‘The X Factor’ UK final: Sharon Osbourne, Saara Aalto laugh about Finnish vote controversy

There have certainly been some tabloid stories revolving around “The X Factor” UK out there over the past couple of weeks, and the biggest one is simply about whether or not there are some illegal votes coming in for the competition from Saara Aalto’s home country of Finland. The rumors are that voters have figured out a way to hack into the app in the country and send some votes her way. She has become the favorite to win over the past couple of weeks, and with that, conspiracy theorists are starting to wonder if this is a big reason way.

Our assumption has always been that even if there are hackers, they make up such a small percentage of the vote that they wouldn’t have that great of an impact — and that’s something that Saara’s own mentor Sharon Osbourne echoed (in a way that only Sharon can) to the Daily Star:

“You’re talking about millions of votes that would come in for X Factor there are only five million people in Finland. I’m sure two million Finnish people aren’t these voters. These votes are coming from the UK. Maybe 20 nerds that know how to break through firewalls, good for them!”

Meanwhile, Saara herself said that “you should be a really good nerd to do that.” We don’t think that this controversy is really that big of a deal, and the one thing we fear more than anything else is that there are some impressionable voters out there who don’t vote for her because they think somehow that the competition is unfair. To everyone with this mindset, don’t think that way. Things are still very much fair, and Saara’s not doing anything that she shouldn’t. She’s just trying to win! (As of right now, we have her ranked #2 in our own contestant rankings.)

Also, it should be noted that the show continues to deny that there are any problems with vote-hacking or tampering in any way. Keep that in mind going into Sunday’s performance show. (Photo: ITV.)