Proud faithful, this is it. This is the final X Factor liveblog of the year. Or, as you may prefer to call it, the 2014 X Factor final liveblog. Or some other combination of words. Look, I shouldn’t have to hold your hand through this. I’m not your dad.  Anyway, it’s all been leading up to this. Remember the first audition show of the year, back in what seems like but probably wasn’t January? We were so young back then. We had no idea that lovely hapless Stevi would end up as a monstrous Egyptian emperor, or that one of Addictiv Ladies would get a number one song, or that Andrea would demonstrate approximately zero musical progression whatsoever. We were so young back then. So young.  And, over the next two nights - over four hours of television - it all comes to a head. The three remaining X Factor finalists will duke it out in a merciless ad-supported battle to the death. One will leave tonight. One will fall at the final hurdle tomorrow. Whoever’s left will be crowned as the winner. On the way, there’ll be laughter. There’ll be tears. There’ll be – unless I’ve drastically misread things – Wagner. This, make no mistake, is the most important television event of the year. Until, you know, the screening of The Holiday straight after tomorrow’s episode.  The main thing is that we did it! Barring any last-minute catastrophes, we lasted the entire season. We’ve seen sausages and Nonnas and enough Skyping to fell a buffalo. We’ve seen, unless I’ve completely got the wrong end of the stick, two commenters literally fall in love. We’ve seen many others fall into alcoholic stupors. And we’ve seen all this together. We are a family now, bonded in the blood of mediocre singers. One last push and it’ll all be over. We can do this. The show starts at 8:30. ONLY THE YOUNG!
It looked like the competition was Fleur’s to lose – unless Ben could snatch the prize. Or would Andrea pull off an audacious, against-all-odds victory? Stuart Heritage watched part one of the final