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| Network: | Antena 1 |
X Factor is a Romanian television music competition that aims to find a new music talent to become a star. The eighth started airing on 26 August 2018 on Antena 1.
The hosts of season 8 were Mihai Bendeac and Vlad Drăgulin. Delia Matache, Horia Brenciu, Carla's Dreams and Ștefan Bănică, Jr. returned to the judging panel.
Delia Matache is a famous Romanian eurobeat singer-songwriter, TV celebrity, dancer, philanthropist, former model, fashion designer. She has started her stage music activity in 1999 in N&D music band with Nicolae Marin and had released 4 albums, and after the split off in 2003 she had released another two solo albums.
Horia Brenciu is a Romanian singer, television host for the Romanian version of Dancing with the Stars, successful entertainer, and philanthropist. He studied at National College Andrei Şaguna from Braşov, then he continued to Şcoala Populară de Artă Braşov, at piano and canto class, and in 1998 he finished The Theater Academy in Bucharest.
Ștefan Bănică, Jr. is a Romanian entertainer, of roma people origin from his father side, TV presenter, one of the most important Romanian TV personality, the son of actor Ștefan Bănică. He is well known in Romanian for presenting the Romania version of “Dancing with the Stars”, the largest dance competition ever aired in Romania, broadcast on Pro TV.
Carla's Dreams is a Moldavian musical project which was started by Dobra Robertin 2012. The band is an anonymous group of singers and composers who sing in Romanian, Russian and English. During concerts, the band's vocalist, to hide his identity, wears hood and sunglasses, and his face is masked.
Established in Chișinău, Carla's Dreams combines several musical styles, including hip hop, jazz, rock and pop. The first song produced by Carla's Dreams was Dă-te ("Get Off"). Carla's Dreams has launched in Romania in 2013, along with Inna with the song P.O.H.U.I., later to sing with Loredana Lumea ta ("Your World"), and in 2015 with Delia, releasing songs Cum ne noi ("How We Us") and Da, mamă ("Yes, Mother").
Audition process was based on the British and American version. First up were "The Producer's Audition", where the producers chose singers to proceed to the second phase which was "The Audition before the Judging panel".
| City | Auditions date | |
|---|---|---|
| April 27, 2018 | ||
| April 28, 2018 | ||
| Timișoara | April 29, 2018 | |
| Galați | April 30, 2018 | |
| Sibiu | May 1, 2018 | |
| Craiova | May 3, 2018 |
The auditions were broadcast from 26 August 2018 until 26 October 2018. The auditions consisted in 10 episodes.
This season, there will be four categories : Boys (14–24 years), Girls (14–24 years), Over 24s and the Groups.
Brenciu will mentor the Groups, Bănică the Girls, Carla's Dream the Boys and Matache will mentor the Over 24s.
Complete Teams
| Category (mentor) | Top 40 acts | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Girls (Bănică) | Ioana Bulgaru | Doinița Ioniță | Mălina Ciarnău | Francesca Hojda | Špela Jezovšek | |||||
| bgcolor=pink | Francesca Tuzzolino | bgcolor=pink | Ioana Cheche Arsintioaia | bgcolor=pink | Isabela Pamparău | bgcolor=pink | Bianca Moccia | bgcolor=pink | Daria Cojocaru | |
| Overs (Matache) | Bella Santiago | Cristina Vasopol | Raluca Răducanu | Cristian Sanda | Vincenzo Vollaro | |||||
| bgcolor=pink | Simion Caragia | bgcolor=pink | Maria Coman | bgcolor=pink | Charles Driscoll | bgcolor=pink | Raisa Bordea | bgcolor=pink | Cătălina Adam | |
| Boys (Carlas) | Cristian Moldovan | Alexandru Stremițeanu | Andrei Geamăn | Eduard Ungureanu | Zila Mike | |||||
| bgcolor=pink | Alexandru Țală | bgcolor=pink | Cristian Porcari | bgcolor=pink | Robert Hotin | bgcolor=pink | Dragoș Bucătariu | bgcolor=pink | Tudor Leon Mureşan | |
| Groups (Brenciu) | Diamonds | Vox | Angels | Rodica & Cristi | Andreea & Bișu | |||||
| bgcolor=pink | Stardust | bgcolor=pink | MaindFac | bgcolor=pink | Deja Vu | bgcolor=pink | No Fingerprints | bgcolor=pink | Rush | |
This season, the categories will face the four-chair challenge. From the 40 acts competing, at the end of this round, only 16 acts will go further in the competition.
The four-chair challenge were broadcast from 2 November 2018 until 23 November 2018. This consisted in 4 episodes, one for each group.
| + Contestants performances on the four-chair challenge | Episode | Category (mentor) | Act | Order | Song | Mentor's decision | Switched with |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Episode 11 (2 November) | Girls (Bănică) | Ioana Cheche Arsintioaia | 1 | "Mercy on Me" | Put in Chair 1 | Doinița Ioniță | |
| Daria Cojocaru | 2 | "Believer" | Put in Chair 2 | Bianca Moccia | |||
| Isabela Pamparău | 3 | "The Prayer" | Put in Chair 3 | Francesca Tuzzolino | |||
| Mălina Ciarnău | 4 | "Killing Me Softly with His Song" | Put in Chair 4 | — | |||
| Bianca Moccia | 5 | "If I Were a Boy" | Put in Chair 2 | Špela Jezovšek | |||
| Špela Jezovšek | 6 | "Clown" | Put in Chair 2 | Ioana Bulgaru | |||
| Francesca Tuzzolino | 7 | "Titanium" | Put in Chair 3 | Francesca Hojda | |||
| Doinița Ioniță | 8 | "Suus" | Put in Chair 1 | — | |||
| Francesca Hojda | 9 | "Not About Angels" | Put in Chair 3 | — | |||
| Ioana Bulgaru | 10 | "It's Oh So Quiet" | Put in Chair 2 | — | |||
| Episode 12 (9 November) | Overs (Matache) | Raisa Bordea | 1 | "Runnin' (Lose It All)" | Put in Chair 4 | Cristian Sanda | |
| Simion Caragia | 2 | "Wicked Game" | Put in Chair 3 | Bella Santiago | |||
| Cristina Vasopol | 3 | "Calling You" | Put in Chair 2 | — | |||
| Charles Driscoll | 4 | "Shouldn't It Be Me" | Put in Chair 1 | Vincenzo Vollaro | |||
| Cătălina Adam | 5 | "Selfish Love" | Eliminated | ||||
| Cristian Sanda | 6 | "When I Was Your Man" | Put in Chair 4 | — | |||
| Vincenzo Vollaro | 7 | "One Night Only" | Put in Chair 1 | Raluca Răducanu | |||
| Maria Coman | 8 | "Skyscraper" | Eliminated | ||||
| Bella Santiago | 9 | "Rolling in the Deep" | Put in Chair 3 | — | |||
| Raluca Răducanu | 10 | "Billie Jean" | Put in Chair 1 | — | |||
| Episode 13 (16 November) | Boys (Carla's) | Tudor Leon Mureşan | 1 | "She's on My Mind" | Eliminated | ||
| Robert Hotin | 2 | "When We Were Young" | Put in Chair 1 | Alexandru Stremițeanu | |||
| Cristian Porcari | 3 | "Shape of My Heart" | Put in Chair 2 | Eduard Ungureanu | |||
| Andrei Geamăn | 4 | "Superstisition" | Put in Chair 3 | — | |||
| Zila Mike | 5 | "Velociraptorul Dance" | Put in Chair 4 | Cristian Moldovan | |||
| Dragoș Bucătariu | 6 | "Say Something" | Eliminated | ||||
| Alexandru Stremițeanu | 7 | "Skinny Love" | Put in Chair 1 | — | |||
| Eduard Ungureanu | 8 | "Cry Baby" | Put in Chair 2 | — | |||
| Alexandru Țală | 9 | "Gravity" | Eliminated | ||||
| Cristian Moldovan | 10 | "Human" | Put in Chair 4 | — | |||
| Episode 14 (23 November) | Groups (Brenciu) | Deja Vu | 1 | "Back in Black" | Put in Chair 1 | Stardust | |
| Rush | 2 | "(I've Had) The Time of My Life" | Eliminated | ||||
| MaindFac | 3 | "X" | Put in Chair 2 | Vox | |||
| Rodica & Cristi | 4 | "Volcano" | Put in Chair 3 | — | |||
| No Fingerprints | 5 | "Dirty Diana" | Eliminated | ||||
| Andreea & Bișu | 6 | "No Diggity" | Put in Chair 4 | Diamonds | |||
| Stardust | 7 | "Hello" | Put in Chair 1 | Angels | |||
| Vox | 8 | "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" | Put in Chair 2 | — | |||
| Angels | 9 | "Show Me How You Burlesque" | Put in Chair 1 | — | |||
| Diamonds | 10 | "Perdono" | Put in Chair 4 | — |
At the end of this round there were 8 acts remaining, two for each category. The duels were broadcast on 30 November 2018.
- Artist won the Duel and advanced to the Live shows
- Artist lost the Duel and was eliminated
| + Contestants performances on the duels challenge | Episode | Category (mentor) | Duel | Act | Order | Song | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Episode 15 (30 November) | Groups (Brenciu) | Duel 1 | Rodica & Cristi | 1 | "Rise & Fall"/"Shape" | Eliminated | |
| Vox | 2 | "Runaway Baby" | Finalist | ||||
| Girls (Bănică) | Duel 2 | Mălina Ciarnău | 3 | "Give It to Me Right" | Eliminated | ||
| Doinița Ioniță | 4 | "All by Myself" | Finalist | ||||
| Boys (Carlas) | Duel 3 | Andrei Geamăn | 5 | "Be Alright" | Eliminated | ||
| Cristian Moldovan | 6 | "A Change Is Gonna Come" | Finalist | ||||
| Overs (Matache) | Duel 4 | Cristian Sanda | 7 | "Yesterday" | Eliminated | ||
| Bella Santiago | 8 | "Total Eclipse of the Heart" | Finalist | ||||
| Groups (Brenciu) | Duel 5 | Diamonds | 9 | "Lady Marmalade" | Finalist | ||
| Angels | 10 | "Feeling Good" | Eliminated | ||||
| Boys (Carlas) | Duel 6 | Alexandru Stremițeanu | 11 | "You Are the Reason" | Finalist | ||
| Eduard Ungureanu | 12 | "The House of the Rising Sun" | Eliminated | ||||
| Girls (Bănică) | Duel 7 | Francesca Hojda | 13 | "Best Part" | Eliminated | ||
| Ioana Bulgaru | 14 | "Dog Days Are Over" | Finalist | ||||
| Overs (Matache) | Duel 8 | Cristina Vasopol | 15 | "Stay with Me" | Finalist | ||
| Raluca Răducanu | 16 | "Love on the Brain" | Eliminated | ||||
In this season, like season 7, the public will have the chance to save one of the acts that competed in the Auditions. The most voted act will go directly to the Live Shows. In the first live show if one of the mentor decides to take him in his team, then he will go further in the competition, otherwise he will be sent home.
The winner of this season selected by the public was Cristian Sanda, from the Overs Category.
The nine finalists will compete in the Live Shows.
| Category (mentor) | Acts | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boys (Carla's) | Cristian Moldovan | Alexandru Stremițeanu | ||
| Girls (Bănică) | bgcolor=pink | Ioana Bulgaru | Doinița Ioniță | |
| Over 24s (Matache) | Cristian Sanda | Bella Santiago | Cristina Vasopol | |
| Groups (Brenciu) | Diamonds | Vox | ||
| – | Contestant was announced as the winner. | |
| – | Contestant has returned in the competition. | |
| – | Contestant received the most votes from the public. | |
| – | Contestant received the fewest public votes and was immediately eliminated, no duel. |
| Contestant | Live Show 1 | Live Show 2 | Live Show 3 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wildcard | Elimination | Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 1 | Round 2 | |||||
| Bella Santiago | Safe | Safe | Safe | Safe | bgcolor=gold | Winner | ||||
| Ioana Bulgaru | Safe | Safe | Safe | Safe | bgcolor=silver | Runner-up | ||||
| Cristian Moldovan | Safe | Safe | Safe | bgcolor=pink | 3rd | Eliminated (Gala 3) | ||||
| Doinița Ioniță | Safe | Safe | Safe | bgcolor=pink | 4th | Eliminated (Gala 3) | ||||
| Cristian Sanda | Returned Gala 1 | Safe | Safe | bgcolor=pink | 5th | Eliminated (Gala 2) | ||||
| Cristina Vasopol | Safe | Safe | bgcolor=pink | 6th | Eliminated (Gala 2) | |||||
| Vox | Safe | bgcolor=pink | 7th | Eliminated (Gala 2) | ||||||
| Alexandru Stremițeanu | Safe | bgcolor=pink | 8th | Eliminated (Gala 2) | ||||||
| Diamonds | bgcolor=pink | 9th | Eliminated (Gala 1) | |||||||
| Eliminated | ||||||||||
| Diamonds by public vote | Alexandru Stremițeanu by public vote | Cristina Vasopol by public vote | Doinița Ioniță by public vote | Ioana Bulgaru by public vote | ||||||
| Vox by public vote | Cristian Sanda by public vote | Cristian Moldovan by public vote | Bella Santiago by public vote | |||||||
| Reference(s) | [1] | [2] | [3] | [4] | ||||||
In this live show there were no duels, the act with lowest public votes was eliminated from the competition.
| Order | Song | Result | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cristian Sanda | 1 | "Salcia" | Safe | |
| Doinița Ioniță | 2 | "Jocul țambalelor" | Safe | |
| Diamonds | 3 | "Inima mea" | Eliminated | |
| Cristian Moldovan | 4 | "Eternitate" | Safe | |
| Bella Santiago | 5 | "Cine iubeşte şi lasă" | Safe | |
| Vox | 6 | "Dincolo de nori" | Safe | |
| Alexandru Stremițeanu | 7 | "Nici o stea" | Safe | |
| Ioana Bulgaru | 8 | "Tudore" | Safe | |
| Cristina Vasopol | 9 | "Ciocârlia" | Safe |
In this live show there were two rounds, after each round, the two acts with the lowest public votes were eliminated from the competition.
| Order | Song | Result | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Round 1 | ||||
| Ioana Bulgaru | 1 | "Toy" | Safe | |
| Cristian Sanda | 2 | "Jealous" | Safe | |
| Alexandru Stremițeanu | 3 | "O stea" | Eliminated | |
| Bella Santiago | 4 | "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" | Safe | |
| Doinița Ioniță | 5 | "De-ar fi să vii" | Safe | |
| Vox | 6 | "Focul" | Eliminated | |
| Cristina Vasopol | 7 | "Queen"/ "I'm Every Woman" | Safe | |
| Cristian Moldovan | 8 | "Always" | Safe | |
| Round 2 | ||||
| Ioana Bulgaru | 1 | "Țărăncută, țărăncuță" | Safe | |
| Cristian Sanda | 2 | "Cerul" | Eliminated | |
| Bella Santiago | 3 | "Hora din Moldova" | Safe | |
| Doinița Ioniță | 4 | "Stone Cold" | Safe | |
| Cristina Vasopol | 5 | "Au înnebunit salcâmii" | Eliminated | |
| Cristian Moldovan | 6 | "Ploaia" | Safe | |
| Order | First Song (duet with special guest) | Order | Second Song (duet with mentor) | Result | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 8 | |||||
| 2 | 5 | |||||
| 3 | 7 | |||||
| 4 | 6 |
| Order | Song | Result | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ioana Bulgaru | 1 | Runner-up | ||
| Bella Santiago | 2 | Winner |
| Ep | Title | Date | National | Urban | 18-49 | Source | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Average (thousands) | Rating (%) | Average (thousands) | Rating (%) | Average (thousands) | Rating (%) | |||||
| 1 | Auditions 1 | 26 August 2018 | 901 | 5.0 | 529 | 5.5 | 232 | 5.3 | [5] | |
| 2 | Auditions 2 | 2 September 2018 | 701 | 3.9 | 386 | 4.0 | 177 | 4.0 | [6] | |
| 3 | Auditions 3 | 11 September 2018 | 831 | 4.6 | 444 | 4.6 | 213 | 4.8 | [7] | |
| 4 | Auditions 4 | 18 September 2018 | 824 | 4.6 | 491 | 5.1 | 246 | 5.6 | [8] | |
| 5 | Auditions 5 | 25 September 2018 | 1 035 | 5.8 | 587 | 6.1 | 264 | 6.0 | [9] | |
| 6 | Auditions 6 | 2 October 2018 | colspan=7 | |||||||
| 7 | Auditions 7 | 9 October 2018 | 994 | 5.5 | 603 | 6.3 | 291 | 6.6 | [10] | |
| 8 | Auditions 8 | 16 October 2018 | 749 | 4.2 | 385 | 4.0 | 153 | 3.5 | [11] | |
| 9 | Auditions 9 | 23 October 2018 | 910 | 5.1 | 552 | 5.7 | 239 | 5.4 | [12] | |
| 10 | Auditions 10 | 26 October 2018 | 695 | 3.9 | 367 | 3.8 | 156 | 3.5 | [13] | |
| 11 | Bootcamp - Four-chair Challenge 1 | 2 November 2018 | 678 | 3.8 | 362 | 3.8 | 181 | 4.1 | [14] | |
| 12 | Bootcamp - Four-chair Challenge 2 | 9 November 2018 | 644 | 3.4 | 329 | 3.4 | 130 | 2.9 | [15] | |
| 13 | Bootcamp - Four-chair Challenge 3 | 16 November 2018 | 688 | 3.8 | 386 | 4.0 | 177 | 4.0 | [16] | |
| 14 | Bootcamp - Four-chair Challenge 4 | 23 November 2018 | 660 | 3.7 | 349 | 3.6 | 157 | 3.6 | [17] | |
| 15 | Bootcamp - The Duels | 30 November 2018 | 843 | 4.7 | 463 | 4.8 | 202 | 4.6 | [18] | |
| 16 | Live Show 1 | 9 December 2018 | 589 | 3.3 | 311 | 3.2 | 138 | 3.1 | [19] | |
| 17 | Live Show 2 - Semifinal | 16 December 2018 | ||||||||
| 18 | Live Show 3 - Final | 23 December 2018 | ||||||||