‘X Factor’ New Zealand Just Sacked Two Of Its Judges For Bullying A Contestant On-Air
"I feel like you're just going to stitch someone's skin to your face and then kill everybody in the audience."
Natalia Kills and Willy Moon are a pair of married pop singers, who — until today — both sat on the judging panel for the current season of X Factor NZ.
Natalia Kills is a 28 year old from the UK, who was made famous for her 2013 single ‘Saturday Night’. Willy Moon is 25, from New Zealand, and known throughout the land for his extremely brave, creative and idiosyncratic look: wearing a nice suit and neatly combing his hair.
I have literally never seen anyone dress like this before.
Unfortunately last night, X Factor contestant Joe Irvine dared to do the same, brazenly copying Willy Moon’s extremely individual style — and suffering onslaught from the judges as a result.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I’m just going to state the obvious: we have a doppleganger in our midst,” Kills began from the judging panel, after Irvine finished his performance. “As an artist who respects creative integrity and intellectual property, I am disgusted at how much you have copied my husband, from the hair, to the suit. Do you not have any value or respect for originality? You’re a laughing stock.”
SEPARATED AT BIRTH????!?
Kills continued, calling the performer “artistically atrocious” and “absolutely disgusting”, saying she was “ashamed to be here” and “embarrassed to be sitting here in your presence having to even dignify you … with my opinion.”
And then the sartorial mastermind himself chimed in, calling the young singer “cheap and absurd”: “It’s like [Psycho murderer] Norman Bates dressing up in his mother clothing,” Moon said. “It’s just a little bit creepy and I feel like you’re just going to stitch someone’s skin to your face and then kill everybody in the audience.”
Irvine’s face made about seven thousand expressions at once.
“I think I look good,” he said quietly. Give this guy a hug.
After an online petition to get the pair sacked gathered 70,000 signatures in under 24 hours, MediaWorks chief executive Mark Weldon released a statement to the network TV3, confirming the duo had been fired. “Last night on X Factor both Kills and Moon made comments that were completely unacceptable,” he said. “While the judges on X Factor are expected to provide critiques of the performances, we will not tolerate such destructive tirades.”
“We no longer have confidence that Kills and Moon are the right people to perform the role of the X Factor judges, and they will leave the show, effective immediately.”
TV3 themselves tweeted about the incident, saying “The nature of live television can be unpredictable and we appreciate you taking the time to voice your opinion. TV3 does not condone bullying and are currently on-site with Joe who is doing well.”
The song Irvine had sung? ‘Cry Me A River’ by Arthur Hamilton. Not, as this article first suggested, by Justin Timberlake. But speaking of Justin Timberlake, he sometimes wears outfits like this:
