Spot the Difference #3: It's not exactly "Hallelujah"

Alexandra Burke has just released the official video for her fourth single "All Night Long"



There are points in the video when the whole thing could be replaced with a pulsating screengrab saying "I'M AN X FACTOR WINNER BUT THIS IS NOT A BALLAD" (the bit with the duct tape over the nipples comes to mind, and the very presence of Pitbull). Before we go all critical, let us stress, we do like the video and song for a number of reasons:

1. There's a bit where everyone at this impromptu party breaks out into an amazingly choreographed dance routine and there's a part of us that would love that to happen everytime we play "Fight For This Love" in the living room.

2. Someone wields a phone which has been monographed "AB" with some diamante. Diamantically, if you will. We want to think this is a neologism (as well as a design trend) which could catch on, so we're immediately heading off to void the warranty on the iPhone.

3. It's easy to forget behind everything that's going on is that this is a cracking song which will hopefully hit a nerve with the record buying public in a way which the equally-if-not-more cracking Broken Heels didn't. Alex's voice is tonally very rich which is what lifts this from being a Cascada album track to a genuinely brilliant "should-be-top-ten-if-there's-any-justice" Summer tune. It's certainly got the prerequisite catchiness covered with the "all night, all night, all night, all night" hook.

The problem may lie, in the fact that Alexandra just hasn't managed to carve out a unique selling point at this stage. "Bad Boys" did the job of being the prerequisite "this is done by an X Factor winner?!" release, but Alexandra still hasn't managed to escape that tag in the same way that Leona managed to. SyCo are trying their hardest to chuck every rapper/producer/urban darling at her in order to differentiate her from anything that the X Factor has put out before but it just isn't sticking. And there's a note of desperation in the air that on this front; SyCo are beginning to lose their way. For instance, where have you seen sunglasses like these before?

If your answer is "the Telephone video" you'd probably be on to something. In fact, the whole video has a certain whiff of "Just Dance" about it, doesn't it?

We need to be clear about one thing. Alexandra Burke is not Lady Gaga. And this is a good thing, the two are completely different artists who, if we're honest, are actually working in completely different spheres if you set aside the fact that they both produce pop music. I can see what Alexandra and her team are trying to do with this video, but they're not going to create that USP around her if they're piggybacking off the imagery, symbology and style of other artists. All it's going to do is feed into that pernicious sentiment that if you "graduate" from the X Factor, all you'll be able to do is piggyback off other people's ideas and talents. As Diana Vickers in particular has proven, that really doesn't need to be the case.