X Factor Tour Dublin!

Everyone knows I love X Factor and especially this season with the formation of my favourites, Stereo Kicks, and Only The Young being on the show! So when tickets went on sale for the tour, I snatched them up straight away!

X Factor Tour kicked off on Friday 13th February in Belfast and was there two nights before hitting Dublin on Sunday 15th of February. Only 8 acts made the Tour, Fleur East, Lauren Platt, Andrea Faustini, Jay James, Stevi Ritchie, Ben Haenow, Only The Young and Stereo Kicks!

Fleur. Image belongs to me.

Lauren. Image belongs to me.

Fleur opened the show with ‘Can’t Hold Us’. Lauren performed her slowed down version of ‘Happy’, which took me about a minute to know it was that because she was singing so low and I couldn’t hear the words! She then followed with ‘How Will I Know‘, and she danced a little bit. Jay sang ‘Changing’. Stevi performed ‘Livin’ La Vida Loca’. Andrea belted out ‘And I’m Telling You’, his voice is incredible.

Only The Young really got the arena going with their version of ‘I Wanna Be Like You’. They made me fall in love with that song again. They made it fresh and cool. They put the OTY Stamp on it. They put a few dance moves in there too. And I got a little excited and screamed ‘Gwan Charlie and Mikey!’. I am sorry you can hear me in my video (insert cover eyes monkey emoji here!).

 

My bae’s Stereo Kicks hit the stage and the place went crazy, with them receiving the loudest screams of the night. They sang their cover of ‘Let It Be/Hey Jude medley and their vocals live are just incredible. With the reaction they got all night, I firmly believe Stereo Kicks have a great future ahead. Who said 8 boys wouldn’t work? They are incredibly talented and so down to earth, they can’t believe everyone loves them.

 

Charlie from Only The Young. Image belongs to me.

Fleur proved she is a double threat when she returned to the stage to perform ‘All About That Bass’ and ‘Bang Bang’, with her killer moves and stellar vocals. Andrea then sang ‘Listen’. The last song of the first half of the show was a group ensemble, minus Ben! They sang Taylor Swift’s ‘Shake It Off’. Stevi donned his Freddie Mercury outfit and performed ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, probably his ‘best’ performance. Not much I can really say about Stevi. Fleur was back on stage to sing ‘Thriller’, she didn’t give it as much energy as she did on the show or her other performances on the night which was disappointing. Lauren sang Disney favourite ‘Let It Go’, which had everyone singing along as usual.

Only The Young sang ‘Blame It On The Boogie’ and I just wanted to get up on stage and dance with them! They are so energetic and have so much on stage, it is infectious. These guys are going places. They are unique and extremely talented. I am excited for their future!

Stereo Kicks. Image belongs to me.

Stereo Kicks got the girls (and boys) screaming again when they sang ‘Everybody’. It was during this that I couldn’t contain myself and shouted ‘Casey you are fit’ and ‘Tom you are fit’ several times. They look gorgeous though, so you couldn’t blame me! My SK buddy Tania is very proud of me 😛

Jay sang Skyfall. Jay did nearly put me to sleep during this but that is simply because he doesn’t mean anything to me. He has incredible vocals but I am just not a fan. Jay got quite emotional after his performance. Stevi sang Footloose. To be honest, he ruined the song for me. I know he is the guilty pleasure act and he does proved entertainment but… I can’t even say anything. There are no words. Stevi is a genuinely nice guy and very pleasant when I met him. Fleur sang her only ballad ‘If I Ain’t Got You’ and she proved she can slay the slow songs too.

Only The Young performed one of my favourites of the night ‘Jailhouse Rock/Twist and Shout’. Charlie’s vocals were seriously on point all night but he’s parts in this song were incredible. Mikey looked so hot (love heart eyes emoji here) and he even wore my favourite Houndstooth shirt!!!

 

Lauren. Image belongs to me.

Lauren’s final song was ‘Don’t You Worry Child’. Apart from ‘How Will I Know’, this was my favourite performance from her. After her throat problems recently, I doubted if she was vocally ready for the show but she was and she sang incredibly. She also looked very beautiful.

Stereo Kicks stole the show with the song that started their journey, ‘Run’ and 6 months later they are on an arena tour! I was so proud, there were tears! Chris made a little speech at the end of their performance and I was so proud of him. I’ve known him for over 3 years from his days in Level 5 and met him at Niall Horan’s birthday party in 2012. I was also extremely proud to see Tom Mann on stage. I’ve been supporting him for nearly 3 years too. He’s really fit. I might have mentioned that before but I am just making sure you know it. Casey Johnson is also fit. Okay Stereo Kicks are fit.

Casey Johnson and James Graham. Image belongs to me.

Tom Mann and Jake Sims. Image belongs to me.

Chris Leonard and Barclay Beales. Image belongs to me.

Reece Bibby and Charlie Jones. Image belongs to me.

Fleur performed her outstanding performance of ‘Uptown Funk’, wow that woman can dance!!!

Ben Haenow. Image belongs to me.

Finally the winner graced the stage! Ben Haenow (HAENOW, HAENOW, DON’T DREAM IT’S OVER!) started his set with ‘Come Together’. Ben also sang ‘Thinking Out Loud’, ‘Highway to Hell’, ‘Jealous Guy’ and ‘Demons’ before closing his set with his winner single ‘Something I Need’.

All 8 acts closed the show with a group performance of ‘Never Forget’ and seemed to happy with the response they got in Dublin on the first night!

If you are a fan of X Factor, you will adore this concert! Ben, Only The Young and Stereo Kicks were my stand out favourites and the three acts I heard the majority of people talk about after the show.

So the Irish leg of the tour may be over but if you live in the United Kingdom, tickets are still available for some of the shows. Go get them ASAP!! A show not to be missed, especially if you want to say you’ve been there from day one for OTY and Stereo Kicks 😉

I have a few more videos to add but I am currently in Laois and Wifi is slow. I will add the rest of the videos when I get to University with fast internet!! ❤

Check out my X Factor Blog from when I went to London here.

My Favourite Album of 2014!

My dear friend Joe nominated me to do this blog (Check out his blog!), and even though I hate him for putting me through the agony of picking my favourite album of 2014, I think it is such a good idea! Well done Joe 😉

The reason why I said it was agony of picking my favourite album is because this year has been an incredible year for some musicians, producing some top quality albums.  2014 was the year for newcomers and these newcomers certainly put their stamp on the music world. Sam Smith, who was announced the winner of the Brits 2014 Critics’ Choice award for 2014, released his debut album ‘In The Lonely Hour’ in May this year. ‘Lay Me Down’ is my favourite track on his album. Ariana Grande’s second studio album ‘My Everything’ came out in August and established Ariana as a major force in the music industry. Without a doubt, ‘Just A Little Bit Of Your Heart’ is my favourite song , which was penned by One Direction’s Harry Styles. It’s been two years since Ella Henderson appeared on the UK X Factor and many critics had questioned if the two year gap would be a good decision for her career, but Ella proved them wrong with her debut album ‘Chapter One‘, with every song written or co-written by Ella herself. In the first week, her album went straight into number one, making Simon Cowell a very happy man! Remember her arena audition where she sang her own song that took everyone’s breath away? Well Ella recorded that beautiful song and put it on the album and ‘Missed’ is undeniably my favourite track of hers. The treasured artists of the music industry also made sure they were heard this year with their outstanding albums. Ed Sheeran released his highly anticipated second album ‘X’ in June, and to date, it has been the most streamed album on Spotify of 2014, with over 400 million streams. Apart from ‘Thinking Out Loud’, my favourite song is ‘Tenerife Sea’. One of my queens Jessie J dropped her third studio album ‘Sweet Talker’. The leading single of the album, ‘Bang Bang’, made Jessie world renowned and is her most successful single to date. The success of this hit single made her album a chart topping album. Although ‘Bang Bang’ is the tune that has me running to the dance floor, my stand out song on the album is ‘Sweet Talker’. Many would say that 2014 was the year of Taylor Swift and her fifth studio album, ‘1989‘. This album is her first official pop album, having been a country-pop crossover artist on her previous albums. The stats establish that Swift done right by making this album as it is the best selling album of 2014. I have two favourite songs from ‘1989‘, they are ‘Wildest Dreams’ and ‘Wonderland’.

One Direction’s fourth consecutive album ‘Four’ is an extremely close runner up to my favourite album of the year (I mean it, the only difference is like 0.01%). Personally, I believe ‘Four’ is their best album. Like many of the critics, I believe this album shows maturity (apart from ‘Act My Age’, but we ALL secretly love that tune!!) and growth for the band, with a more rockier sound. The boys wrote 9 of the songs on the album, and even got Ed Sheeran to pen another song for them. Cosmopolitan clearly agree with me as they have named it number eleven on the 20 Best Album’s for 2014 list! Once again, stats confirm that One Direction aren’t going to be disappearing any time soon, as the album went straight in at number one in over 100 countries!! The song that gets me feeling warm and fuzzy is ‘Night Changes’, it is such a beautiful song and shows off everyone’s vocals.

But my album of the year goes to the real breakthrough artists of the year, 5 Seconds of Summer! It was probably obvious I was going to chose them, I never shut up about them and have been promoting them for nearly 3 years to everyone! If you don’t already know, I adore these guys a crazy amount (I have travelled more times to see them live than any other band to date!). If you’ve been hiding under a rock and have no idea who they are or want to refresh your memory of who they are, check out my previous blog on them!

The Australian pop punk band (NOT A BOYBAND) released their self titled debut album  ‘5 Seconds of Summer’  in June and within one week of it’s release in America, it charted in the number one spot in the Billboard 200, selling over 260,000 copies. 5 Seconds of Summer proved they were to be taken seriously in the music industry and soon became one of the most sought after bands at all music award ceremonies such as the MTV Music Awards and the ARIA Awards, entitling them to perform in front of some of the mega stars in the music industry. But it was them touring with One Direction on their tours ‘Take Me Home’ in 2013 and ‘Where We Are’ in 2014 that gave the platform for the Aussies to make a name for themselves. They soon became pals with All Time Low’s Alex Gaskarth and co-wrote a few songs with him. ‘She Looks So Perfect‘ was the lead single of the album and no doubt was one of the songs of 2014! The boys wrote the majority of the songs on the album, all bar two in fact, with ‘Amnesia’ wrote by the Madden Brothers and their cover of The Romantic’s ‘What I Like About You’.  With songs like ‘Don’t Stop‘, ‘Good Girls‘, ‘18‘ and ‘End Up Here‘ proving their little cheeky personalities in their song writing and showing they are more All Time Low than One Direction. But these four pretty boys have an emotional side too, and this is evident in their tunes like ‘Long Way Home‘, ‘Beside You‘ and ‘Everything I Didn’t Say’. While writing this blog, I asked my mum what my favourite 5 Seconds of Summer song was (thinking it would make it easier for me) but she had them same answer as I first came up with and that is that I actually like them all and can’t choose a favourite. Although, after two consecutive listens to the album, I came to the conclusion that my top five favorite songs are ‘End Up Here’, ‘Good Girls’, ‘Long Way Home’, ‘Heartbreak Girl’ and ‘Beside You’ (Can I just say I absolutely love every 5 Seconds of Summer song on this album? Because I do!!)

Image from 5SOS-official.tumblr.com

If there is one thing I love more than lots of 5 Seconds of Summer songs, it’s hearing 5 Seconds of Summer live and they answered all my dreams in December this year when they released ‘LIVESOS’. This is their first live album and contains 14 songs, including ‘Disconnected‘, ‘Out of My Limit‘ and their cover of Green Day’s ‘American Idiot‘.

Image from http://www.5sos.com

So there you have it, my favourite album of 2014 belongs to 5 Seconds of Summer. In my eyes, 2014 belonged to those guys!

So, what was your favourite album of 2014? Comment below 🙂