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Ben’s tweet from yesterday – ”Playing guitar with JC on ‘Must Be The Music’ tomorrow on Sky 1 at 7pm 
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So make sure you tune in as you WONT want to miss it. SKY 1 7pm, Miss it. Miss out!!
So the LIVE shows kick off on Sunday, make sure you don’t miss a thing by getting your spot on the sofa and tuning in to Sky 1 at 7pm.
Make sure you check out the MBTM website for all the latest gossip from the show.
By Luke Lewis
Which is the best talent show on television right now, The X Factor or Must Be The Music? For some of you, that question will be akin to asking how you’d prefer to be waterboarded, with Evian or Volvic. But bear with me.
Must Be The Music, Sky’s take on the format, attracts a fraction of Simon Cowell’s audience on ITV. Yet it’s the better programme, and shows up The X Factor for the manipulative dreck that it is.
Happily, an anti-Cowell backlash is gathering pace. Viewers have expressed dismay at the alleged use of digital auto-tune to correct contestants’ vocals, while Lily Allen took to Twitter to declare the show “everything that I detest about modern western culture”. Expect this auto-tune story to run and run. It’s potentially the most controversial TV moment since Phil Mitchell started freebasing in his front room.
How is Must Be The Music better? OK, it’s hardly classic television. For a start, it’s presented by Fearne Cotton. Now, it’s become a cliché to mock Cotton’s ditzy presenting style, but in all seriousness the show’s producers could have achieved a similar level of insight had they daubed a wonky lipsticked mouth on to a paving slab and swung a boom mic at it.
But still. The crucial difference is that MBTM’s judges – Dizzee Rascal, Jamie Cullum and Sharleen Spiteri – are all talented musicians, as opposed to corporate svengalis like Cowell and Louis Walsh, who between them have hawked such memorable acts as Zig And Zag and Bellefire. In a first for reality TV judges, Dizzee and co are pretty likeable – which instantly elevates them above The X Factor’s firing squad of charmless, tin-hearted multi-millionaires.
Plus, whereas The X Factor has become insanely wedded to its formula (emotive backstory? String-laden ballad on the soundtrack?), MBTM delivers the odd surprise. Saturday’s episode featured a ludicrously attired synth-pop act called Legion Of Many, whose singer resembled Ming The Merciless trilling the hits of Mika. It’s a good thing they got through – it’s hard to look crestfallen when you’re wearing a giant feathered headdress.
Last week there was a solo folk singer called Emma’s Imagination whose performance was enormously moving. The acts are allowed to sing their own material rather than select covers from a Cowell-approved pop canon. Uniquely, the goal is not to sneer at the talentless and deluded. There’s genuine respect here, for viewers and performers.
Moreover, there’s a chance some of the contestants might actually make some money, since – once they get to the semi-finals – their songs will be available to download immediately. We could be looking at a homegrown Glee effect, whereby tunes from one programme swamp the singles charts.
Cultural apocalypse? Maybe. But you can see why it might be attractive for musicians. And it’s surely better than the X Factor model, whereby each year’s “stars” are shunted out the way in time for the new crop. Stacey Solomon, one of last year’s semi-finalists, was recently seen opening a branch of Quality Solicitors in Bristol.
Don’t forget to tune in this Sunday at 7pm on Sky 1 HD.
You can find all the latest news, gossip, videos and photos at the Must Be The Music Website on Twitter and on Facebook
Friday, August 20 2010, 17:28 BST
By Paul Millar, TV ReporterA 15-year-old pianist wowed the judges on this week’s Must Be The Music.
Dizzee Rascal, Sharleen Spiteri and Jamie Cullum all praised Kyle, whose piece was written by himself, inspired by his condition synesthesia.
Speaking before his audition, Kyle said: “I have this condition. When you hear music, you can see certain colours in your head.
“And I was watching a movie, and suddenly this piece of music came on, and it felt amazing, so I watched [people playing piano on] YouTube and I learned by watching their hands.”
Following the performance, Rascal said: “The fact is that you’re 15 and you composed that yourself. Basically, you’re a genius. We’re standing in front of a real-life genius on stage.”
Meanwhile, Sharleen commented: “The thing is there’s so much passion and belief and emotion in what you play is that you pulled everyone in.”
Cullum added: “You have such a beautiful touch, it’s so tender the way you play the piano, it’s mindblowing to me.”
Must Be The Music continues this Sunday at 7pm on Sky1.
Written By Paul Connolly – Dailymailonline
So, is Simon Cowell about to be toppled? Should the man with the hair that resembles an open book be reaching for his coat and heading for the exit? Is The X Factor finished?
The answer to all three questions is almost certainly ‘no’. But there are stirrings over at Sky.
It’s probably hyperbole to talk about a broadcaster having courage, but it must’ve taken the schedulers of Must Be The Music some pluck to debut their new talent show format just a week before the behemoth that is The X Factor returns to our screens.
Especially a show that is so winningly different, so much less patronising than The X Factor. The differences are quite stark.
For starters, Must Be The Music is open to all musicians, not just singers. Second, and this is a vital distinction, while the show does allow cover versions, it actively encourages the acts to perform original material.
So, not only do the better contestants tend to be musicians who have always made music, but Must Be The Music also rewards those who write their own songs.
Ambition, musical ability and creative talent? Crikey, whatever next?I’ll tell you what next. Must Be The Music has successful musicians for judges – jazz singer Jamie Cullum, Texas singer Sharleen Spiteri and rapper Dizzee Rascal. These are all people who know what it takes to succeed as a musician. What does The X Factor have? Kylie Minogue’s little sister, Dannii.
Given their own backgrounds, the judges also appear genuinely to care about the groups and singers competing for the £100,000 prize, so there’s much less of the rather unpleasant ‘let’s poke a stick at the freaks’ narrative that drives the early stages of The X Factor.
Ultimately, however, Must Be The Music feels British in a way that The X Factor never has. Those of us proud of the UK’s reputation as a hothouse for popmusic excellence have become increasingly vexed by Cowell’s betrayal of our pop culture.
One had only to watch the final of last year’s X Factor and the American singing voices adopted by both Joe McElderry and Olly Murs to realise that Cowell feels not a jot of pride that his home country has produced bands and acts as magical and exciting as The Beatles, Dusty Springfield, Blur and Radiohead.
Instead, his protegees, such as Leona Lewis and Alexandra Burke, look for inspiration to American caterwaulers such as Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston, singers who mistake multi-octave showiness for emotion.All the acts on Must Be The Music, from the muscular Britpop of Missing Andy’s Made In England to the quite wonderful folk of Emma Gillespie, were unashamedly British.
If The X Factor is the showbiz equivalent of McDonald’s, then Must Be The Music operates as the local British corner shop business, avowedly quirky and independent, and all the better for it.
22nd May 2012 at 7pm (UK)
Jamie plays an hour of jazz music ranging from its heritage to its future. This week, he features UK soul singer Alice Russell, producer and musician Quantic, and their full band the Combo Bárbaro in session at the BBC Maida Vale Studios.
BBC Radio 2
