At Eurovision, for me, he turned a top-10 song into a bottom-10 song. Not sure how he made it this far, not disappointed he’s going.
I’m baffled at how Britain is letting that crow-voiced crackhead win… Brendan outsang, outperformed and outskinnied.
Now let’s not be too harsh…. He’s a former crackhead. He’s still only a very average karaoke singer. To think he’s in the top three out of thousands is ridiculous.
He just panders to the lower working class while not being able to sing in tune. A tragedy.
The rare times he cam down out of his high register his voice was much richer and, frankly, much more interesting and moving. I would have liked to hear more of that.
I don’t understand. i am not able to treat hi m seriously. H started at Eurovision where he was seen by millions of people, representing big country and now he was in X FACTOR. I think it should the the other way round. The same situation was with Magdalena Tul in Poland. She was a member of the choir in one TV show in Poland, then she was chosen to represent Poland and then completely failed (funny because the tv show, eurovision and the voice is shown by TVP) in The Voice still being part of the show I mentioned… Read more »
What is the highest note Brendan can reach? I’m dying to know. does anyone have a clue? He could easily scrap the high notes of the 6th octave
Hahahahah finally. Walsh would be mad but idc
I’m so devastated he’s now out of the X Factor. Some people have said it’s rigged. One fan mentioned on Twitter that her sister was having problems to vote for him during the show. Another person posted pictures on Twitter in which there’s this announcement “Irish can’t vote”. I was really appalled by how the voting was run in a very short period of time then I was convinced Brendan wouldn’t have enough vote if the voting lines were opened for a short time. It came true alas!! Agh! Well, I’ve been following his journey on X Factor. I really… Read more »
To be honest?? Good. He didn’t mention Eurovision ONCE during his time on the show, and kept going with the “I was a plumber just months ago” line which was not accurate at all.
I think the public saw through his falseness
The producers would have pushed that on him. They’re obsessed with the “rags to riches” storylines in that show. “I’m just a builder/plumber/waitress/secretary etc”.
Eurovision is broadcast on BBC, ITV’s rival..
In addition to that, mentioning that he’s a plumber makes him really humble! *in my opinion*
Totally agree. Probably embarrassed about Eurovision as he didn’t qualify for the final and wants to put it behind him. To a lot of people Eurovision is just not cool so the producers probably thought let’s not bother mentioning it. I personally don’t like his voice but as a person he always came across as a genuinely nice bloke.
I think the boy band he was in prior to Eurovision was barely mentioned as well. The one time I recall Eurovision being mentioned on The X Factor (we get the UK version on a one day delay here in the States, so I do watch it) was when Slavko auditioned last year and Louis Walsh mentioned that he met Slavko at “the Eurovision” (and Louis was Brendan’s manager at the time, both Brendan and Slavko competed the same year) and suggested to Slavko that he audition. They edit out all references to voting numbers and rules on the show… Read more »
Ironic that he had to be eliminated during the ABBA tribute
Eurovision and semi-finals really aren’t his strong suit.
I am so sorry for Brendan… He overall did an amazing job at the X Factor. In my opinion he performed “Run” quite well BUT I think that people compared it automatically to Leona Lewis and he was not that strong as she was. He was a bit more “balladesque” and she was more “powerful-anthem-like” if that makes sense 😀 However, due to the dislikes under the last sing-off between A&A and Shan, the British are very mad that A&A are still in. They survived 3 or 4 sing-offs in a row and I really don’t understand this either… I… Read more »