Croydon's Ben Haenow gives Advertiser readers an exclusive sneak peak behind the doors of the X Factor house in his weekly blog about life on the show...
It's very, very sparse in the house now after last week's double elimination [Lola Saunders and Jake Quickenden were voted out] – you get a lot more space on your own, which I suppose in some respects is a good thing, because you get to concentrate more on what you are doing.
However, you miss everyone who goes, and it's all my mates who appear to be getting voted out – I think I might be a bit of a curse.
It's a massive, massive house, six people have gone now and you do notice it a lot more.
The guys in the house are friends that hopefully I've made for life. Particularly Jake, Jack and Lola – they are three people I've really got on with.
They've been out doing gigs and they've been really busy, but when we get the chance we are always texting and checking up on each other.
I've been fitted for a new suit this week, and it's a really really nice one – I don't normally wear a nice suit, unless I'm appearing in court, which obviously I never have!
There's not been too much going on overall – we just been preparing for tomorrow night, and I got to spend some time with my family in Croydon, so that's been really nice.
I have been pampered – I've had my lashes dyed and everything – they needed to be a little bit darker and they certainly are now!
This week is Michael Jackson or Queen, and I'll be singing Man in the Mirror by the King of Pop himself. I'm a big fan of Jackson and I really like Queen as well, so it was quite a difficult one for me to choose.
I did a really rocky number last week (Back in Black by AC/DC), and I thought it would be a good idea to really strip it back this week and do something a little bit different.
Simon has said that I should try and connect with the lyrics and make it more of an emotional performance. Jealous Guy was quite a swaggery and groovy song, obviously Back in Black was a rocky one and Aerosmith's was a rocky ballad.
But this week we wanted to make it a bit different, and that's really the reason for stripping this one back and trying to get a bit more emotion out of the performance.
Last week was probably my favourite show – I enjoyed it the most, and to get the four good comments and no real bad feedback was brilliant, and that's obviously what we're aiming to do week after week.
But this week I'm getting back to showing off my voice, rather than belting the song out and running around the stage.
On a local note, I found out this week that a local guy has created a special sausage and named it after me!
I love sausages, and that's definitely something I can get on board with, and from someone from the local area to do something like that, it's absolutely brilliant.
