Filmed: Saturday 4 November 2006
Location: ITV Studios, London, UK
Broadcast: Saturday 4 November 2006, 17:45, LIVE, ITV1, UK
Release status: Unreleased
Shown in: UK
Björn appeared as a guest on talent show The X Factor. Previous guests had been Lionel Richie, Rod Stewart and Tony Bennett.
Björn was introduced by Kate Thornton at the beginning of the main show - he seemed thrilled to get such a fantastic audience reaction. He as also shown (pre-recorded) greeting each of the remaining participants on stage at The Prince of Wales theatre where Mamma Mia! was playing in London at the time. After listening to each contestant singing a bit of their chosen ABBA song for this week's show, Björn then said a few tactful words about each one.
Each partipant sang an ABBA song on the show:
- Nikitta - Dancing Queen
- Eton Road - Does Your Mother Know
- Robert - Take A Chance on Me
- Leona Lewis - Chiquitita
- The MacDonald Brothers
- Ray Quinn - Waterloo
- Ben - SOS
- Ashley - The Winner Takes It All
He was then introduced at the beginning of the The X Factor - The Result an hour later where he gave some polite opinions on some the finalists, singling out Leona Lewis, Eton Road and Ben for praise. Then as suspected, the cast of Mamma Mia! performed Mamma Mia and Dancing Queen.
The whole programme was about an hour but Björn's total appearance was less than 5 minutes across the main and result shows.
He was then interviewed briefly on The Xtra Factor.
Leona Lewis went on to win the show and become very successful recording artist. Ray Quinn came second, released a swing album and then won Dancing on Ice a few (ice-skating show) years later.
Broadcast information:
Saturday 4 November 2006, 17:45, ITV1, UK (and 20:35 for The X Factor - The Result )
Saturday 4 November 2006, 00:00, ITV1, UK (and 01:45 on Sunday 5 November 2006 for The X Factor - The Result )
Sunday 5 November 2006, 13:40, ITV1, UK (and 15:30 for The X Factor - The Result )
Sunday 5 November 2006, 18:45, ITV1, UK (and 20:35 for The X Factor - The Result )
The X Factor (Björn), 2006;
The Xtra Factor (Björn), 2006;
The X Factor (Benny & Björn), 2018;
Thanks to Jack McCarthy and Kaarin Goodburn c/o ABBAMAIL (no longer online). Extra thanks to Dionne Kennedy, "justforme" and Alexei Zviaguintsev.
YouTube link c/o woutch