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If she really said that then what have the whole thing been about? They gave her a whole ton of chances, she just wasn't good enough. Simple as

Nobody would have held her past against her. That's rubbish. If anything it may have gone in her favour, as people may have felt sorry for her and felt it was good she was trying to sort her life out.

For me though, it is about the singing and personality of a contestant (whether they light up the stage, totally capture me, their uniqueness & whether they have the likeability factor as well as singing well).

Unfortunately, I didn't think her singing was as good as the others and thought she was the right one to go. At times, she seemed to shout rather than sing I thought.

I agree Christine it's the whole package. I admit I thought I was going to scream if I heard once more ''I'm doing this for my kids'' I don't want to be bought by sob stories and on the whole i found her too hard faced and unlikeable. However She was gracious in defeat and I hope she doesn't spoil it now by mouthing off and being bitter.

As for her singing, like you say she shouted bits of it and I think often her tuning was terrible

To be fair, Christine, I've read comments on other sites such as 'Good riddance to the ASBO, hopes she returns to her crap life'.

Those sort of comments will always offend me - particularly as those who make them obviously consider themselves to be far superior to the person they are describing..

So while I wholeheartedly agree that the X-Factor, and the judges, gave Rachel plenty of chances - the fact is that there were campaigns in certain sorry quarters to get Rachel out, regardless of her talent/abilities.

Therefore, I can see why she might think her past was held against her.

You're absolutely right, Christine, some people will have given Rachel extra leeway, because of her story. But Rachel can't have been unaware that there was also another side to the coin.

That's quite sad then. Campaigns to get her out won't work though when you are voting to save, so I can't really see how they would have affected her chances, although I suppose they may stop people from voting for her.