The X Factor Final: Saturday live show - Grace Davies and Rak-Su voted through as Kevin Davy White exits in third place

• Kevin Davy White, from Paris, comes third in the competition

• Rak-Su and Grace Davies voted through to Sunday night's big finale

• For the first time, the winner's single will be a duet with an established star

Despite the level of talent being pretty decent on this year's X Factor, the show has lacked excitement. But tonight's live final had a bit more of a buzz - the arena was packed, the acts delivered fairly memorable performances, Simon Cowell's shirt was lower-cut than ever and Stacey Solomon was on hand to work up some excitement from the rafters. It felt like a final, despite it being two weeks earlier than usual, and therefore not very Christmassy. Here's how it all went down...

Kevin Davy White was great, but...

We're not surprised he's come third: singing a Led Zeppelin song, albeit one as well-known as Whole Lotta Love, was never going to take him to victory on a show like X Factor. But we doubt he's too bothered - it's been a two horse race between Rak-Su and Grace for weeks, and he just seemed excited to be there at all. He was one of the loveliest X Factor finalists we've seen in years, and we hope he gets a career out of it.

The duets were... interesting

Getting Paloma Faith to sing your own song is pretty jammy... until she opens her mouth. Teaming up with Grace on her brilliant song, Roots, Paloma just sounded all wrong. But perhaps this was some master manipulation from Sharon Osbourne: in contrast, Grace's quirky, delicate vocals sounded perfect.  

Wyclef Jean, too, was all kinds of embarrassing when he, along with Naughty Boy, did his thing with Rak-Su... his thing, it transpires, being middle-aged breakdancing and random shouting. Rak-Su were, as ever, total pros. And we still think they'll probably win it.

But with these being the potential winner's single, we hope the recorded versions are a little more polished.

All ex boy banders turn into Robbie Williams eventually

And tonight it was the turn of One Direction's Louis Tomlinson. His new single involved quirky self-deprecating, semi-rapped vocals and a big sweeping chorus: it was Robbie by numbers. 

What's the problem with Grace?

Some of her performances have been a bit dull (although not tonight - she was on good form) but Grace Davies seems like good fun to us; just a normal girl with a sense of humour and a clear talent for songwriting. But it feels like the world slightly has it in her for her - old "friends" have been slagging her off in the press, and tonight when she was voted through, her former rivals who left the show in previous weeks all looked distinctly unimpressed. Still, the majority of the voting public clearly don't mind whatever it is she's doing - or not - to rub people up the wrong way, or she wouldn't keep on going through. 

Simon Cowell got richer still

Not only did his new US boy band Pretty Much (not a spoof name, amazingly) perform on the show, but Simon also roped in Tokio Myers, who won his other big talent show BGT, to duet with Kevin. Oh, and then there was Louis Tomlinson, of course.

So, let's not pretend this show is anything other than a money-making machine for Simon Cowell. That said, he did admirably chuck in ￡250,000 (just the loose change in his pocket, presumably) for the children's hospice charity the winner's single is raising money for, Shooting Stars Chase. So we can't slag him off too much, dammit. 

As it happened...

9:07PM

Well duh

Rak-Su and Grace are through to tomorrow night's final, and it's goodbye (au revoir, etc etc) to lovely French Kev. He was a great contestant, and we're glad he made it so far. 

Now, we're not ones to gossip, but did anyone else noticed how unimpressed the rest of the final 12 (or was it 16, or 327?) looked when Grace went through? She seems perfectly nice to us, but there's definitely a bit of a vibe coming from the people around her. 

8:57PM

Louis Tomlinson is doing an excellent impression of Robbie Williams

Not an insult, merely an observation. This song is pure Robbie. Jokey verses, sweeping chorus, northern accent with a few American affectations, the full works. Will go far. 

8:43PM

Wyclef Jean got old

Too old to break-dance onto the stage, that's for sure. All felt a bit "drunk uncle at a wedding". Rak-Su are great though, obvs. There are now approximately 3000 people on stage: not so much a duet as a rush hour tube train. 

And like a parody of himself, in his post-song chat with Derm, drunk uncle Wyclef has shouted "one time, two time" in lieu of saying anything coherent about Rak-Su. 

8:31PM

Grace has lucked out with this one...

Getting an established artist like Paloma Faith to sing her song is pretty jammy, isn't it? We actually prefer Grace singing it though; her delicate voice is much more suited to it - Paloma sounds too OTT.

And now Grace is having a proper sob on stage because it's all so overwhelming. At home, we're merely whelmed. 

8:24PM

It's a BGT X Factor mash-up...

French Kev has been given Tokio Myers as his duet partner, because Simon Cowell rules all, but do you know what?  It works. If Kevin wins (which he won't) his slowed-down version of George Michael's Fast Love will be his winner's single. But that won't happen. Which is a shame, as it's very pretty indeed.  

8:19PM

Gosh

Simon is hoping to raise ￡1 million this weekend for the Shooting Star Chase charity who provide hospice care to terminally ill children, and has just chucked in ￡250,000 himself. 

8:05PM

Simon just did a Sharon...

... and forgot the name of the song his new US signing, Pretty Much, were performing.

In his defence, it sounds pretty forgettable so far. We prefer Rak-Su... 

7:55PM

Rak-Su are definitely the most popular act in the arena...

The whoops are way louder for them than anyone else. Let's just hope all those fans have got 4G, eh? 

They're singing Mamacita again. We already feel like we've heard all of Rak-Su's songs hundreds of times, because they just sound like hits. 

"I think that you are the most exciting act in this year's X Factor," says Louis Walsh, the only impartial judge, since his last remaining act got binned off last week.

7:44PM

So Grace CAN sing other people's songs

On the rare occasion that Grace Davies has done cover versions on the show, they've failed to make as much impact as her own compositions, but her interpretation of Live & Let Die is actually pretty good.

Oh flipping heck, have we caught the "only say nice things at the final" bug too?

Simon says it was "classy and cool" and, although she's probably our least favourite of the three finalists, he's not entirely wrong.

7:26PM

The best thing about X Factor being over soon...

... will be not having to endure Nicole shrieking "ooh la la!" and "bonjour!" every week.

Kevin Davy White - French Kev as we know him - is first to perform tonight, and he's showing off his rock side again by doing Whole Lotta Love (or "Beaucoup D'Amour!" as Nicole would probably call it).  

It's a strong start, but we can't see it being a winning one. X Factor viewers aren't into Led Zep... are they?

As is custom at the final, the judges are only saying nice things, throwing around words like "brave" and fearless". Mind you, how could anyone possibly say anything negative to Kevin? He's just so adorable. 

7:10PM

Wow, the arena looks HUGE

There are surely more live audience members than viewers.

Simon is showing more cleavage than Nicole, obvs.

And now it's all gone a bit Pete Tong. Thankfully not rhyming slang in this instance; he's performing with his new-fangled orchestra.

And for the first time this series, the contestants are performing together - but they're singing You've Got The Love so it's not too cheesy. Grace seems to be pretending the boys are her backing singers though...

7:03PM

Those were the days

*Please* Rak-Su, find a way to inject a jovial "Merry Christmas" into one of your fajita-based rhymes tonight...

5:51PM

It's the final countdown 

In primetime TV's ongoing quest to make us feel prematurely Christmassy, it's the X Factor final already! Usually, we'd have another couple of weeks of faffing around, but the newly streamlined process (complete with quadruple eliminations) means that we're down to the final three already: Grace Davies, Rak-Su and Kevin Davy White.

Tonight, each act will perform twice, before one gets the chop ahead of tomorrow's grand finale. Grace was the early favourite to win, but these days Rak-Su are way ahead. However, different voters can come out of the woodwork when it comes to the final, so it's by no means a done deal. 

Want some spoilers? We've got 'em; here's what the acts will be singing tonight:

Grace Davies

Live & Let Die - Wings

Roots - original song

Rak-Su

Mamacita - original song

Dimelo - original song

Kevin Davy White

Whole Lotta Love - Led Zeppelin

Fastlove Pt 1 - George Michael

But what about the star duets? We can expect those tomorrow night from the final two, along with the winner's single, but it's all top secret for now.

The show starts at the earlier than usual time of 7.05pm, to accommodate the fact that it will go on for about three days (OK, two hours). We'll be following the action right here, so do join us. Those poor viewing figures won't boost themselves.