Marcus mixes it with girl group
Little Mix and Marcus Collins will go head to head tonight in a bid to scoop the 'X Factor' crown.
The girl band and the Liverpudlian singer will battle it out in the second instalment of the show’s final, after Amelia Lily fell at the final hurdle.
The 17-year-old comeback kid got the lowest number of votes from the public following two performances last night and was booted out of the competition.
Little Mix and their mentor Tulisa Contostavlos screamed and leapt in the air before hugging each other as their names were called as the first act to go through to tonight’s show by host Dermot O’Leary.
The band, made up of Jade Thirlwall, 18, Perrie Edwards, also 18, Jesy Nelson, 20, and Leigh-Anne Pinnock, 19, have made history by becoming the first girl band to make it to the show’s final.
Collins, a 23-year-old hairdresser from Crosby, was swung round in the air by his mentor Gary Barlow when O’Leary said his name.
After learning she was going home, Amelia, from Nunthorpe in Middlesbrough, vowed that this “wasn’t the last of Amelia Lily”.
She said: “Can I just say thank you to everyone who voted me back into the competition. My ambition was to get to the final and I did it.”
In another first for the talent show, the finalists all teamed up with their mentors on stage to perform in front of the 10,000-strong audience at London’s Wembley Arena.
Collins said his duet of Billy Joel’s 'She’s Always A Woman To Me' with Barlow was dedicated to his mother who he “couldn’t have done it without”.
Following the performance Barlow said: “Marcus has been incredible. One of the great things about Marcus is he listens and he takes on board everything you say and he comes back next week even better.”
Little Mix sang an Alicia Keys medley of 'If I Ain’t Got You' and 'Empire State Of Mind' with Tulisa as their “fifth member”.
Tulisa described the four girls as “true, honest, genuine and talented” and said they “deserve this more than anyone”.
The final pair to perform were Amelia and her mentor Kelly Rowland, who sang the soul classic 'River Deep – Mountain High'.
Amelia said singing with Rowland was “one of the best moments of my life”, while the American judge called her “a born superstar”.
Earlier, the three contestants each gave a solo performance.
Collins sang Outkast’s 'Hey Ya' in front of a fake jumbo jet with backing dancers dressed as air hostesses and runway controllers.
Little Mix arrived on stage on the back of motorbikes to sing their version of Candi Staton’s 'You’ve Got the Love'.
The girls, who had never met before being put together as a band, are representing different parts of the UK within the group with Jesy from Essex, Leigh-Anne from London and Jade and Perrie from Newcastle.
Amelia, who reached the final despite being voted off by her mentor in the first week of live shows, sang Christina Aguilera’s 'Ain’t No Other Man'.
The student returned to the competition when a public vote brought her back to replace disgraced Frankie Cocozza, who was booted off after boasting he had used cocaine.
The live show featured performances from a host of chart-topping bands including JLS, One Direction, Leona Lewis and Michael Buble.
The winner will be announced in the live show tonight at 7.30pm.
