Updates and reviews for X Factor UK, X Factor USA, American Idol, Eurovision and other programmes that appeal to me. Published just for fun and maybe a little outrageous fortune and the entertainment and amusement of readers.
Some remarkable work done here in collating loads of information, including some links to contestant's YouTube tracks. It's all a bit jumbled, with bits copied and pasted from Facebook and elsewhere but well done for all that. I particularly like the quotes from judges accompanying many entries which gives us some good pointers as to who to watch out for. It'll also be interesting to see how many of these actually make the recorded programmes.
Take a look and get some advance warning of what's coming! If Simon says it needs to be a group that wins this year then expect some particular attention to making sure one or two get through. You'll recognise some names too.
Link to the [long] blog article. I have also pasted the list of those who could have made it past the first rounds below. There are almost certainly more, though.
Boys: Aaron Alion Austin Chris Scott Cody Danny Falco David Kroll Gabriel Jake Jake Garza Jordan JT Nick Panda Quatrell Rizzloe Jones Skyler Taylor Tory Trevor Moran Willie Jones
Girls: Abi McCaulley Allie Amber Lily Ashley aka Miss Graphic Beatrice Miller Capri aka Erica Carly Rose Sonenclar CeCe Dawson Charleze Christy Dawson Ebanks? Deborah Diaz Diamond White Dinah Jane Felicia Willis Gianelle Garcia Jada Harper Jeremica Jessica Espinoza Jessica Sharpe Jillian Jensen Kedash Kelsey Lydia Caesar Macy Kate Megan Mugzy McCauley Sophie Bean Sophie Simmons Thalia Tiffany
Overs: A'Donna Bowen-Williams Charlotte Embry Jeffrey Adam ??? Joseph Dellamadio Kevontay Jackson Mia Taralyn Ramsey Tate Stevens Troy Kurtis
Groups: AJ Young & Ay-MusiK Before You Exit The Boyle Brothers Breaking Dawn Elevate: On The Rise Emblem3 Headstrong K.I.D.Z. With Dreams Level3 Me Vs Gravity Pants Velour
I wonder why Americans put an E on the end and make Finale a three syllable word? Wooden Steve gives being enthusiastic as good a shot as he can and then the Final 12 arrive. Drew with a new hair colour and style, Marcus with the same difficulty getting the right notes, one from Lakoda Rayne struggling with a note too low for her and another rescuing her with a nicely delivered few lines, Elaine, of course, making herself known and a good cheer from the crowd for Leroy. Astro sounded good and then the three finalists appear but don't seem to do a great deal.
Simon drops another hint that he's seen the voting figures and is feeling nervous but, for all we know, that may have just been a move to try and get as many people to vote for Melanie rather than just assuming she'd win. Until last night I would have said she was a sure-fire certainty but now I really don't know. Final votes are strange affairs, as America Idol, Adam Lambert and Crystal Bowersox fans will be only too well aware.
Melanie follows and matches Mariah Carey note for note on All I Want For Christmas Is You. That was a perfect performance and you have to wonder why she didn't do something so well last night. Not one move or tone out of place. That takes some doing and, even though it's a cheesy song, you couldn't help but feel that she was singing from the heart and totally naturally, totally enjoying it all.
LA Reid introduces Chris Rene with a twinkle in his eye as if knows something that I hope isn't the case. And to make the point perfectly clear, listen again to Chris struggling to hit the right notes on Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas. He's got his hat back but that just goes to show that he isn't a natural singer at all. Performer, maybe, rapper of sorts, yes, and composer (although I prefer Astro's efforts for the modern world) but really not a deserving winner. It's a pretty amateur shot and you get the impression that he's desperately trying to get the next note in place as he finishes the last in this slow but pleasant enough ditty. You wouldn't get that from many of the other contestants who must be wondering why they're not there in 3rd place at least. All credit to the guy for giving up the drugs and the booze and getting as far as he has done and if he does have an influence on some kids heading down the wrong track that's great. Some emotional stuff in the back story with oddities like his son's mum shown but not as 'partner' or 'girfriend' and Simon staying in his seat as the other judges stand to clap. Steve asks him what it would be like to win which he didn't ask Melanie. I wonder if he'll ask Josh?
Steve makes some stupid effort to get invited to Nicole's Christmas party. She says "No." Almost too quickly for easy viewing. Cringe.
Josh is on the stage, with a great number he seems completely comfortable with, matching Melanie in his cruise through the tune, albeit with a much narrower range of notes to handle. He looks happy for the first time for a while too. Taking the pressure off is something they should do more often. This guy is good. I'd love to see him win. Simon seemed to be hinting that he hadn't, though, with the comment that he's going to sell a lot of records, with 'even if you don't win' in brackets.
In the back story we get a pic of Josh with his mum and he's wearing a black T shirt with white writing but the writing is blurred out! I do hope someone somewhere publishes what it did say. There'll be someone out there who'll have the original. In fact it's probably already out there. I would look now but, being a day behind the States, I'd find out who did win in the course of the search! I have had to avoid Twitter and Facebook all day. Strangely Google+ has made no mention that I've spotted but that's probably because my main account follows the wrong people.
Josh doesn't get asked about winning either.
Steve returns after the ad break and flies through some announcement about the 3rd place person being announced which no-one pays any attention to as he leaps into the introduction for Justin Bieber. Oh dear, not good. But then we get Stevie Wonder with a disturbing wail. That's probably caused by his being told to duet with the least likely person he should ever duet with for more reasons than I can write now. That was pretty awful to listen to. It was like Stevie was on another planet. Anyway, Stevie and his harmonica get shoved off stage and Justin does a second number. A bit better with some classy dancing. It's all mimed as he makes obvious on occasion but good entertainment for all that. There was a nice surprise at the end of his session when he gets Drew on stage with him and she sings an apparently unrehearsed last line or two and the guy hugs her and takes her dancing around the stage. Nice touch and the guy's gone up in my estimation, if only for his taste in girls.
For Drew, you get the feeling that that moment was as good for her as winning the damn competition and there seemed to be plenty of hints of some future joint efforts. Good luck to them. Nice result for the girl and props to the producers for a memorable moment.
Steve then announces the third place and all is well with the world as Chris Rene gets 3rd place. That's still a lot higher than he should be but I'll settle for that. Yesss. The right two in the top two places, and I don't mind who wins. Melanie would be the bigger long-term star but Josh, if someone writes some decent material for him, could be impressive and it would be great to see the burrito slinger with a great big smile. You just know that he doesn't think he has a hope in hell against Melanie so it would be a fun moment.
A strange combination of Leona Lewis singing her soulful and gentle Run to a backing screen featuring what appear to be contestants through the show so far. Idiots in the crowd scream and cheer at their favourites, completely destroying any atmosphere Leona attempts to generate at the start. However, as the song builds then they shut up and you can only admire her ability and recognise that she has been one of the leading winners of this type of competition. It was three years ago that she won on X Factor UK, with Simon leading that panel too and his company taking her on.
Next we get 50 Cent, a lot of attractive girls and probably some other rap stars I don't recognise. It's quite funny watching them try to match their lips to the backing track but the mike style adopted is quite effective at disguising how poor they are. Astro actually shines in comparison and I can see him doing really well in that genre if he stays off the drugs and booze and doesn't completely lose it. I guess he won't be duetting with Justin Bieber, though.
This has been some programme and puts the UK final to shame in a big way. We even had Rachel showing Steve how to read an autocue with some style. He may be a decent chap but I do hope, for his sake if not ours, that rumours of his demise are true. He'll never survive what writers will throw at him next time.
Pitbull Ft Neyo. Good club stuff and more pretty girls. More Nicole and Paula doing the point one arm to the sky thing. Marcus joins in. Remember Marcus? He can lip sync better than most. Good job done.
Putting all the previous joint efforts to complete shame, however, were Josh and Melanie singing Heroes. Brilliant and inspiring. It's pretty clear who's taking the lead, though and, sure enough, a few minutes later it is, indeed Melanie who takes the title. A good result.
Bundles of people rush onto stage and Steve is left wandering around and eventually interviews Josh who is more than happy to be the runner-up. Simon comes to Steve's rescue not once but twice as he spends more time telling the audience that he will try once again to get Melanie to speak and failing and, basically, looking very silly. She makes a brave effort at the final song but, next time guys, end with the glitter and party on the stage, OK?!
This is the final. We're spared the pointless sing-a-long at the start and almost straight in to the first contender's spot.
Josh
What is he singing? In fact, is he singing anything at all? For a moment I was worried but then Alanis Morrisette joins him and all's well with the world, the song she wrote takes off. This had a slow build and, however much I might have liked it, I'm not so sure the voters will be madly pressing the Josh numbers on their phones afterwards. Josh and Alanis suit each other really well but Simon was absolutely right in his observation that Josh appeared somewhat intimidated at the outset.
Josh also proceeds to wander off aimlessly with Steve having to bring him back from whatever world he'd gone into!
Wooster, Oh comes on screen. Ah, his home town in Ohio. Not Bertie Oh. Got it. Anyway, all credit to the crew on the mikes and camera who did a good job of what have in the past been annoying home town spots. Especially compared to the disasters we had to suffer on X Factor UK.
Chris
One thing Chris can't do is hold many different notes in tune. He burbled along and then introduced Avril Lavigne who disguised all of that and even made him look quite good. All he had to do was contribute the occasional Ah, Uh, Uh. This was a more commercial number than Josh's and his fans will have liked that. To be honest, Chris really didn't do much at all but he managed to stay in the race all the same.
His 'home town' slot was hilarious with some fat woman who used to live next door to him screaming at the mike and a bunch of mates from a rehab unit saying something I didn't catch. One old bloke was about to get excited when Steve obviously got the nod to move on.
Melanie
The best start of the three by a long way but still not very inspiring. This was the big song that everyone knows but she seemed just to sing the words not the feeling, probably her mind, like the others, occupied with remembering to announce her partner, in this case, R Kelly. Again, as for the other two contestants, the song then took off and the pair did a pretty good job too. Not as strong as I'd expected, though. I guess they're all a bit nervous.
For this very famous song, it was the first time the writer had sung it as a duet with anyone. That was quite a compliment for Melanie.
Sunrise, Fl, did the honours. Some 'church'. (Well, that's what Steve had called it. Looked more like a ruddy stadium to me). Nice work by the guy supporting her. Made Chris's look really stupid.
Separating the first and second songs we had a tribute to Michael Jackson with Circle Soleil dressed as a bunch of angry looking robots thumping quite effectively around the stage. They were doing a good job but, of course, we get Chris, Melanie and Josh in the middle, looking quite embarrassed and trying to move in time with each other and the dancers. That didn't work at all. Josh seemed to be watching Melanie's feet and Chris was waving his hands around when he probably wasn't supposed to. Good performance by the robots, presumably not the other contestants in costumes.
Josh At Last
Yes, at last, this was the Josh we wanted to see and hear. He could do with letting someone else have the guitar but this was soulful and a well-judged performance. I do feel that he hasn't pushed himself in this final to wow people in the way that he did at the very start of this competition. He seems to just be there and to regard himself as the last person likely to win as if he was there to sing and nothing much else. In a way, I was very impressed but he will be enormously surprised to win, I'm sure. I can't see that he can now but he should be proud of whatever he's done.
Oh dear. The Wooster Oh guys are beginning to lose it now, too, after all. Oh well.
It'll be a close call now between Josh and Chris. Much depends on what Chris pulls out of the bag. With LA Reid, a smart market man, behind him, it could now be enough to push Josh to third place.
Chris Homie, what you trippin' on?
I think that was the title of a track he's written himself and it was very well presented, with a nice bunch of guys and gals on the stage and Chris owning the stage and clearly enjoying the limelight. Throwing his hat out to the crowd he certainly gained a lot of approval and must have made himself a real contender, not just for second place but it now depends very much, for the first time in the whole competition, on what Melanie does or doesn't do.
I still don't rate him as a deserving winner or long-time artist in future and we're all getting too much of the back story of drugs and stuff for my liking but you can't blame LA Reid for those tactics.
Steve did one of his classic mistakes with a casual "Whatever" after LA Reid had said his bit on the panel, which sounded completely wrong!! Prior to the LA endorsement we had to watch Paula going bananas. I suppose with Marcus absent, Chris was the next choice for her to do the swooning thing over. She really does need to keep things a bit more real and so far we've only had Simon doing anything resembling a judge's commentary. Even Simon, though, seemed to take note of the ease with which Chris moved around and delivered the track, saying that that was his '$5 million song'. One has to wonder whether he knows something about the voting figures that we don't as that looked to me a very clear admission that Melanie's wouldn't be. From him, that was odd.
More idiotic stuff from his club friends. And a mayor who seemed fresh out of rehab as well.
Melanie
Well, this is what we've really all been waiting for. She has to have been the front runner for a while now and has been consistently totally confident, inspiring, note-perfect and displaying star quality - the X Factor as I understand it - week after week.
Odd choice of song again. Something she could belt out, sure, but, something we really take on board and feel is the one to give her the winner's crown? Not really. But then neither was Chris's in that respect. She'll have achieved what her fans wanted but will she have won over any new ones?
This was an anthem-like track and a good final song for the series. Slightly disappointed, though.
In fact, overall, Josh would get my vote, for what it's worth.
Even in the very first sing-a-long-a contestants number, Melanie simply stands out so clearly as the talent there. Even in a hip hoppy type of interpretation of Shout, Shout, Let It All Out that gave Marcus and Chris the chance to do their thing, she effectively trumped them as if she'd decided to take every opportunity to make sure we realise how good she is. This would have had a pre-recorded backing track to which they could mime and mumble but my guess is that she was live and sang over it - and to great effect.
Josh looked a bit uncomfortable. He managed his bits fine enough but this is one of those things that this sort of show needs to sort out - some people just aren't dancers and nor should they be or feel obliged to be.
Steve tells us that there have been 30 million votes which will please the production company. But we still get an ad immediately after the intro.
Accompanying the recaps we get some very strange clips of supporters (hopefully not families or relatives) of Marcus and Chris sounding not exactly pleasant compared to those behind Melanie and Josh.
More ads. This is annoying. As was Steve's attempts to chat to LA with Paula wandering around in front of him and, at most times, the camera man must have had his eye on someone completely different as he was out of shot. Talent's regained when Florence & The Machine perform Spectrum. Brilliant and she shows us just how way off stardom Chris and Marcus really are. One, surely has to go tonight. At least there can be none of Nicole's messing around this time with a straight decision from the numbers passed to Steve.
Chris is first through. Now if it were to be between him and Marcus I would have expected the producers to leave him and Marcus standing. Melanie next. So it's between Josh and Marcus and that has to give Marcus some hope which previously probably wasn't there. Have the girls pushed up the Marcus vote? Josh doesn't strike me as someone who will get an audience that keeps Chris in this long sufficiently excited to vote for him but I also would have expected the same voters to be split between Chris and Marcus so letting Josh through unless he really didn't appeal much at all. My guess is that Marcus really has been finally sussed and, combined with the split referred to, he has easily the least votes and, indeed, Josh may well have secured 2nd place and will, deservedly, be there next week. And in a final, Josh can perform and challenge Melanie or, at least, give her a good run for the $5 million if, as I suspect, Chris has merely scraped through tonight and goes pretty smartly in 3rd place.
The guys have a painful wait, though, while Nicole performs. and what a performance! I think it must have been called Pretty. Excellent. Whoever wrote that deserves a medal and worth watching again. It's bound to be on YouTube now.
And so, finally, we get to know the last place in the final...
It's Josh! Good. We can look forward to the final now. As expected, apart from Drew.
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.
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.
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.
