Lenny Kravitz appears totally out of place to kick off the show. Brilliant but just odd when you let your imagination wander to Rachel coming on stage afterwards. In fact, only Josh might have coped without a hugely strange juxtaposition in tv land. For all that, it was a great opening and a good reminder that there's more to music than contestants singing other people's tunes and interesting to note that he was amongst the oldest people there.
A recap only served to remind us how good Melanie was, how desperate Marcus looked, how bad Rachel was, how embarrassing Josh was and how weak Chris was with their first songs. And how only Josh improved on their ratings with the second effort.
Josh and Chris get the first allocated safe places. We know that Melanie gets the third place so it's Marcus or Rachel to go. Either can go and not bother me as they're not winners - but it's going to be Rachel as Marcus gets the two girls' votes for just standing there.
Another star that's getting on a bit comes on to keep Melanie waiting. Mary J Blige is a classy act but that was a bit boring and clashed with all the pzazz of wondering who's going, Lenny and anyone would clash with Steve anyway.
Long drawn out, totally unnecessary to tell us that Melanie (who probably got the most votes) is through. As I can't see Marcus ever bringing anything new to the music scene, then, in a sense, I might prefer to see Rachel survive as when she does manage to hit the right notes and has a track that lets her personality shine through she is different and fun and I can see her appealing to kids and the 'Rachel Doll' joke that someone made a while ago may not be so silly at all in terms of merchandising if you're looking for a business venture rather than a really good singer. I don't see much of a market for a Marcus Doll. Even less for a Josh Doll, come to think of it.
Marcus sings I'm Going Down which might be appropriate and, yes, you know we'll get the heart on the stage comments from Paula, and tears in a while, as she saves him. Or, at least, you might have thought were it not for what Simon pulls out of his bag of tricks for Rachel.
Rachel sings I'd Rather Go Blind, a great, great track from Christine McVie and Chicken Shack. The words are way out of her league but I have to say she performed it damn well and far better than Marcus. There was a real effort here. You just couldn't believe it, for all that. Which was a shame.
That performance will have made it more difficult for one of the girls to vote against her and they may just agree during the ad break, probably with a whisper from producers of who actually got the lowest vote, to go for stalemate and relieve themselves of making any decision or accusations of Marcus infatuation from Rachel fans tomorrow.
So as the last minutes of the show tick away I am genuinely not sure which way this is going to go. I'm thinking now that Marcus is going... No, wrong, as Nicole makes a complete cock-up even of not deciding, it's Rachel whose pretty error-strewn previous performances had lost a lot of supporters that is to go. Clearly shocked she wails and that's when you realise that maybe it wasn't such a bright idea to have such young entrants. Steve has people everywhere on the stage, mum comforting Rachel and I have to say that he handled the emotional chaos pretty well. Nicole gets booed by the audience and Steve, interestingly, asks if she wants to comment as if he knew that would bring even more boos. She turns her back and walks away.
All this rather diminishes the respect for the success that three, at least, deserved for getting through to next week's semi final but now we should see a real competition and my money's on Melanie and Josh, in that order. Let's just hope they don't try anything stupid like dancing.
A recap only served to remind us how good Melanie was, how desperate Marcus looked, how bad Rachel was, how embarrassing Josh was and how weak Chris was with their first songs. And how only Josh improved on their ratings with the second effort.
Josh and Chris get the first allocated safe places. We know that Melanie gets the third place so it's Marcus or Rachel to go. Either can go and not bother me as they're not winners - but it's going to be Rachel as Marcus gets the two girls' votes for just standing there.
Another star that's getting on a bit comes on to keep Melanie waiting. Mary J Blige is a classy act but that was a bit boring and clashed with all the pzazz of wondering who's going, Lenny and anyone would clash with Steve anyway.
Long drawn out, totally unnecessary to tell us that Melanie (who probably got the most votes) is through. As I can't see Marcus ever bringing anything new to the music scene, then, in a sense, I might prefer to see Rachel survive as when she does manage to hit the right notes and has a track that lets her personality shine through she is different and fun and I can see her appealing to kids and the 'Rachel Doll' joke that someone made a while ago may not be so silly at all in terms of merchandising if you're looking for a business venture rather than a really good singer. I don't see much of a market for a Marcus Doll. Even less for a Josh Doll, come to think of it.
Marcus sings I'm Going Down which might be appropriate and, yes, you know we'll get the heart on the stage comments from Paula, and tears in a while, as she saves him. Or, at least, you might have thought were it not for what Simon pulls out of his bag of tricks for Rachel.
Rachel sings I'd Rather Go Blind, a great, great track from Christine McVie and Chicken Shack. The words are way out of her league but I have to say she performed it damn well and far better than Marcus. There was a real effort here. You just couldn't believe it, for all that. Which was a shame.
That performance will have made it more difficult for one of the girls to vote against her and they may just agree during the ad break, probably with a whisper from producers of who actually got the lowest vote, to go for stalemate and relieve themselves of making any decision or accusations of Marcus infatuation from Rachel fans tomorrow.
So as the last minutes of the show tick away I am genuinely not sure which way this is going to go. I'm thinking now that Marcus is going... No, wrong, as Nicole makes a complete cock-up even of not deciding, it's Rachel whose pretty error-strewn previous performances had lost a lot of supporters that is to go. Clearly shocked she wails and that's when you realise that maybe it wasn't such a bright idea to have such young entrants. Steve has people everywhere on the stage, mum comforting Rachel and I have to say that he handled the emotional chaos pretty well. Nicole gets booed by the audience and Steve, interestingly, asks if she wants to comment as if he knew that would bring even more boos. She turns her back and walks away.
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| Photo published by xfactorusa.com |
All this rather diminishes the respect for the success that three, at least, deserved for getting through to next week's semi final but now we should see a real competition and my money's on Melanie and Josh, in that order. Let's just hope they don't try anything stupid like dancing.
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