CHAPTER 126
Saturday - Day 1 of the Final
The next morning, Finn woke up at 9 am and opened his phone to find 'Good Luck' messages from literally everyone he knew. That's when he remembered: the Final was today! All of his work in the past ten weeks (hell, his whole life!) culminated in this moment. It was hands down the most important performance of Finn's entire life.
He went downstairs for breakfast and as he expected, Ella was the only one present. Christopher had already eaten and the rest of the finalists were pretty hungover so weren't awake yet. Finn slid into the booth opposite Ella and she smiled at him. One thing that made the nerve wracking performance a bit later was that he wasn't worried about sabotage or hate from his competitors. Ella was one of his best friends and he knew that whoever won the competition, there wouldn't be any hard feelings between them.
"Hey." Finn said.
"Hey, man. How'd you sleep?" Ella asked.
"Better than I thought I would. I thought I'd be hella nervous, but honestly, I'm more excited than anything else."
"I know right!" Ella exclaimed. "Like when will I have the chance to perform with Beyonce in front of 40 thousand people ever again?"
"Yeah, so true. And if you told me 5 years that I'd be performing Feeling Good with Michael Buble in the final of the biggest music competition in the world, I'd probably tell you to fuck off and go away to be honest."
Ella laughed.
"Kinda true, not gonna lie. Wait… you're singing Feeling Good with Buble?"
Finn nodded.
"Yeah."
"Ooh, that's tough. It could go really well or horribly badly. Like really badly. Like being booed by the whole arena bad."
"Wow, that's just what I needed to think about." Finn remarked. Ella laughed.
"Oh I'm sorry!" Ella exclaimed. Finn laughed.
"It's cool."
After breakfast, all three finalists were ordered on vocal rest until the evening, so it was pretty interesting for Finn to try to communicate with his friends when he was handing them their tickets. Eventually, the clock struck 5 and it was time to get ready…
First up was the hair and wardrobe studio. All 18 of the contestants were in the hair salon at the same time. Finn was sitting in between Jade and Kye so he listened in to the conversations they were having with their respective barber/hairdresser, unable to contribute to much as he had to keep talking to a minimum.
"So Jade, how was it to be back?" The hairdresser asked her.
"It's really, really good. I'm so happy to be back with everyone. It's a great atmosphere."
"So, who did you miss the most?" The hairdresser asked.
"Um… I'll have to say Finn and Ella, but I love everyone."
"Finn, what do you have to say about that? Seems like some people actually missed you!" The hairdresser joked. Finn blew an air kiss at Jade in reply.
"So, Finn, you feeling good?" His barber asked.
Finn nodded in reply, still not speaking.
"You excited?" He asked. Finn gave a thumbs up in reply and they turned to Kye who was chatting with his respective barber.
"So Kye, what was your highlight of your X Factor journey?"
"Probably meeting everyone and all the fun times we had. Finn, Union J and I had really fun late night poker games. I loved those."
"Finn, Ella and Christopher are in the final tonight. Who's your money on?"
"Well definitely between Finn and Ella and I don't care which of them. I don't care because I know they're both going to do absolutely amazing and it doesn't matter at this point. They're both GOING to get countless record deals after the competition so they're just playing for pride at this point."
Their hair finished shortly after so they all changed into their performance clothes. They would all be performing the group number together, and there would be some guest superstars performing, but it would obviously be Ella, Finn and Christopher ruling the show.
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
"America, this is it! Your X Factor final starts right here in New York City!" Dermott exclaimed. The finalists were all backstage, ready to perform their group number to open the evening up with a bang. "2018 has been a year of great finals but for Ella, Finn, and Christopher, this is the big one. They've seen off thousands and now it's a three way battle and what a contest! They have to sing the performances of their lives to win, which means impressing the canniest, sharpest, ballsiest judges of them all. It's all down to YOU. In twenty four hours, your votes alone will decide the winner of the X Factor 2018! But first, I know that in 3 weeks time, a man will be dropping down your chimney to deliver you all presents but in case you can't wait until them, I have four beautifully gift wrapped presents for you all. It's the X Factor judges!"
The four judges, dressed in their most formal wear, walked on stage for the penultimate time and took their place at the oh so familiar judges' table.
"All right. Let's kick things off with a bang. New York get ready, America get ready, with flashing lights and a whole lot more, it's the X Factor live finalists!"
Rylan:
We, we don't have to worry 'bout nothing
'Cause we got the fire, and we're burning one hell of a something
They, they gonna see us from outer space, outer space
Light it up, like we're the stars of the human race, human race
Union J and District3:
When the light started out they don't know what they heard
Strike the match, play it loud, giving love to the world
We'll be raising our hands, shining up to the sky
'Cause we got the fire, fire, fire
Yeah we got the fire, fire, fire
Lucy:
And we gonna let it burn, burn, burn, burn
We gonna let it burn, burn, burn, burn
Gonna let it burn, burn, burn, burn
We gonna let it burn, burn, burn, burn
Melanie:
We don't wanna leave, no. We just wanna be right now (right), r-r-right now
And what we see is everybody's on the floor acting crazy, getting loco 'til the lights out
Music's on, I'm waking up, we fight the fire, then we burn it up
And it's over now, we got the love, there's no sleeping now, no sleeping now, no sleeping
Union J:
When the light started out they don't know what they heard
Strike the match, play it loud, giving love to the world
We'll be raising our hands, shining up to the sky
Kye:
'Cause we got the fire, fire, fire
Yeah we got the fire, fire, fire
Jahmene:
And we gonna let it burn, burn, burn, burn
We gonna let it burn, burn, burn, burn
Gonna let it burn, burn, burn, burn
We gonna let it burn, burn, burn, burn
Jade:
When the light started out they don't know what they heard
Strike the match, play it loud, giving love to the world
All:
We gonna let it burn burn burn burn (burn burn)
Burn burn burn burn (burn burn)
We can light it up, up, up
So they can't put it out, out, out
We can light it up, up, up
So they can't put it out, out, out
We can light it up, up, up
So they can't put it out, out, out
We can light it up, up, up
So they can't put it out, out, out
When the light started out they don't know what they heard
Strike the match, play it loud, giving love to the world
We'll be raising our hands, shining up to the sky
'Cause we got the fire, fire, fire
Yeah we got the fire, fire, fire
Finn, Ella and Christopher:
And we gonna let it burn, burn, burn, burn
We gonna let it burn, burn, burn, burn
Gonna let it burn, burn, burn, burn
We gonna let it burn, burn, burn, burn
All:
When the light started out they don't know what they heard
Strike the match, play it loud, giving love to the world
We'll be raising our hands, shining up to the sky
'Cause we got the fire, fire, fire
Yeah we got the fire, fire, fire
And we gonna let it burn
"Ladies and Gentlemen… your X Factor live finalists and your final 3!" Dermott shouted over the cheers of the 40,000 people in the arena. "Final 3, how are you feeling. Finn, what an arena for you. How are you feeling, mate?"
"Absolutely honored to be here. I just want to say thank you to everyone who has voted for me in the past and is voting for me tonight."
"And Ella, what is it like for you?"
"It's exciting. It's really exciting. I'm just excited to perform." Ella replied.
"And Christopher, how are those nerves holding up?"
"Um… okay. Just about, just about. But this is the best experience of my life. I feel so humbled and grateful to be here."
"All right everyone. Give it up for your X Factor final 3!"
The three finalists walked off stage together and into the greenroom, while the other 9 acts when and took their seats on the balcony VIP level of the arena.
"What a big night for those three! So, if you want to have your say in any of their performances, get involved by voting on behalf of your favourite. Every vote counts and it could mean earning your favourite competitor that prestigious $1 million record deal. Now, after a short break, the performances will commence…"