Ok last weekend I attended the JFactor event in North West London and had a blast. I was commissioned to document the show, so I was working while enjoying the show. Now I bet you are wondering what is JFactor? Surely you mean the XFactor right? No I mean JFactor as in Jesus Factor, basically a Gospel inspired version of the XFactor.
Here’s a LINK to the JFactor website. The event has been growing from strength to strength and is in its 3rd year. I lifted this from the about section of the site;
“J-Factor is a successful gospel talent show, founded by a group of young professionals eager to see talented people encouraged and nurtured. This year’s forthcoming competition marks the third of its kind running since 2007. J-Factor aims to discover, nurture and showcase the vocal talents of aspiring singers whilst providing them with a launch pad to the music industry; much of our activities are currently done under the auspices of Jesus House, London.”
Before the competition I was commissioned to create portrait images for all 8 finalists. Hmmm……….. What to do? What to do? After some thought, I decided to shoot the photos in a nearby park in Northwest London (Brent reservoir park). Due to time constraints I had just over an hour and a half to create shoot the portraits ARRGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And furthermore I was at the mercy of the British weather which threatened to rain quite a few times. With a little sweat and the help of the JFactor team we were able to pull it off.
The 8 finalists all had great voices which made the competition very tight. On a whole the competition was well put together and the evening had a great atmosphere. Kudos to the JFactor team, who put on a hell of show (forgive the pun).
My niggles with the show ………………… yes I am going there.
The start time was supposed to be 6pm but African time was in full effect and hence the show started at 7pm ……………. WOW a whole hour late. We Africans need to get out of this African time mentality, we will never be taken seriously if we don’t keep to time.
The songs were a bit too long, in my humble opinion the songs need to be short and sweet. First verse, bridge it and then wrap it up. All the contestants sang every bit of the songs, seriously not needed.
Last niggle, most of the contestants choose the wrong songs which didn’t suit their voices. Also they kept picking obscure, unknown songs. If you want to hit it off with any crowd, pick songs everybody else knows, it creates a connection with your audience. Pick an unknown and the audience can’t relate or even sing along.
Fallon Farris (in orange in the line up) won the competition ……………….. yes her name sounds like a popstar already. She’s one heck of a talent with a very engaging personality that comes through in her performances; she was really a joy to watch. Bim Amoako-Gyampah was another stand out performer and the best voice in the competition. Kudos to her for picking all the right songs that suited her voice, her rendition of Beyonces Halo was one of the shows highlights.
I am looking forward to JFactor 2010.
