Here we go. Semi final for XFactor USA. Or sem-eye final as the strange announcer calls it. Steve comes on and corrects him. Nicole doesn't get the best of welcomes and you have to hope that that doesn't have an impact on Josh's votes.
Marcus gets going pretty quickly with an average and very uninspiring, and occasionally desperately out of tune, attempt at Boyz II Men's I'll Make Love To You. Very poor and not worth $5 million. That song's been done a hundred times by others just as well and mostly better. LA Reid and Paula seem way out on their rating him as highly as they do.
LA Reid's second act next - Chris, who is amazingly still here. Fly with his own lyrics here and there. I suppose it was more 'today' than Marcus' pathetic effort but the vocal was poor. Again, he just doesn't meet anything like what either an American Idol or someone with the X Factor should be providing at this stage of the competition. No wow factor. No nothing really, but that's more than Marcus still.
Melanie next. My goodness, they're racing through. Hero has also been done to death a million times. No-one can doubt her ability to hit the notes and be totally reliable but that didn't inspire either. Far better than the two guys so far but still not good enough for a major semi-final like this event is supposed to be. Actually quite boring. The anthem-like quality may help her with some votes, though.
Josh does Come Together. Again. I'm sure it was just a few weeks ago he did this. Don't remember the others doing their songs as repeats but maybe I've missed something. Hardly surprising as none of them were particularly memorable whereas Josh's was. I remember it being fairly good, not stunning so let's see what he does this time round. maybe he hasn't done it before - getting confused with the other one! This was good. the best of the round by far, a natural and sufficiently original performance to get him noticed. I'm not sure what he'll be recording - they'll need a superb writer if he does win - as this was a bit dated too but he takes the lead with this.
Marcus comes on again with Careless Whisper. In places, very good but only in places. He did something weird with the track about two-thirds of the way through and turned it into a dance song. Wrong, didn't suit the words and that was a mistake. Pity, as he might have rescued himself with that up until he started wailing. Simon was very critical. As always, Paula just drools. That's getting a bit tiresome now.
Chris's track is No-one by Alicia Keys. With plenty of Uh-uhs and ohs after a brief nervous-looking go at a piano I've just realised that he never has had to sing anything at all difficult. That means he gets the right notes, such as they are, and kinda gets away with it all. Although I don't know what he's doing here, he was better than Marcus and, at the way things are going, he'll be even more amazed to find himself in the ruddy Final next week! With the girlie vote then totally his for the asking, who knows what will happen then?
Melanie almost sealed the $5 million with her next track: I'm Feeling Good. A classic, not what you might have expected her to choose but a great example of Simon at his best as she made this very much her own and it was a genuinely memorable performance that will have a lot of people downloading this evening on YouTube or wherever they can get a copy. Although Josh is yet to go, that will be the performance of the night and, possibly the last few weeks. Well done.
If Simon had been managing josh then you'd have predicted that he'd get him doing Hallelujah so Nicole has chosen well again here. It's almost perfect for his range and soulful delivery too, as long as he doesn't go overboard as, occasionally, he has recently when holding back would have been better. There was a moment when I thought this was going to go badly wrong but only a moment. He got it right and that was good. Enough to get him through safely with Melanie to the final, deservedly so. Well done, again.
Marcus and Chris both have to go. It doesn't really matter which goes first.
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