Thursday 8 November 2012

Week 2: Now It's A Top 13 As Simon Does It Again

One of the nice things about being Simon Cowell is that if you change your mind about one of the acts being sent home you can bring them back again as a Wild Card. Last year he popped around to Melanie Amaro's place and brought her back, which was just as well for the show as she finished up winning it. Not that she's done a great deal since and we're still waiting to see just what the $5 million has done for her. A few bob spent on better writers might have been a better idea. This year it's little Diamond White that he feels bad about and she's back to steal some votes from Arin and Beatrice.

Arin



One minute he's got girls in strangely patterned suits around him and the next he's got lads in leather as if we're watching two different performances. Better than last week and he's moving around a lot in those pants which will no doubt get him a few more votes. American Boy was OK but nothing spectacular. If it wasn't for the fact that he's the only young guy in the show mopping up the teen girl vote I'd say he hasn't long to go.   Emblem3 have, of course, already cleaned up most of them anyway.

Paige



So she comes down from on high and the wind machine blasts he dress nicely. That requires someone to come along and unbelt the harness so there was a convenient chap around who fiddled around and freed her from the device and kissed her neck while he was at it. She is looking good and, although the performance of Take My Breath Away wasn't that great she's making an effort to stay. The song seemed to go nowhere and she may have been more concerned with the staging than any emotion. I particularly got annoyed at the way she ran through 'take my breath' when the words really should have been delivered more slowly. It didn't work for me and the flying stuff seemed a bit irrelevant at the end of the day. The notes were in the right places, though, and that was a lot better than last week too.

Vino




With When A Man Loves A Woman LA has given Vino a nice, solid and soulful number to work with which his supporters should love. He put a huge amount of heart into that and that's this guy's strength. With a shout out to the East Coast at the end (and wandering off while Simon chats with Demi about Susan Boyle to touch hands in the front row left) he is showing some individuality and has a certain something that could carry him through for a while yet. He still isn't dressed right and LA needs to get settled on a style but his singing was pretty much spot on. It going to be urban versus country at some point and he'll need the mob to persuade workers to vote to beat Tate in that if he's going to make the finals.

Emblem3




Great mix of My Girl, California Girl and something that sounded to me like the start of a Grease track but must have been a One Direction thing. Simon clearly has worked some magic with this group and is right behind them and making all the right decisions. That worked well, good voices, bags of energy and they're a very likeable bunch that will pull in masses of votes from exactly the audience this show is aimed at. (Whether that's actually who's watching and voting remains to be seen, of course!) Other things, being equal, Emblem3 must be in the final and we'll be watching them doing strong, confident performances all the way through.

Beatrice



I didn't recognise this track - Iris?. Not sure it really worked for her. She has a great, very marketable voice that stands out but it didn't suit this track at all and just sounded like someone young singing and didn't have that special timbre effect that she achieved last week. She put some distance in between her and Carly Rose, who must be her main rival, and that may be useful. This song just started and stopped and, although I thought we was going to take it somewhere interesting at one point it didn't ever get there. Nice personality  though, and even if she falls at a hurdle soon, she deserves to be supported and brought back again as she will succeed one day.

Jennel




I Love Rock And Roll is the direction Demi is sending Jennel but I'm not so sure that's a good idea. She looked quite old - good, but old. This girl is more talented than she could show from that performance. I had her down as a potential winner at the start but now I'm having doubts. She has some superb abilities to perform and use a huge range, as well as getting all the notes right but this was a badly arranged song. Not her fault, and I hope she survives to bring something better to the show next week.

Tate




Dead Or Alive did absolutely nothing for me. This was a tedious performance. Well sung, reasonably presented, I suppose, and the guy has all the confidence in the world and is so natural on stage, but that still left me cold. He is lucky to be the one Country guy on this show as that should guarantee him a good many more weeks. 37? I thought he was a lot older. My guess is that he'll cruise through this week and let us hope he gets a better song next time.

Lyric145




You really do not know to expect from these guys. Lyric does lead the way but this week the two guys get in on the act in a good way too. Supercalifragilisticexpealidocious must have been one of the most unlikely tracks for this group to do in the world and it seems that it was the girl's choice too. Brave. Very brave. Odd. Very odd. But it worked and I reckon they'll get a lot of respect for that bit of entertainment and they made themselves less threatening and more appealing to the audience than what I imagine their natural hard-nosed stuff might do. Whether they're admitting it or not, Simon's commercial influence has had some big effect. They'll be popular and should be easily through to next week.

Diamond




So the little girl's back and she sure has a better reason to be in this competition that some. I Have Nothing was one big song for her and, despite a lot of effort and great notes in places, and bags of personality  this was way too big for her. The high notes didn't work and there was no feeling in this. She is talented but needs to move away from the old fashioned big ballads. There are at least five other girls who could have blown her off the stage with that number. In fact, it's a pity that Cece didn't choose it instead of what she does try which, strangely, I can imagine Diamond doing far better!


Cece



The trademark spots are back and she's looking good as ever. This is a strange arrangement of The Eye Of The Tiger though and I'm really not at all sure Demi knows what's she's doing with this girl. I almost wonder whether the 'leopard' spots gave her the link to 'tigers' and hence the song. She may well have done better with What's New Pussy Cat? as this was not brilliant. At one point I honestly thought she'd lost the track but it was just pathetically put together for her. In places, you could tell this is a potentially really good star - the way she picked out lines at the end and hit some great and strong notes too - but there were also several
bad notes and wobbles that spoilt it. I'm very disappointed and so much hope that someone helps her choose some decent track next time - and that, indeed, enough people actually vote to keep her in there. Luckily it's voting across the baord and she's not up against just Paige and Jennel - if she had have been then that would have been farewell.

Carly Rose




There are few performances these days that you want to watch again but this is one of them. Remarkable. From the very start, the dlight of every single note being where it belongs and I actually felt she meant the words too. Again, remarkable, as that ahs been where she's not got through before. Very, very impressive indeed and streets, streets ahead of anyone else so far on this show tonight. By miles.

And I didn't even know the song. It Will Rain.

Jason




OMG. Well, that's how Jason starts most of his tweets... This is a tedious song. I Believe I Can Fly is not one of my favourites as it has been done by so many people and, mostly, very badly arranged. This was another bad arrangement, I'm afraid. Jason has a great voice and could be a super entertainer with that great personaility. It may appeal to the grannies and he's ten times, no a thousand times, more watchable than Old Balonet who is still surviving on X Factor UK.

I can't imagine how LA Reid thinks this is going to do him any good but that may say more about LA Reid as it does about Jason. Pity. I like the guy but he deosn't stand a chance in this competition - especially after that incredible Carly Rose performance.


Fifth harmony




So now we have the, hopefully, final name. This is a good group and the harmonies worked well on A Thousand Years but it was one stunning, albeit too short, performance by one girl whose naem I haven't figured out yet, that made it special. It wasn't the one near the end who was good but a bit OTT either but one earlier, after the slightly weak start girl. OK it was the one second from the right, whoever she is! They're up against a couple of damn good groups though and I really don't know how they'll fare. they might get more votes ultimately (not this week) than Lyric145 but beating Emblem3 will be very difficult as things stand. Then they've got to steal votes off other acts too in order to stay around long. I hope they do but I'm not sure. If only to give that one girl a chance, and the delightful little one at the end too, I want to see them back.







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