Mary is the best over 25/28 ever
 

Yeah she just is, even better than Ruth. Had a crap week last week but apart from that has given the best performances week in week out

Wagner a close second obviously

ruth had 1 bad week imo where as i think mary has had 2 bad weeks out of 5.

I really liked Ruth Lorenzo, I think she was very underrrated,for me she would be better than Mary but Mary does have a great voice especially on dramatic numbers though.

i like Mary's voice but I do believe she would have been better suited to the britains got talent audience and grand prize rather than a recording artist for the pop markets

Ruth was my fave over ever, loved her voice, her style, her attitude and her fight, thought she was brill

No way!!

Brenda had a more diverse voice and a much better personality. Andy, Ruth....Im sure I could think of several more if I tried but Ive made the point.

First two weeks she did well with the standards. But past 3 weeks she's gone from bad to worse. Shouldve been bottom two sunday but brought out the sob story and tears.

Nuh-Uh... Ruth Lorenzo...

*hopes this is a joke*

Mary is great.
She did have a 'repeat' (though it was a perfect or nearly better redux) and yes she had a bad night.

Mary's 'bad night' was still as good or better than anyone else besides Matt and Rebecca. So yes.. she is quite great.

Oh please.

Ruth > Brenda > Maria > Dionne > Robert > Rowetta > Danyl > Mary > rest.

Gonna have to disagree with you there Tom... Mary's audition was amazing; her performances on the first two live shows were excellent, and then with the third live show she fully exposed herself as a one trick pony with no desire to change things up - something she was forced to do anyway, and has failed at for two weeks running. She's gone from looking like one of the firm favourites to elimination fodder in the next couple of weeks in my eyes; I think if she was in the bottom two, Simon Cowell would send her home/force a deadlock situation for definite.

I think it all depends on this weeks performance, if she redeems herself i think she will be ok but she needs to up the game a bit for herself, not my favourite contestant but she has a great voice and hope she isn't a one trick pony and surprises us all.

Agree.
She has been amazing but the 'repeat' and the follow-up weaker night has left her in a sort of nowhere-land and candidate for elimination in a few weeks,
but,
yeah, she does have a great voice and could turn it all around with just one or more excellent nights.

I loved Rowetta! She brought the drama and the voice.

I just think she shouts most of the time. Jane Mcdonald strike 2, not as wacky and weird as SuBo.

Jamie, Olly, Chico & Danyl > the rest

Mary is just an old fashioned working men's club singer. She can't sing anything but old Tom Jones/Shirley Bassey songs. That's no good.

I prefer Danyl and Ruth

Not only is it good... it is what makes her better.

MARY FTW!!

She'd definitely be in the top 10; but nowhere near the best..

I think she'll be the biggest over 25 there's ever been.

I love Mary but has to be Ruth Sex On Legs Lorenzo

Disagree.. I thought Brenda Edwards, Danyl Johnson, Ruth Lorenzo, Andy Abrahams and Maria Lawson were much better:D.

I hope Mary and Wagner go next.

Danyl and Ruth>>>>>>>>>>>>>.Mary

Danyl and Ruth were way better.

She's had two poor weeks now.

It's because till 7 is not working:(.

Those saying she is a one trick pony are talking complete BS and lapping up what Simon + co say. Almost all of them have sung the same style week in week out and Mary's Could It Be Magic was one of the better performances on that particular live show

People are forgetting the bottom line here, she can actually sing. Vocally shes one of the best people ever on the show, but for other people who are apparently better its their whole manner and performance that makes them good, not their voice. It was Ruth's fight that made her quite popular, as a vocalist she wasn't that good.

No chance, Ruth is the best over 25 to ever be on the show!

Erm, no...

I'm not lapping anything up - Mary herself showed no interest in changing up her style, and her performances have been stale for the past three weeks. She's not "one of the best people ever on the show" - her voice isn't particularly strong as shown by the difficulties she had in performing There You'll Be. Obviously everyone has their own opinion, and my opinion is that Mary was the worst in week 4 (with Could It Be Magic). She is my definition of a one trick pony, and I say this as someone who loved her first audition and genuinely likes her as a person.

As for your comments about Ruth - I thought she was fantastic because of her voice, and I'm pretty sure everyone else in this thread is giving names based on their voice too... Anyway, it comes down to opinion of course, but I thought your post was a bit OTT and untrue.

What I see here is your sort of 'cultural bias' or 'ageism' in the sense you can easily discern between a Lady-Gaga song, a Madonna song or whatever modern pop songs are.
When you hear Mary.. to you that is all 'that style'. You don't appreciate any difference between an Aretha or a Tom Jones or a ... to 'your mind' those are 'all those style'.
The same thing.
In the same way you see Thai tourists, Japanese businessmen and 'to your eyes' they are 'all those people'.
They are 'All the same to me'.

Now... Mary did not 'gain' anything doing a repeat song. Not a 'loss' so much as not gaining anything I agree with that.
Yes she is one of the best people ever on the show. She has captured the imagination of a nation and everyone loves her.

Yes, her voice is VERY STRONG. By far the strongest this season if you want power and substance (actually Treyc was good there too),
and,
I think what happened here is that she has been SO GOOD that when you saw her struggle (and no more than about 4 others) you saw it as some 'relatively' dramatic failure.
Even at her worst Mary was still better than half the contestants.


Sure but your opinion is wrong :p

Agree with all of that! Mary has the strongest voice in the compettition. FACT. Not exactly the best but close but she is still ****ing immense.

100% categorically correct.

What does 'change up her style' even mean?:conf: Can you imagine anyone telling Barbra Streisand or Bette Midler to 'change up your style' :joker:
Or would it be what Cher's been doing.......a karaoke version of Jay-z and a children's choir one week was 'changed up' to a karaoke version of Jay-z and Alicia Keyes the next.

She's a hairs up on the back of your neck power ballad singer belter. That just is what she is. She's had a few bad weeks and she's not my favourite act, but the suggestion that she should change what's she's doing is ludicrous to my ears.

I like Mary but she makes me fall asleep.. she is pretty dull :sleep::sleep:

rowetta, maria, brenda, dionne, kerry, beverly, nikki, rachael, ruth,

failiest thread ever

ummm mary is one of the worst lmao

Olly, Danyl, Ruth, Brenda, Maria, Andy, Beverly and Nikki are the best

Mary is probably in the worst 5

Nope, that title belongs to Danyl Johnson.

No over 25/28 will ever come close to Brenda or Ruth.

I'm offended that you concluded that from my post. My point is that Mary stood on the stage giving three performances that all merge into one in my head. That's not commenting on how good/bad she was; it was just a simple observation that for three weeks in a row, her performances were delivered in the same way. In stark contrast; other over 25s have given a variety of different performances that stood out over the years - whereas with Mary, she, in my mind, has undermined herself by giving three near enough identical performances, then two pretty dire ones afterwards. Had she done week 1, week 4, week 2, week 3, week 5 in that order; then weeks 1, 2 and 3 would have been stand out performances that blew the competition out of the water; but she hasn't, so that's where my point of view comes from. The judges' comments are to a similar effect, so I don't think I'm alone in thinking that.

As for your comments about me not appreciating the difference between a Tom Jones and an Aretha Franklin performance - that's extremely condescending, presumptuous and offensive - as are your comments about Oriental people.

She's hardly captured the imagination of the nation; and not everyone loves her. Personally, I like her, I think she's a very down to earth likable woman, but you only need to look around this section of the website to find that a few people find her grating. Mary's is one of the strongest this year, but that doesn't say much when her competition includes Katie, Cher, One Direction, Wagner... Again, your assumptions about who I am as a person and "my reasons" for whatever you think it is I think are completely unfounded and aren't true: She has been, on the whole, a very good singer; but her performances have been too similar for too long, and she's been exposed as a one trick pony. That isn't a bad thing, because she is really good at what she does - but in relation to the original post about whether she's the best over 25 - to me means she's not the best, there have been better. We've had so many great singers on the X Factor; to distinguish them they need to have something else to stand out, for me, standing on a stage, stationary, wearing a floaty black dress and being unwilling to try something different is a weakness.