Your Face Sounds Familiar (British TV series)

Your Face Sounds Familiar is a British talent show based on the Spanish series of the same name (a more formal translation would be "Your Face Looks Familiar" however the chosen title achieved a unique and relevant play on words). The show began on 29 June 2013 on ITV and ended on 3 August 2013. The show was co-presented by Alesha Dixon and Paddy McGuinness, whilst the judging panel consisted of Emma Bunton, Julian Clary, and a different guest judge in each episode. Guest judges included Cilla Black, Donny Osmond, Denise van Outen, Kian Egan, and Peter Andre.[1][2]

Your Face Sounds Familiar
GenreTalent show
Based onTu cara me suena
Directed byNick Harris
Julian Smith
Presented byAlesha Dixon
Paddy McGuinness
JudgesEmma Bunton
Julian Clary
Various guest judges
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series1
No. of episodes6
Production
Executive producersNic McNeilis
David Staite
Running time75 minutes (inc. adverts)
Production companyInitial
Original release
NetworkITV
Release29 June (2013-06-29) –
3 August 2013 (2013-08-03)
Related
Your Face Sounds Familiar
Stars in Their Eyes

The show involved six celebrities (actors, television personalities and sportsmen) portraying various iconic singers each week to win £10,000 for their chosen charity. The winner of the series was actress Natalie Anderson; she received the £50,000 grand prize for her charity.

On 3 August 2013, Anderson was announced as the series winner.[3] She also won Week 2, 3 and 5 of the competition (as Britney Spears, Kate Bush, and Bonnie Tyler, respectively) collecting £10,000 for each of those weeks. In total, she won £80,000 for her chosen charity over the six weeks. The other weekly winners were Cheryl Fergison, who won the first week as Dusty Springfield and Matt Johnson, winner of the fourth week as Freddie Mercury. Both received £10,000 for their charities.

Format

edit

The show challenged celebrities to perform as different iconic music artists every week, which were chosen by the show's "Randomiser". They were then judged by the panel of celebrity judges including Emma Bunton and Julian Clary. Each week, one celebrity guest judge joined Bunton and Clary to make up the complete judging panel. During the series, the celebrities were trained by vocal coach Yvie Burnett.

Each celebrity became transformed into a different singer each week, and performed an iconic song and dance routine well known by that particular singer. The 'randomiser' could choose any older or younger artist available in the machine, or even a singer of the opposite sex (except in week one), or a deceased singer, but it picked three out and the contestant then pressed the button to 'spin' the randomiser which selects their next singer.

Voting

edit

The contestants were awarded points from the judges (and each other) based on their singing and dance routines. 15p from each viewer public vote was split equally between six chosen charities.

Judges award their points (up to 10 each, making a possible grand total of 30) to the contestants, while the contestants had to give 5 points to a fellow contestant of their choice (these are known as "Bonus" points) after all have performed. The total score of each contestant was then counted by summing the points from judges and contestant's voting with the points from the televoting.

Whoever was at the top of the leaderboard at the end of the each show, after the combination of the judges' and public votes, received a £10,000 cash prize for a charity of their choice and a further £50,000 grand prize for the "series champion" in the final week.

Episode list

edit
Show Original air date Weekly guest judge
1 29 June 2013 Donny Osmond
2 6 July 2013 Cilla Black
3 13 July 2013 Peter Andre
4 20 July 2013 Denise van Outen
5 27 July 2013 Kian Egan

Contestants

edit

On 13 June 2013, the contestant line-up was revealed.[4] The six celebrities that took part were Denise Lewis, Matt Johnson, Alexander Armstrong, Cheryl Fergison, Natalie Anderson and Bobby Davro.[5]

Results summary

edit
Contestant Famous for Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Tot Avg Rank
by average
Natalie Anderson Former Emmerdale actress 27 35 39 29 38 Winner 168 33.6 1
Cheryl Fergison Former EastEnders actress 38 22 48 28 23 Runner-up 159 31.8 2
Alexander Armstrong Presenter of Pointless 26 27 21 34 40 Runner-up 148 29.6 3
Matt Johnson TV presenter 22 24 25 35 24 Runner-up 130 26 6
Bobby Davro Comedian and actor 24 39 27 25 28 X 143 28.6 4
Denise Lewis Former track and field sprinter 33 28 21 29 30 X 141 28.2 5

Color key:

  indicates the winning contestant that week
  indicates the runner-up contestants that week
  indicates the series champion
  indicates the two contestants eliminated
 X  indicates the contestant did not perform that week
Red numbers indicate the lowest-scoring contestant(s) that week
Green numbers indicate the highest-scoring contestant that week

Live show details

edit
Contestants' performances on the first show
Order Celebrity Performing as Song Points (judges and contestants) Total Result
Clary Bunton Osmond Bonus
1 Denise Lewis Tina Turner "Nutbush City Limits" 7 7 9 10 33 Runner-up
2 Natalie Anderson Katy Perry "California Gurls" 7 7 8 5 27 Not in Top 3
3 Alexander Armstrong Johnny Cash "Ring of Fire" 6 8 7 5 26 Runner-up
4 Bobby Davro Tom Jones "Sex Bomb" 8 7 9 0 24 Not in Top 3
5 Cheryl Fergison Dusty Springfield "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me" 9 9 10 10 38 Winner
6 Matt Johnson Jon Bon Jovi of Bon Jovi "Livin' on a Prayer" 7 8 7 0 22 Not in Top 3
Bonus points

The points were then given out as follows:[6]

  • Denise gives her five points to Cheryl, taking her to 33
  • Natalie gives her five points to Denise, taking her to 28
  • Alexander gives his five points to Cheryl, taking her to 38
  • Bobby gives his five points to Denise, taking her to 33
  • Cheryl gives her points to Alexander, taking him to 26
  • Matt gives his five points to Natalie, taking her to 27

Week 2 (6 July)

edit
Contestants' performances on the second show
Order Celebrity Performing as[7] Song Points (judges and contestants) Total Result
Clary Bunton Black Bonus
1 Matt Johnson Taylor Swift "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" 7 5 7 5 24 Not in Top 3
2 Alexander Armstrong Johnny Rotten of Sex Pistols "Pretty Vacant" 8 9 10 0 27 Runner-up
3 Cheryl Fergison Anastacia "Left Outside Alone" 8 6 8 0 22 Not in Top 3
4 Denise Lewis Lenny Kravitz "Are You Gonna Go My Way" 8 6 9 5 28 Not in Top 3
5 Natalie Anderson Britney Spears "Toxic" 9 8 8 10 35 Winner
6 Bobby Davro Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" 9 10 10 10 34 Runner-up
Bonus points

The points were then given out as follows:[6]

  • Matt gives his five points to Bobby, taking him to 34
  • Alexander gives his five points to Natalie, taking her to 30
  • Cheryl gives her points to Denise, taking her to 28
  • Denise gives her five points to Natalie, taking her to 35
  • Natalie gives her five points to Bobby, taking him to 39
  • Bobby gives his five points to Matt, taking him to 24

Week 3 (13 July)

edit
Contestants' performances on the third show
Order Celebrity Performing as Song Points (judges and contestants) Total Result
Clary Bunton Andre Bonus
1 Alexander Armstrong Barry Manilow "Copacabana" 6 7 8 0 21 Not in Top 3
2 Denise Lewis Nicki Minaj "Starships" 7 6 8 0 21 Not in Top 3
3 Matt Johnson Elvis Presley "Heartbreak Hotel" / "Blue Suede Shoes" / "Hound Dog" 8 9 8 0 25 Runner-up
4 Bobby Davro Ozzy Osbourne of Black Sabbath "Paranoid" 9 9 9 0 27 Not in Top 3
5 Natalie Anderson Kate Bush "Wuthering Heights" 10 10 9 10 39 Winner
6 Cheryl Fergison Meat Loaf "Bat Out of Hell" 9 9 10 20 48 Runner-up

Week 4 (20 July)

edit
Contestants' performances on the fourth show
Order Celebrity Performing as Song Points (judges and contestants) Total Result
Clary Bunton van Outen Bonus
1 Natalie Anderson Justin Bieber "Baby" 8 8 8 5 29 Runner-up
2 Matt Johnson Freddie Mercury of Queen "Don't Stop Me Now" 10 10 10 5 35 Winner
3 Bobby Davro Tammy Wynette "Stand by Your Man" 7 6 7 5 25 Not in Top 3
4 Cheryl Fergison Lulu "Shout" 10 9 9 0 28 Runner-up
5 Alexander Armstrong Morrissey of The Smiths "Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want" 8 8 8 10 34 Not in Top 3
6 Denise Lewis Beyoncé "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" 9 8 7 5 29 Not in Top 3

Week 5: Semi-final (27 July)

edit
Contestants' performances on the fifth show
Order Celebrity Performing as Song Points (judges and contestants) Total Result
Clary Bunton Egan Bonus
1 Bobby Davro Paul McCartney of The Beatles "I Want to Hold Your Hand" 8 8 7 5 28 Eliminated
2 Denise Lewis Gloria Gaynor "I Will Survive" 9 8 8 5 30 Eliminated
3 Matt Johnson Rod Stewart "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy" 8 8 8 0 24 Runner-up
4 Natalie Anderson Bonnie Tyler "Total Eclipse of the Heart" 10 9 9 10 38 Winner
5 Alexander Armstrong Luciano Pavarotti "Nessun dorma" 10 10 10 10 40 Runner-up
6 Cheryl Fergison Madonna "Material Girl" 9 7 7 0 23 Not in Top 3

Week 6: Final (3 August)

edit

In this episode, the eliminated celebrities (Bobby Davro and Denise Lewis) performed as Mary J Blige and George Michael in a special duet.

Contestants' performances on the sixth show
Order Celebrity Performing as Song Result
1 Cheryl Fergison Cher "The Shoop Shoop Song" Runner-up
Adele "Someone Like You"
2 Matt Johnson Bruce Springsteen "Born in the USA" Runner-up
Robbie Williams "Let Me Entertain You"
3 Natalie Anderson Jessie J "Domino" Winner
Mariah Carey "Without You"
4 Alexander Armstrong Susan Boyle "I Dreamed a Dream" Runner-up
Frank Sinatra "Fly Me to the Moon"

Judges

edit

On 3 June 2013, singer and presenter Emma Bunton was announced as a judge on the show, of this she said "I love Saturday night television. Your Face Sounds Familiar is a great family show and what I love about the whole thing is the celebrities will have to deal with a great big production." She added "Being nasty is not fun - viewers are sick of people not being very nice to each other. It is about enjoying the acts. I am going to be fair. I know what it feels like to be in an audition and I want to pick up on the positive side."

On the same day, entertainer and comedian Julian Clary was announced as another judge on the show.

On each episode Bunton and Clary are joined by a guest judge who makes up the third judge on the panel. These have included Donny Osmond, Cilla Black, Peter Andre, Denise van Outen and Kian Egan.[8]

Presenters

edit

On 3 June 2013, it was announced that Alesha Dixon and Paddy McGuinness would present the six episodes in the first series.[8] Of this, Dixon said, "This show is going to be a lot of fun. I can't wait to see their transformations and spectacular performances. I know that Paddy [McGuinness] and I are going to have our work cut out keeping them all in line!", whilst McGuinness said, "To be given a live show on Saturday night TV is a massive honour. Hairbrushes at the ready, for a proper good old Saturday night sing along. It's an honour to be in the same company as Ant & Dec, Dermot O'Leary and lest we not forget, Russ Abbot."[8]

Several sources announced prior to the show, that if McGuinness had to leave at any time (due to his wife Christine being in labour with twins), Stephen Mulhern would take over as the co-presenter on the show. However, this didn't need to happen.[9]

References

edit
  1. ^ "ITV commissions new primetime entertainment format Your Face Sounds Familiar". ITV. 3 June 2013. Retrieved 3 June 2013.
  2. ^ Munn, Patrick (3 June 2013). "ITV Orders Entertainment Series 'Your Face Sounds Familiar'". TVWise. Retrieved 3 June 2013.
  3. ^ "Natalie Anderson crowned champion of Your Face Sounds Familiar". Metro. 3 August 2013.
  4. ^ Drewett, Meg (13 June 2013). "Denise Lewis, 'EastEnders' stars for ITV's 'Your Face Sounds Familiar'". Digital Spy. Retrieved 26 June 2013.
  5. ^ "Celebrities". ITV. Retrieved 26 June 2013.
  6. ^ a b "Your Face Sounds Familiar: Live blog".
  7. ^ Meyer, Daneil (29 June 2013). "Week 2 'Your Face' performances announced". Telly Spy.
  8. ^ a b c Daniels, Colin (3 June 2013). "Alesha Dixon, Paddy McGuinness to host ITV celebrity singing show". Digital Spy. Retrieved 3 June 2013.
  9. ^ Meyer, Daniel (27 June 2013). "Stephen Mulhern standby host for 'Your Face'". Telly Spy. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
edit