Bowie's been a huge influence on me. I remember early on, my dad pulling out the 'Diamond Dogs' album, and the cover alone just grabbed my attention. I think I was probably around 12.
I think the difficult thing is the transition between TV competition series and going into the actual music industry. There still seems to be a slight disconnect there.
There are female artists I can look at that I find more in common with than the male artists, because they're blending the pop, dance and theatricality... but currently there aren't a lot of guys who go there.