All four acts have shown that they deserve to be here and I can see markets for them all too.
Lots of blue collar stuff from Tate at the start. Something about When The Bomb Drops. Not something I'd rush out and buy but that was a good, professional performance that could have been one of the many strangely names big Country singers over there.
Tate looked younger and healthier too, very relaxed and right in his element. He hasn't moved from his home territory ever since he first auditioned but that clearly hasn't done him any harm. That was great and I can well imagine him doing that for real and lots of fans buying it.
He's got to be in with a good chance of steaming through to the final three. Britney didn't like it but the others had compliments in abundance. He is also, it has to be remembered, the act that had the most votes last week.
Carly Rose does Your Song one of Elton's early numbers. Loved the simple, clean staging for her, the hat too. Another beautiful performance - she has a way to make tracks sound quite different and this was just the right song that she could interpret too. Gentle, with a gradual build but not in any way overdone and perfect diction, Fabulous, absolutely fabulous. The choir I think I might have dispensed with but otherwise faultless. A very difficult track - with some low notes that she just managed - but overall really well done.
That girl is just amazing. I can see what Demi means about the predictability thing - another ballad, another impeccable and accurate delivery and there are aspects that you want to see in a performance that a 13 year old simply cannot bring - but anything other than winning this thing she'd see as a disappointment. Whether she will win, I don't know. The bookies think she will, the voters have consistently said that she's either winning or a fraction of a percent off so she'll be there in the Final 2 unless something very remarkable happens.
Emblem3
I remember Baby I Love Your Ways when Peter Frampton did it first. It suits their voice and style. They don't have any preset dance style and I swear one of them bumped into another near the end but that really doesn't matter. In fact, I prefer the natural performance - just three guys doing what they enjoying. Good choice of song.
They'll need some good writers to get decent material if they are to go far in the world. I can't yet see them winning but they have to have a good chance.
Fifth Harmony
Anything Could Happen I don't recognise. It's a complex song, full of places where all sorts of things could go wrong but that was great. Looking good and sounding excellent that must have taken ages to put together. I feel they do actually deserve to get through as, of all the acts, they do actually come across as the most current and different. There aren't many teen girl bands around. Little Mix won last year in the UK and are nothing like as good as these five. I see a mini-Girls Aloud developing rather than mini-Spice Girls. The name still puts me off a bit and they are generally expected to go but, as Simon remarked, anything could, indeed, happen. They might just attract enough votes to damage someone but who?
I do feel that the first round might just have gone to them, Tate and Carly Rose which, remarkably puts Emblem3 4th. As I tweeted recently - they should all win.
What I do like is the length of the performances this series. We're getting full length tracks and not just the verse, middle bit and show off ending. So much better.
Tate gets Fall given him by LA. This is totally for the Country audience, the older ones, the comfy people and we know there are millions of them. So they're likely to be well and truly bagged. For me this was not the big anthemic song I'd expected. It was a bit predictable - you knew what the next line would be.
Look, it was certainly OK but it doesn't get him winning Round 2. I guess it would be unimaginable for him not to reach the Final 3 - but I would, as things stand, place him 4th only because he's not sufficiently different to stand out whereas each of the other acts are very much identities of their own. Tate is just Country. Good. But just Country, not Tate Country.
Ad for the 2013 auditions now. Hope they find the same level of talent again. I'll be watching.
Britney gives Carly Rose Imagine. Yeah, we've heard this before. Nervous start while she plays the piano which I don't think she wanted to do. She has a lot to do. Then - wow - it explodes, she changes key - where's this going? It's different and I'm not sure but then I am. This time the choir is ne eded. She returns to the piano and ends quietly as she started. I think I'll have to see that again. It was either very very good or she will not have gained any new fans with it.
Simon's comments were spot on - it made a beautiful song fussy with an over-complicated arrangement. It was a big risk. It could be that Britney felt she was so safe that she could take that risk but if the two groups really hit the right spots it might have been one step too far and if the groups manage to pull in a whole bunch of new voters and Carly Rose doesn't then a shock may be coming. Incidentally, the bookies clearly disagree - she is currently an extraordinary 25-1 on to win!
As sheer illustration of talent, I still put her above Tate in this Round 2 though.
Emblem3
Hey Jude is a remarkable choice by Simon battling to get them into the Final 3. It must be difficult for him as, done as well as I think they can do it, this could stuff his other group unless he has something even more amazing to come for them.
This really does suit them and they work well with Beatles tracks generally. It fits. Excellent jump, spot on time for the start of the end. The repeats were cut a bit short - I would like to have seen the passion develop as it does in the original but that was damn good.
They take the lead in Round 2 with that. Which makes predictions even more difficult now!
Fifth Harmony
Simon has played a cool card here - Impossible is the song that James Arthur has just won X Factor UK with! It's also his new single. LA and Britney didn't like it. I thought they came across really well, with the Spanish verse or two sounding great. Each individual was in tune, passionate and with strong personaility and the overall effect was genuinely of a group that had a future and actually would do something fantastic, possibly worldwide, with a $5 million contract.
Camilla was much more to the fore and strong as always but all came across well, with little Ally getting great support from the audience who really love her.
Did they have the edge on Emblem3? Against Hey Jude, I guess not.
This isn't an easy night to call at all. If it were just on tonight's two performances, I'd put both groups through and have to choose between wonderful accuracy but not much emotion and the big Country man who is reliable but just a little boring and really the ultimate in predictability. Yes, I'd put him 4th.
I rather suspect, though, that there simply aren't enough voters to get Fifth Harmony through.
Lots of blue collar stuff from Tate at the start. Something about When The Bomb Drops. Not something I'd rush out and buy but that was a good, professional performance that could have been one of the many strangely names big Country singers over there.
Tate looked younger and healthier too, very relaxed and right in his element. He hasn't moved from his home territory ever since he first auditioned but that clearly hasn't done him any harm. That was great and I can well imagine him doing that for real and lots of fans buying it.
He's got to be in with a good chance of steaming through to the final three. Britney didn't like it but the others had compliments in abundance. He is also, it has to be remembered, the act that had the most votes last week.
Carly Rose does Your Song one of Elton's early numbers. Loved the simple, clean staging for her, the hat too. Another beautiful performance - she has a way to make tracks sound quite different and this was just the right song that she could interpret too. Gentle, with a gradual build but not in any way overdone and perfect diction, Fabulous, absolutely fabulous. The choir I think I might have dispensed with but otherwise faultless. A very difficult track - with some low notes that she just managed - but overall really well done.
That girl is just amazing. I can see what Demi means about the predictability thing - another ballad, another impeccable and accurate delivery and there are aspects that you want to see in a performance that a 13 year old simply cannot bring - but anything other than winning this thing she'd see as a disappointment. Whether she will win, I don't know. The bookies think she will, the voters have consistently said that she's either winning or a fraction of a percent off so she'll be there in the Final 2 unless something very remarkable happens.
Emblem3
I remember Baby I Love Your Ways when Peter Frampton did it first. It suits their voice and style. They don't have any preset dance style and I swear one of them bumped into another near the end but that really doesn't matter. In fact, I prefer the natural performance - just three guys doing what they enjoying. Good choice of song.
They'll need some good writers to get decent material if they are to go far in the world. I can't yet see them winning but they have to have a good chance.
Fifth Harmony
Anything Could Happen I don't recognise. It's a complex song, full of places where all sorts of things could go wrong but that was great. Looking good and sounding excellent that must have taken ages to put together. I feel they do actually deserve to get through as, of all the acts, they do actually come across as the most current and different. There aren't many teen girl bands around. Little Mix won last year in the UK and are nothing like as good as these five. I see a mini-Girls Aloud developing rather than mini-Spice Girls. The name still puts me off a bit and they are generally expected to go but, as Simon remarked, anything could, indeed, happen. They might just attract enough votes to damage someone but who?
I do feel that the first round might just have gone to them, Tate and Carly Rose which, remarkably puts Emblem3 4th. As I tweeted recently - they should all win.
What I do like is the length of the performances this series. We're getting full length tracks and not just the verse, middle bit and show off ending. So much better.
Tate gets Fall given him by LA. This is totally for the Country audience, the older ones, the comfy people and we know there are millions of them. So they're likely to be well and truly bagged. For me this was not the big anthemic song I'd expected. It was a bit predictable - you knew what the next line would be.
Look, it was certainly OK but it doesn't get him winning Round 2. I guess it would be unimaginable for him not to reach the Final 3 - but I would, as things stand, place him 4th only because he's not sufficiently different to stand out whereas each of the other acts are very much identities of their own. Tate is just Country. Good. But just Country, not Tate Country.
Ad for the 2013 auditions now. Hope they find the same level of talent again. I'll be watching.
Britney gives Carly Rose Imagine. Yeah, we've heard this before. Nervous start while she plays the piano which I don't think she wanted to do. She has a lot to do. Then - wow - it explodes, she changes key - where's this going? It's different and I'm not sure but then I am. This time the choir is ne eded. She returns to the piano and ends quietly as she started. I think I'll have to see that again. It was either very very good or she will not have gained any new fans with it.
Simon's comments were spot on - it made a beautiful song fussy with an over-complicated arrangement. It was a big risk. It could be that Britney felt she was so safe that she could take that risk but if the two groups really hit the right spots it might have been one step too far and if the groups manage to pull in a whole bunch of new voters and Carly Rose doesn't then a shock may be coming. Incidentally, the bookies clearly disagree - she is currently an extraordinary 25-1 on to win!
As sheer illustration of talent, I still put her above Tate in this Round 2 though.
Emblem3
Hey Jude is a remarkable choice by Simon battling to get them into the Final 3. It must be difficult for him as, done as well as I think they can do it, this could stuff his other group unless he has something even more amazing to come for them.
This really does suit them and they work well with Beatles tracks generally. It fits. Excellent jump, spot on time for the start of the end. The repeats were cut a bit short - I would like to have seen the passion develop as it does in the original but that was damn good.
They take the lead in Round 2 with that. Which makes predictions even more difficult now!
Fifth Harmony
Simon has played a cool card here - Impossible is the song that James Arthur has just won X Factor UK with! It's also his new single. LA and Britney didn't like it. I thought they came across really well, with the Spanish verse or two sounding great. Each individual was in tune, passionate and with strong personaility and the overall effect was genuinely of a group that had a future and actually would do something fantastic, possibly worldwide, with a $5 million contract.
Camilla was much more to the fore and strong as always but all came across well, with little Ally getting great support from the audience who really love her.
Did they have the edge on Emblem3? Against Hey Jude, I guess not.
This isn't an easy night to call at all. If it were just on tonight's two performances, I'd put both groups through and have to choose between wonderful accuracy but not much emotion and the big Country man who is reliable but just a little boring and really the ultimate in predictability. Yes, I'd put him 4th.
I rather suspect, though, that there simply aren't enough voters to get Fifth Harmony through.
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