In reply to JARED (WHITE DUDE).

Jared, the reason she NEEDS to connect with her Black audience is because she IS Black. Let me explain.

Unlike Leona, Alexandra Burke is a strong representation of the Black female. Curvy, boisterous, dark skinned and with a very Soulful, alto voice like Anita Baker. Therefore, when the majority of X Factor viewers/fans watch (who are mostly white girls and their parents) they are not seeing someone who necessarily represents them.

Think about it. Whitney was marketed to appeal to BOTH Black and White audiences for her first 2 albums and it worked, Mariah had a similar dual appeal. Alex on the other hand came out with this horrible sounding FAUX RnB which appealed to NO black people and we, unfortunately, deserted her. Think about this, Poppy songs aside, Alex is not even serving RnB remixes that would get her music played on A) Urban Radio B) Clubs therefore she has no real connection to her own people...and her mother used to sing in Soul II Soul!!!

Jazz and Blues ARE children of Soul. Soul is in ALL Black music starting with Gospel and Blues which arguably came first (in Afro-American English speakers during slavery) and as Black and White cultures merged we had Jazz, Swing, RnB and Motown which evolved into Disco and eventually Dance etc.

I'm not American. I am British and born in London. I've seen Damage, Shola Ama, Mark Morrisson and a few others scale to the top of the UK charts with great R&B and great Pop remixes. Check the SEVEN remixes of "Return of the Mack" and "Crazy". Also, when a real sista like Alex is made to do the cheesy, Dairylea type of R&B associated with acts such as All Saints, Another Level, Blue and a few other triers many black folk laugh because we heard Motown, watched the 90's US R&B domination and find the UK's attempts to do it (find three White people and dash in a Black) quite laughable.

I think Alex needs a slice of Eternal's marketing. A great mixture of Pop and R&B without leaning too heavily on either...but she SHOULD lean a bit more on R&B for the sake of her voice and recapturing the Black audience she lost after she stopped singing with Beyonce at the finals!