‘The X Factor’ UK preview: Joseph Whelan returns!

Remember Joseph Whelan? The singer made it to the bootcamp stage of “The X Factor” UK last year, only to be eliminated then prior to getting to the final stage before the live shows. He’s quite a talent, and someone who does have the potential to get further in the competition with the right songs. That’s the key there: With the right songs. Probably more so than any other person on this show, he’s a guy who is going to tank if he ends up picking the wrong songs to accompany him.

Luckily, his audition below is pretty good, and it’s a good thing that the judges had already seen him before (or at least three of them). Otherwise, we’re sure that they would not have let his kid come in and sit with Nicole Scherzinger. After all, there’s nothing worse than putting your kid through mass humiliation. Now that he has been through this wringer, the experience should help him to deal with some of the nerves that tend to overwhelm once you get to a certain point in this competition.

The bad news for the show at this point seems to be that there are a ton of past contestants this year, maybe even more than ever before. If most of this talent wasn’t good enough in past years, is it really so strong that it is worthy of winning in the end? The majority of the past winners never auditioned for the show more than once, and even if you look at “American Idol,” the majority of their contestants are those who only have one go under their belt.

Do you think Joseph is better this year? Compare him to some of the other artists this year at the link here, and we want to hear your thoughts below to the following question: Are you worried at all this year about the number of returning artists?

Photo: ITV