Saturday 8 November 2014

The Top 9 Perform. Andrea wails.

An odd selection, this. It has all the signs of being a tedious programme but hopefully something will cheer it up. The idea of sitting watching very familiar songs being redone, and not always very well if not actually ruined, makes me a bit nervous even for the best acts.

First on is Paul. He has a great voice but I feel his days are numbered. That was not much fun to watch and reminded me of how good Adam Lambert was on American Idol at a similar stage. Adam, of course, is now touring with the real Queen band and doing incredibly well. I don't somehow see Paul getting that or any similar gig. He gets great feedback from the judges but I am not quite sure why.

Jay James tells us about his voice having gone. Seems to happen quite a lot. The Show Must Go On is an appropriate track, therefore. This is a risky song. He tries to do his own thing with it but I'm not sure it's that great. He is someone I would like to see move through and a nice falsetto element near the end might save him. That was not bad but it's not going to get him a contract. Talented guy.

Lauren is my prediction to win and has shown amazing maturity in dealing with everything on the show, especially Mel's comments. Now with Cheryl's undivided attention she has every chance of doing well. The MJ song is a bit boring. Too long in the lower range at the start, it was such a relief when she moved up but not as much of a relief as I had hoped. She could have done a lot better. the ending sounded as if she had forgotten the words and made it up as she went along. Pity. I am pretty sure she'll get through, though, so hopefully it won't matter a great deal.

Apparently she was also ill and that might explain a lot. Simon said that the track was 'good' but the last 20 seconds 'amazing'. Spot on.

Now my favourite act, Only The Young. They did know what they were doing last week and Blame It On The Boogie ought to be right up their street. This is pretty good. A better performance than any of the others by a long way. They seem confident and, once they get going, it turns into something really quite enjoyable. All credit to the black-haired girl who managed and led that really well. Excellent at the end.

Ben takes Simon's advice and starts with just his voice and no backing at all. It works for me and makes the words make more sense. Quite atmospheric. Usually people just dive into this track. He does eventually get into the staccato mode that everyone needs for this  but it suits him well and he certainly came across as very confident. Great job, Ben. He had better be there next week.

Stevi really is now just the 'joke act' but we must remember that he has had experience on stage in West End type shows. Oh boy. He actually makes quite a reasonable stab at Bohemian Rhapsody and you can't help but smile at this. I can definitely see him getting contracts to do this sort of thing but, please, it's not today's chart stuff and he has to go sometime. It may well not be tonight after that. You have to wish him well but I hope he is chucked out before we get too much further down the line and he takes someone deserving's place.

Stereo Kicks sing the slow MJ number. You Are Not Alone could amplify any dodgy notes but by doing a gentle harmony they get away with it. Just the one with the interesting face and hair does the solo stuff and the others are like a big backing band. That works pretty well and the crowd seem impressed. I could have fallen sleep but they might sneak through. I didn't see it but someone ran on to stage in the middle of the performance and they handled it really well. I'll have to watch the re-run of that. All credit to them, anyway. My guess is that Simon would like to see them on the X Factor Tour and tonight decides the places. So my feeling is that they'll get through. The question is: at whose expense?

Fleur has a nice MJ song. It's all about her voice this time with no performance or modern stuff involved. It's an unusual number that sounds familiar but isn't, if that makes any sense. She does it well, very well. A confident and stylish job. I hope that the voting public know the track and help her to stay and join the Tour.

Closing the show is the slightly annoying now Andrea. Somebody To love is a sort of anthem and he goes through it well enough. He'll get plenty of votes for that. I didn't like it that much but then I find it hard to deal with any Queen covers that stay close to the original. Put your own interpretation and it may work better but how anyone can compete with Freddie Mercury is beyond me and whereas some others did their own thing Andrea was doing the copy version. He did it very well but he's no album selling guy for me. Just a nice guy who sings opera style well.

Looks like Paul is in trouble tonight, maybe with Jay for company in the bottom two this week. It should be Stevi, of course.


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