The X Factor (British series 6)
Act Category ( Mentor ) Order Take That song Order Elton John song Result
Danyl Johnson Over 25s ( Cowell ) 1 Relight My Fire 7 Your Song Safe
Lloyd Daniels Boys ( Cole ) 2 A Million Love Songs 6 I 'm Still Standing Eliminated
Olly Murs Over 25s ( Cowell ) 3 Love Ai n't Here Anymore 8 Saturday Night 's Alright for Fighting Safe
Joe McElderry Boys ( Cole ) 4 Could It Be Magic 9 Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word Safe
Stacey Solomon Girls ( Minogue ) 5 Rule the World 10 Something About the Way You Look Tonight Safe
Live shows -- Live show details
Themes : Songs by Take That ; songs by Elton John [ 56 ] Group performance : `` I Do n't Feel Like Dancin ' '' Musical guests : Alicia Keys ( `` Empire State of Mind '' / `` Does n't Mean Anything '' / `` No One '' ) and Rihanna ( `` Russian Roulette '' ) [ 25 ]
The X Factor is a British television music competition to find new singing talent. The sixth series started on ITV on 22 August 2009 and was won by Joe McElderry on 13 December 2009. Cheryl Cole emerged as the winning mentor for the second consecutive year, the first time in the show's history that a mentor has won back-to-back series. The show was presented by Dermot O'Leary, with spin-off show The Xtra Factor presented by Holly Willoughby on ITV2. McElderry's winner's single was a cover version of Miley Cyrus's The Climb. Public auditions by aspiring singers began in June 2009 and were held in five cities across the UK. Simon Cowell, Louis Walsh, Dannii Minogue and Cole returned as judges. This season was the first to be sponsored by TalkTalk after they took over the sponsorship from The Carphone Warehouse. For the first time, auditions were held in front of a live audience. Following initial auditions, the bootcamp stage took place in August 2009, where the number of contestants was narrowed down to 24. The 24 contestants were split into their categories, Boys, Girls, Over 25s and Groups, and given a judge to mentor them at the judges' houses stage and throughout the finals. During judges' houses, the 24 acts were reduced to twelve, who went on to the live finals, with one act being eliminated each week by a combination of public vote and judges' decision until a winner was found.