Kay’s spoof single outsells the real thing
Monday, October 20th, 2008
She wowed Sir Paul McCartney with a particularly rousing edition of the Home and Away theme tune and won over the judges by singing a bold medley that combined Special AKA’s “Free Nelson Mandela” with Rihanna’s “Umbrella” last week. Now, just eight days after comedian Peter Kay’s alter-ego, aka the overweight Northern Irish transsexual Geraldine McQueen, performed “The Winner’s Song” on her spoof talent show Britain’s Got The Pop Factor and Possibly a New Celebrity Jesus Christ Soapstar Superstar Strictly On Ice, the single has shot to number two in the UK Charts missing the top spot by just a few thousand sales, which was claimed by the pop-punk star Pink for the third week running.
The Peter Kay’s joke record, co-written by former Take That singer Gary Barlow, marked a stunning victory over shimmering produced pop, beating the real winner of The X-Factor in last night’s singles chart. The single pokes fun at the rags-to-riches imagery evoked by talent shows with the lyrics: “I started with nothing / Now I have something / I proved them all they were wrong”.
The pop ballad “Don’t Call this Love” by real X-Factor winner Leon Jackson, who triumphed in last year’s contest, was predicted to reach number one by a long shot. However, Simon Cowell and his crew hadn’t bargained on Kay’s contribution – a sting in the tail for popular talent-show offerings. The Official UK Charts Company announced last night that Jackson had come third, in spite of heavy marketing efforts and a live performance on last week’s prime time X-Factor slot.
To Kay’s fans, his chart success is a victory for the comedian, and a sharp lesson to D-list glory hunters. To X-factor lovers it must be highly irritating that an overweight comedian dressed as a woman should have beaten fresh faced Scotsman Jackson to number two.
Geraldine sent her own consolatory message to Jackson. “Leon is a lovely wee boy, he’s a Scottish Michael Buble. There’s enough room for everybody,” she said. “I never knew he had a song because I’ve been in hospital all week - he’s not number one though is he? Isn’t it Pink? I love Pink, although I wouldn’t like to get on the wrong side of her.”
Giddy from yesterday’s success, “Geraldine” has announced she will be releasing a second Christmas single, planned to rival year’s X-factor contribution.
October 21st, 2008 at 8:51 am
I wonder who’s buying it - is it the same people who buy X-Factor tracks, being all post modern & knowingly ironic or is it the rest of us trying to mock the X-Factor fans..?