The show went some way towards redeeming itself on the second instalment, Sunday evening.
Ryan Wilkins was first on but I doubt we'll hear much more of him. He is the amateur that the show is good at finding and encouraging, with a good voice but I reckon he could get annoying.
The show briefly descends to low levels again with some crazy woman and then we get Tom & Laura. This is, in many respects the direct opposite of Bradley & Octavia. Quite substantial, black-clad chap and girlfriend or wife. They have pleasant personalities but I wouldn't call them photogenic. Sex On Fire seemed an unusual choice for their audition song but I have to say they did it really well, putting their own style to good effect in the performance. I'm not sure how marketable they'd be but there's good chemistry and nice harmonies. Simon says the guy needs to take the lead as he is significantly the better singer. I don't agree. They balanced each other well. They might just surprise us.
Next we return to London and have a string of really quite good auditions.
Freddy Parker sings Love Is A losing Game and plays piano. He is extremely good and very camera-friendly too. He comes across as professional, knows what he's doing and he'll go far. One of the best I've seen.
Chanal follows with a Lauren Hill number I don't know. Another excellent audition from a pretty professional contestant who knows what she's doing and has come prepared.
Max follows now and looks like a boy band member. Good looks and we get quite a back story for him and a girl dumping him. I have no idea why that is of any relevance but presume he gets quite a bit further to make any of that worthwhile. He also has a nice nan so he must go far! His version of Stand By Me is solid and effective. He has some bad habits, not as professional the two who preceded him but I could see him making the Love Shows too. That would be four acts just from today so far.
Back to the weird department with Irina who is Russian but lives in Los Angeles. So why is she in London? No idea. Maybe the producers flew her in as there were not at the time enough odd acts for the programme. Her lipstick is terrible. But she can sing. Her accent does spoil her audition but not that adversely. She has a lot going for her with the voice and personality but I am not sure how far she'll go. Definitely deserves to go to the next stage, makes for fun TV rather than dire TV.
Talking of weird, perhaps the strangest audition is the doll. I had been waiting for this as the image of Sada Vidoo is everywhere and in one sense she's already won as whoever does her marketing has done a superb job.
Sada Vidoo thinks she is a living doll. She is quite entitled to do so although I do wonder what she really says to herself when she's sitting on the loo or trying to get the oven to work. She can sing. She can sing well and immediately you think of Lady Gag and Sia who also can look pretty weird at times and seem to do pretty nicely for themselves. Her performance of Pat Benatar's Love Is A Battlefield was stunning. Yes, she acts a lot but she is good at it. I like her but I do hope she gets rid of the dress that, as Sharon notes, makes her look more like a toilet roll cover from the 1970s!
Last of the night is Marianna from Italy. She has a long back story that gets our sympathy so you hope she'll be good. She is quite good. She sings The Redemption Song well and brings out tons of passion along the way. There's lots of applause in the hall, watching a big screen, for her that I hadn't seen shown for anyone else. Sharon says she has the best voice in the auditions so far. OK, so we don't know how many days they'd been doing auditions for at that time but that's quite a compliment whatever the case. I'm not so sure but expect she'll get a fair way and just how far depends on just how many more good acts appear in the Overs which are already looking pretty busy.
Let s hope that next weekend maintains Sunday's quality and does not revert to Saturday's levels.
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