"Have YOU got the X Factor?"
Do you want to be a star?
Do you want the whole wide World to know
Exactly who you are?

Is this something you have wanted
Since the day that you were born?
If you fail at any stages
Will you be sad and forlorn?

Have you worked the pubs and clubs and bars
For years? I'm guessing not
But you know that you can make it
On the talent that you've got

The industry is very tough
That is something we all know
But there's really tough auditions
Then there's Simon's little show

So lets start with the bad ones
Who think that they can sing
We all laugh at their audacity
But here's a little thing

When six rounds of auditions
They've been through before the show
They feel high upon their pedestal
Told six times to "have a go"

Told by many show researchers
They are "what we'd like to see"
So their fall from grace becomes so high
Just for evening TV

And then there are the skilled ones
That can knock out a great tune
But now they have so many
The cull can't come to soon

Once if you went to an audition
You could try and fail alone
But now, your reward for trying
Is beamed into every home

One minute you're "the next best thing"
You're "what this show is for"
But, wait we've found another one
So you're not wanted any more

But could they just tell you nicely?
Say you're great, but not quite right
No, a gladiatorial arena
Is what's needed Sunday night

They decide you have the voice they want
You are feeling on a high
Then the audience bay for your blood
Your swapped for another guy

An emotional roller coaster
You're put on for our delight
You are bullied, treated badly
And it really isn't right

The show is psychologically cruel
To those who have a dream
It lifts them up, just to dump them down
And it's getting quite obscene

And if you don't perform to plan
Stand your ground, or just don't care
Then the cutting room is where you end
Like you were never there

Or perhaps they want to justify
The way they've treated you
They can do it in the edit
With one misquote or two

What is worse is how we justify
This talent show gone wrong
"It's their fault, they took a short cut
To be famous for a song"

Somehow we think we have the right
To judge and hurl abuse
To tell a singer with a dream
They don't have any use

Each contestant's a parents child
They had lives before this show
And as they're booed off from the stage
Back to life they have to go

The rewards are quite astounding
Often best if you don't win
But the price has now become too high
With the lives they simply bin

So this is how our World is now?
Making people scared to try?
Being bullied just for ratings
The best are when they make them cry

But however much we think it's wrong
How we love when people shine
We will soon forget the ones at home
As we tune in, next week, same time