X Factor is an Italian television music competition to find new singing talent; the winner receives a € 300,000 recording contract with Sony Music. Before the start of the auditions process it was announced that Morgan and Mika would be confirmed as judges and mentors, whilst Victoria Cabello and Fedez have been chosen for replacing Simona Ventura and Elio in the role; also Alessandro Cattelan returned as host. The eighth season has been airing on Sky Uno since 18 September 2014.
Auditions for season 8 took place in Rome, Turin and Bologna in June 2014; bootcamp took place in Milan for two days, on 1 and 2 July. Unconfirmed rumors revealed that Mika will mentor the Over-25s, Fedez the boys, Cabello the girls and Morgan the groups; they selected their final three acts during judges' houses.
Lorenzo Fragola, a member of the category Boys and mentored by Fedez, was announced the winner of the competition on 11 December 2014. His winner's single, "The Reason Why", released at the end of the Semi-Final on 4 December, won a Gold Certification of sales.
The auditions were then broadcast on Sky Uno from 18 September to 2 October, and on Cielo from 21 September to 5 October.
Bootcamp
Bootcamp took place at Mediolanum Forum, Assago, over two days, on Tuesday 1 July and Wednesday 2 July; it was broadcast on 9 October on Sky Uno and on 12 October on Cielo.
Before Bootcamp, all the contestants who passed the auditions, were divided into two groups: the first one passed directly to the Bootcamp, since it was made by singers who fully convinced the judges; the other one was made by singers who didn't fully convince the judges, thus they had to face the “Room Auditions”. These were held into the Forum; the ones who succeeded in the Room Auditions, passed to the Bootcamp.
For the first time in Italy, besides the presence of spectators at the Bootcamp, to pick the six contestants from each category, the “Six Chair Challenge” was introduced: each judge has six chairs at their disposal and they can decide to make a contestant sit (thus passing them to the “Home Visit”) or not (eliminating them); if the chairs are all occupied, the judge of the specific category can decide to make a contestant stand up (eliminating them) and make the other sit on the chair. After the Bootcamp, 24 contestants passed to the Home Visit.
Judges' houses
The “Home Visit” is the final phase before the Live Shows. In this phase, the contestants who passed the Bootcamp had to perform one last time in front of their specific judge, in four different locations. At the end of this audition, the top twelve contestants were chosen.
The Home Visit took place in four different locations decided by each judge: Cabello chose London, Fedez chose Milan, Mika chose Motya and Morgan chose Vienna. Each judge was also helped by a guest to choose: The Bloody Beetroots for Cabello, Raphael Gualazzi for Fedez, Elio for Mika and Eugenio Finardi for Morgan. The Homevist took place around the end of July 2014.
Between the eliminated in this phase, those written in bold in the following chart were chosen by the judges for re-proposal. The four ones were then voted by the public who decided to bring Riccardo Schiara back in the competition during the second Liveshow.
The twelve eliminated acts were:
Boys: Dirty, Riccardo Schiara, Dario Guidi
Girls: Giorgia Bertolani, Carolina Faroni, Maria Faiola
25+: Alessio Bersaglini, Jade Angiolina Canali, Sarah Fargion
Cabello: Vivian Grillo - after a moment of hesitation, considered Magli's growth more interesting.
Mika: Vivian Grillo - agreed with Cabello's comments.
Fedez: Camilla Andrea Magli - considered Grillo more interesting.
Morgan: Camilla Andrea Magli - could not decide so chose to take it to deadlock.
With both acts receiving two votes each, the result went to deadlock and a new public vote commenced for 200 seconds. Camilla Andrea Magli was eliminated as the act with the fewest public votes.
Trivia: Songs assigned for this week suffered from censorship, talk about freedom of expression or are about controversial themes such as bullying or discrimination.
Morgan: Spritz For Five - abandoned the studio straight after he made his decision.
Cabello: Spritz For Five - followed their mentor's decision.
Mika: Komminuet - based on the final showdown performances.
Fedez: Komminuet - could not decide so chose to take it to deadlock.
With both acts receiving two votes each, the result went to deadlock and reverted to the earlier public vote. Spritz For Five eliminated as the act with the fewest public votes.
Trivia: Two rounds, on the first, each contestant brought a one-minute-snippet of a song they had previously sung and there was a direct elimination; on the second, each contestant brought a song picked by their mentors and there was a Final Showdown between the two least voted contestants.
Also, Morgan who in the previous week stated he would abandon the show, came back as the fourth judge.
Cabello: Leiner Riflessi – backed her own act, Vivian Grillo.
Fedez: Vivian Grillo – backed his own act, Leiner Riflessi.
Morgan: Leiner Riflessi – felt Riflessi could be commended more outside the show.
Mika: Vivian Grillo - felt Grillo was not at ease on stage but could not decide so chose to take it to deadlock.
With both acts receiving two votes each, the result went to deadlock and reverted to the earlier public vote. Vivian Grillo was eliminated as the act with the fewest public votes.
Trivia: Two rounds, on the first, each contestant sang a song chosen by their mentors; on the second, each contestant sang a song chosen from the ones voted by the public on-line.
Morgan: Mario Gavino Garrucciu - backed his own act, Komminuet.
Mika: Komminuet - backed his own act, Mario Gavino Garrucciu.
Cabello: Komminuet - said she always stood for Garrucciu.
Fedez: Mario Gavino Garriucciu - could not decide so chose to take it to deadlock.
With both acts receiving two votes each, the result went to deadlock and a new public vote commenced for 200 seconds. Komminuet were eliminated as the act with the fewest public votes.
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