Live Shows: Week Three – Cowell is King of the One Liners!
Big Band Week burst onto our screens this week, bringing with it all the glitz and glamour of a Las Vegas stage. The judges were all present and correct too, as Louis was back on the panel. So, with all the X Factor family back together, it was time to get the party started!
Olly Murs was up first singing ‘Bewitched’. I was really impressed with Olly this week and thought the Big Band genre suited his style of singing. It seems I wasn’t alone – Cheryl said: “It’s like you’re really coming into your own, each week you’re just growing that little bit more”. So Olly might be 10 feet tall in next weeks show!
Little Lloyd Daniels sang ‘Fly Me To The Moon’ and threw in the added bonus of a backflip. I thought Lloyd’s performance was a tad predictable (except for the backflip). Simon’s critique of it was just genius, he said: “Doing a backflip and singing ’Fly Me To The Moon’ is like eating a sandwich while you’re swimming!” Somebody give that man a comedy award!
Miss Frank were next, singing the song that made the judges want to put them together as a group at the auditions, ‘That’s Life’. I enjoyed their performance, and thought the rap gave it a unique twist. Dannii felt that the performance had put the girls ‘back in the race’ and the rest of the judges seemed to agree.
Rachel Adedeji seemed like she had been transformed this week when she came to the stage singing Beyonce’s version of ‘Proud Mary’. With her new image and attitude, to me, Rachel seemed to be comfortable on the stage for the very first time. Louis said: “I can’t understand why people don’t vote for you – you’re an amazing singer, you owned the stage, and I’m glad you got your confidence back”. Me too!
Jamie Archer had a rather controversial song choice this week – ‘Angel Of Harlem’. I was worried for Jamie when I heard that he’d only had 24 hours to learn the song because Simon wasn’t happy with the original choice, but I thought he pulled it off. However, Louis thought that it was a bit of a cheat because the song isn’t usually played by a Big Band. Cheryl also said that the performance didn’t excite her as much as last week’s. Never mind, Jamie, at least they didn’t diss the fro!
Stacey Solomon was up next singing ‘When You Wish Upon A Star’. As I’ve said before, I’m a big fan of Stacey’s, but I didn’t think this week’s performance was as good as her previous ones. The tightness of her dress probably didn’t help! Simon felt that she needs to learn some performance skills. I agree, it would be nice to see Stacey move about a bit more but again, a loose fitting wardrobe would help with that!
Danyl Johnson sang ‘Feeling Good’ and I thought he was back on form this week. The judges seemed to enjoy it too – Dannii thought his performance ‘was very good’. So it’s straight to the top of the class for everyone’s favourite teacher.
Joe McElderry added a bit of Latin flavour to this week’s proceedings with Michael Buble’s version of ‘Sway’. It was nice to see Joe having some fun on the stage and I liked his performance. However, Simon gave it another one of his one line classics: “You’ve got about as much Latin flare as a dolphin”. Where does he think these up?!
Lucie Jones was next singing Ella Fitzgerald’s ‘My Funny Valentine’. I’d never really heard this song before, but thought that it showed off Lucie’s voice really well. Louis said: “There was no tricks, there was no dancing, there was no dancers – you did the hardest thing, it was just you and the voice, and it was an incredible performance”. So true, Louis.
Finally, bringing some more Latin flavour (if you can call it that) to the stage, were John and Edward who sang ‘She Bangs’. I thought their performance was quite surreal, the audience seemed to think so too. When referring to their singing, Simon said: “This is apalling”. He obviously couldn’t think of a one liner for that one!
The Results
After stunning performances from Westlife…
…and Michael Buble…
…the results were in. This week I thought it was the most shocking bottom two ever – Danyl Johnson and Miss Frank. The judges couldn’t make a decision, so the vote went to deadlock and unfortunately, Miss Frank recieved the least votes from the public – a real shame.
It’s rock week next week gang and we have performaces from Bon Jovi and JLS to look forward too – so go and rip your jeans in preperation!
Ciao for now!
