I literally saw tweets on the second night saying people would rather vote Matt because he was British and Saara should go home, dont let the foreigner win etc

With such a small margin I 100% believe there was a factor of nationality persuading people to vote for the 'home act'

Nicole encouraged it on night one and many fans called it out.

Isn't it just one foreign act in how many series? and lets not pretend tgere wasn't an outcry over it.

9/10 BGT winners are from the UK and the other one is a foreigner and you are right people did moan about it.

I saw loads of these too "i'm not being xenophobic here but it's not right Saara winning a UK show" like it shouldn't really matter

this is why I prefer euro vision because we get none of that

I've seen tweets of homophobia and racism, doesn't mean everyone's like that.

Twitter isn't everyone.

Oh leave Marsh!

Nobody is saying twitter is everyone or that EVERYONE thinks in such a pathetic way, some prefered Matt and that's fine (although I don't get it) I am just pointing out what I saw and it wasn't one incident either, saw a lot of it.

People flat out saying things like 'best vote matt so the yodler doesnt win', 'vote Matt #### dont let a foreign person win' and the worst I saw was basically saying **** off home

I think it's best to take an intersectional approach to analysing this, lord knows my thoughts on Brexit Britain, but it seems a bit reductive to blame her defeat solely on that.

It of course will have played a part, but so too will others factors. She reprised the wrong song, it's irrelevant whether she came second after doing it the first time around, The Winner Takes It All was her 'moment' and the chance to show off her vocal range. Matt getting to sing a song that's featured on the most anticipated advert of the year for no reason at all wouldn't have helped matters either, that's a massive pimping if I ever saw one. And then of course vote transfers from 5AM, along with casual voters/Middle England will have played a part.

It's hard to say whether she'd have won given different song choices, but I do think the gap would've been significantly smaller (it was surprisingly large given how close it was on the Saturday). I also think it's interesting to consider how a better duet partner for 5AM may have carried them through, and subsequently presented her with an easier path to victory. We'll never really know.

Saara had I don't know my own strength which realistically THAT felt like a winning moment, it should have won her the competition. That song was a strong powerful choice.

I didn't watch the whole series through but tbf Matt had a really good voice too, who is "better" is completely subjective

Her Whitney performance was great, yes, but is it the song (and arrangement of, for that matter) that's featured on this year's John Lewis advert? No, and given 95% of the viewers probably wrongly assumed that was going to be his winner's single, I think that would've put him at a huge advantage

If you take the whole series into consideration, Saara clearly is better. But based on the finals alone, Saara definitely wasn't at her best.

It's still subjective though, that's just your opinion. She may have preformed more flawlessly but the doesn't mean people will like her voice more :shrug:

he does but it didn't really go anywhere for me. but as I said Saara's second song should have won it her because she sang it amazingly well and it felt like it was her winners moment, I didn't really get that with Matt. during the finale there is always that winners moment, Leona Lewis - All by myself, Alexandra Burke ft Beyonce - Listen, Louisa Johnson - It's a mans world etc.

I thought Purple Rain did it for him Cherie,I really liked that.

Because 90 per cent of the acts are British :laugh: everyone moans about everything these days, just moaning for the sake of moaning...I'm not sure what all the fuss is about she will get a deal and finishing 2nd hasn't done 1D, JOS, Olly Murs any harm

I loved it too. I didn't vote though even on the free app

Danielle Lloyd will do anything for a little bit of attention. :bored:

I agree though, I couldn't predict just how many but I'm sure a lot of votes for Matt were those who quite plainly just didn't want Saara to win.

I honestly think it was just down to 5AM voters switching to the only other act they would like... another "attractive" male act. It seems quite straight forward when you look at the number of votes recieved (it was something like 3.5 million on the Saturday which means 5AM had 500,000 to 600,000 of those votes which is almost the exact amount of votes Matt beat Saara by.

5AM would have knocked Matt out had they had The Weeknd :fist:

Quite possibly. I think Matt's votes would just go to them on the Sunday though so I think Saara was screwed either way. The fact that she only lost by 8% is pretty good considering she had the whole "not being British" thing going on for her. Maybe she would have stood a chance if Emily had made the final instead of Matt.

Absolute bollocks.

Because UK reality shows have never had foreign winners.

This. If the viewers are so xenophobic, the girl wouldn't have made it anywhere near the final.

No it's not at all. I'd debate it further but if that's as much as you have to say then I'd be wasting my time.

Also in response to your reply to Luke, yes they have...and people have gone mad about it.