The highlights of the opening night were street dancer Tobias Mead, ten-year-old songstress Chloe Hickinbottom and the dancing dog Chandi. Ladbrokes has made the trio the early frontrunners to take home this year’s crown.

Not so talented it seems were the female dance group Ruby Girls (150/1 with the bookies), comedian Kevin Cruise (150/1) and Jimmy Ford, the questionable Irish tribute act, who are rank outsiders at 200/1.

Rescue dog Chandi, a crowd favourite as she showed a clean pair of heels in both quickstep and ballet moves with owner Tina Humphrey, could be seen as having an unfair advantage having already won a previous award on BBC’s When Will I Be Famous in 2007. However, unlike the Olympics, there is no ban on professional performers partaking in BGT, although the Crufts award winner is already known to many after appearing with Richard and Judy and on Blue Peter.

The success of last year’s surprise sensation Susan Boyle has led to unprecedented interest in the show, with Simon Cowell promising another Boylesque candidate is on the horizon. The TV ratings were up from last year, averaging 10.63 million viewers (44 per cent) and peaking at a massive 12.17 million at 20:55 – a market share of 49 per cent, meaning a huge win for ITV.

The 2010 version of the famous contest will see Waterman behind the UK entrant along with former pop producing partner Michael Stock of the Stock, Aitken and Waterman triumvirate. According to Waterman, Simon Cowell would be insanely jealous if the British team were to walk away with the top gong. For all his entrepreneurial achievements and musical production fame, Cowell apparently harbours this one secret desire.

Cowell and Waterman have collaborated previously, as both have been judges on Pop Idol, but the latter said in a recent interview that if he won the contest then Cowell would be severely irked as he always wanted to win a Eurovision.

The British entrant will be sung by whoever should emerge victorious from yet another forthcoming reality TV/ game show/ public flagellation exercise entitled Your Country Needs You, although producers of this show have declared that it will be a one-off. The search for the Eurovision representative begins in March so time to tone up those vocal chords kids.

Last year’s effort, an Andrew Lloyd Webber penned song sung by the latest member of the Sugarbabes, Jade Ewen, could only manage fifth place at the Moscow showpiece. Waterman claimed that the failure of Lloyd Webber made him more confident of attempting the project, reasoning that if a knight fails that badly then nobody will notice his own try.

Mark the date in your diary now; for May 29 is when the entertainment might really kick-off.

The project spearheaded by British pop music guru Simon Cowell and attracting the participation of 21 of some of the top performing artists today took less than a fortnight to complete for planning to its airing on radio today.

Stars such as Take That, Susan Boyle and Kylie Minogue took part in the making of the cover of Everybody Hurts by American 90s iconic band REM.

Cowell managed to easily pull strings in the business to arrange the single project to take root.

The various singers take turns at being featured as the main vocalist, starting with former X Factor winner Leona Lewis, followed by rock legend Rod Stewart, American R and B singer Mariah Carey, Cheryl Cole, Mika and Canadian performer Michael Buble.

The single was recorded in two locations. Some singers lent their voices for the track in London, while others, such as Robbie Williams, was part of the Los Angeles sessions.

Alexandra Burke — another X Factor winner – as well as James Morrison, were called into Trevor Horn’s Sarm Studios in the London district  of Notting Hill – where in 1984, the original fund-raising Band Aid song was recorded.

The other artists that took part the project are Jon Bon Jovi, Miley Cyrus, James Blunt and members of Westlife and JLS and the rising star Susan Boyle.

REM has waived the copyright fees for the use of their songs.

The proceeds of the single will go to two charity organizations: the Sun’s Helping Haiti fund and the Disasters Emergency Committee.

Everybody Hurts will be available for download on February 7 and will be in shops in a cd form the following day.

Cowell promised to gather a string of high profile names of the music business to record a track originally written by popular rock band REM.

It was revealed that Cowell had picked the classic track “Everybody Hurts” by the American group.

Now, information about the details of the recording have starte to leak out.

Contributors to the recording have been confirmed. The recording is reported to have included involvement from Britain’s Got Talent runner-up Susan Boyle, Girls Aloud performer and X Factor judge Cheryl Cole, American R&B star Mariah Carey, pop singer Miley Cyrus and rock legend Rod Stewart.

It been said that they all went in the studio under the leadership of Cowell and have each recorded a part for the cover song. Proceeds form the sales of the track will all go to charity organizations giving help to Haiti. REM agreed to waive the royalty fees for the song.

Other names have also been mentioned for the track: Kylie Minogue, Westlife, Michael Buble, Mika, James Blunt, Alexandra Burke and as well as others are said to offer their voices for the cause.

The song is now apparently nearly completed and shoulod be ready for relase within a week.

Meanwhile Cheryl Cole has revealed plans for her first solo tour.

The Girls Aloud performer will set out on a UK tour as a back up act for the hugely successful American pop ensemble the Black Eyed Peas.

Black Eyed Peas are set to play:

May 5 – London, O2 arena

May 5 – London, indigo2 at The O2 (aftershow party)

May 6 – London, O2 arena

May 6 – London, indigo2 at The O2 (aftershow party)

May 8 – Birmingham, LG Arena

May 8 – Birmingham, O2 Academy (aftershow party)

May 23 – Manchester, M.E.N Arena

May 23 – Manchester, PURE (aftershow party)

It’s been revealed that speculations are referring to the fact that the troubled superstar is being ignored as a nominee for the annual British music industry prizes.

In less than 8 months, Boyle managed to not only wow an entire worldwide following but to completely smitten Simon Cowell, not to mention her recording breaking views of her Britain’s Got Talent audition plus her record breaking album, I Dream A Dream, which became the top selling album of last year, in only a few weeks.

Boyle easily won the hearts of her American fans when she flew to Los Angeles and performed a truly breathtaking rendition of the Rolling Stones 60s’ classic Wild Horses.

Insiders of the Brit Awards are allegedly claiming that the omission of Boyle is an indirect attack on her impresario, Simon Cowell, who guided the Scottish performer from her last moments on the popular talent show to her current global success.

Apparently, Boyle is being completely ignored even for what is considered to be the Award’s weakest category, Best Female.

The move is a demonstration of how Cowell is perceived in the British music industry. Others have hinted the Brits Awards are just too cool for Boyle.

Warner Music is also apparently angry as some of their top selling acts, namely Muse and Michael Buble, will also ignored for the short-list.

The nominees, picked by a group of 1,000 British music business and media professionals, will be revealed later tonight at the O2 Arena in London.

Winners will be revealed during a ceremony held on February 16 at the Earl’s Court Arena with Lady GaGa, Kasabian, Cheryl Cole, JLS and Robbie Williams all scheduled to perform for the event.

Meanwhile, Boyle is apparently again showing signs of stress. She was said to have had a tantrum in a VIP lounge a Heathrow Airport recently when she started to dance and sing.

Also known as Jedward, the pair will take to the O2 Arena stage in the British capital for event’s 15th anniversary. The singers have not revealed details of which number there are to performers.

Hosting the show will be Dermot O’Leary, as thousands of crystals have been promised for the performance.

The Irish boys rose to fame on the X Factor thanks to their horrible voices but quirky performances combined with colorful outfits and crazy hairdos. The public appeared to appreciate their energetic renditions We Will Rock You, Ghostbusters and Oops, I Did It Again on The X Factor.

The singing competition will be facing Britain’s Got Talent, Dancing On Ice and Strictly Come Dancing for this year’s National Television Awards best talent show prize.

On more XFactor news, Simon Cowell has announced two days this week that he will be leaving the hugely popular talent US talent  show American Idol in order to launch a version of his X Factor show on the other side of the pond. The British pop music guru has said that the US show will begin in the fall of 2011.

Cowell’s contract is scheduled to expire after this season, the ninth, of American Idol.

The show, which had gathered a huge following over the years, is responsible for the emergence of such household names as Carrie Underwood and Kelly Clarkson.

Cowell said an American version of The X Factor is set for the 2011 season.

Despite his staggering American Idol salary of a reported annual $36m for his job as a judge, the series is propriety of Simon Fuller, and Cowell repeatedly expressed his desire to cash in bigger with the opportunity to introduce his X Factor in US air waves.

One benefit is said to be the ability to grab a bigger slice of the music sales revenue generated by the show, which is expected to be very large.

The American version of the X Factor show will be broadcasted in the autumn, thus avoiding American Idol, which occupies the schedules at Fox in the spring.

Cowell revealed the news during a press conference held in Los Angeles earlier this week, saying that the agreement stipulated that he would both act as a judge and produce the show.

He said that the bosses at American Idol had offered him a lot of money to say but famous impresario claimed that he now wanted to do something new and different.

The American TV show host has promised to set Simon Cowell straight if he shows himself to be too rude. DeGeneres is said to be planning to serve Cowell some of his own medicine.

According to the popular talk show host, Simon can be a little too abrasive a times, she told US magazine Entertainment Weekly.

However, wanting all things to be fair, she did promise for fight back when participants will themselves become too nasty.
 
DeGeneres, who regularly voices her sense of fairplay and social justice on her programme The Ellen DeGeneres Show, appears to be baffled by the disrespect demonstrated by some individuals at times.

She said she was surprised to see contestants react so negatively when getting judged.

Meanwhile the judge who Degeneres is replacing, David Hasselhoff, is said to have lost his job as a judge on the show reportedly because TV bosses expressed concern over his alcohol issues.

The 57-year-old was rumoured to have taken the news in a devastating matter. The show was believed to be his main source of income.

The drink problems of the ex-Knight Rider and Baywatch star are well documented, was reportedly not fired, although his contract was simply not renewed.

In face-saving gesture, Hasselhoff claimed to be preparing the launch of his own show.

The TV star said to be proud of having contributed to make America’s Got Talent number one in the highly competitive US ratings for the past four seasons.

The 18-year-old performer had been involved in a battle for the UK’s number one Christmas single with US protest heavy rock band Rage Against The Machine following a very well publicised campaign on Facebook which captivated much of the British music scene for the last few weeks.

But “The Climb” has managed to sell 196,000 copies this last week, pushing it past “In The Name” and momentarily securing second position in the singles chart.

McElderry, hailing from South Shields, was said to extremely happy about the news.

The singer thanked all the people who had supported him and had made this Chirtmas the best one for him so far.

He also wanted to extend to everyone good wishes for the New Year.

Just ahead of Christmas, the US band Rage Against The Machine managed to reach number one in the UK singles charts with a song which was released in 1993.

Rage, famous in America and elsewhere for being anti-establishment and particularly anti-Republican party, had been unwillingly pulled into the race at first when a Facebook campaign was kicked-off to counteracts musical acts generated by Simon Cowell and his XFactor talent show which were branded as dull, uninspiring and plastic-like performers devoid of soul.

At the time, Cowell had called the move stupid. Paul McCartney had commented on the race by saying he believed it would be a good thing if Rage Against The Machine would win.

Cowell himself has admitted that the X Factor show needs a make-over if it’s to remain relevant.

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The most recent odds for the talent show winner song The Climb have been put at 2/7, while ‘Killing In The Name’ by Rage Against The Machine is at 9/4.

The bookie news arrives despite The Climb being currently outsold by Killing In The Name. However, the 18-year-old performer has apparently narrowed the gap, with 40,000 copies separating him from the metal-hip-hop ensemble.

Rage Against The Machine frontman Zach De La Rocha, on Thursday morning, slammed the popular talent show as well as it’s guru judge Simon Cowell as he and his band mates performed the song live on UK radio.

Simon Cowell has been very vocal of the situation calling the smearing campaign “stupid” and “cynical”.

Meanwhile, Joe McElderry mentor and member of Girls Aloud Cheryl Cole has expressed her fury over the “mean campaign” against the X Factor winner.

Cole said she sincerely hopes her protégé’s song the Climb beats out the Rage Against The Machine track in the run for Christmas number one.

The star said it would be a devastating blow for the budding singer to fall victim of such a horrible campaign, adding that every single want to be star hopes to get a number one record.

But they are sure winners out of the fight: retailers and record company Sony. They must be thrilled with the enthusiasm and passion spurred by the quasi hateful move from the Facebook group, the movement which wants to alienate Simon Cowell and his X Factor by having the offspring of the show being blown by an underground classic.

At the time of writing, the songs had cumulated a total of 470,000 sales.

What the Facebook group doesn’t seem to realise is that they’ve managed to exasperate and contribute to the growth of what they appear to be fighting: commercial success. Their campaign is likely to end up blowing up in their own face, as it could be helping make the X Factor become more popular than ever and participate to its successful future as Cowell and his talent show dwell on controversy.