X Factor Live Shows Week 2 Pt2. The One Where Tamera Gets A Compliment.

The Sunday night programme starts with a pretty dire sing-a-long of the big Avicii number and then more time gets wasted as the judges and acts are run through once more. Dermot does his best to move things along but we're really waiting for Katie Perry to sing Roar which she does extremely well and if she was miming it was unnoticeable. I'd say she wasn't - which is quite unusual for this show.

Robin Thicke did his Blurred Lines too so we're talking about some pretty hot numbers, even if his was a bit old now and with slightly adjusted lyrics to keep the grannies happy.

Kingsland Road had come a very surprising bottom in the Flash Vote yesterday. Tonight Shelley joined them in the sing-off. There was a nervous moment for Sam Callahan who hadn't excelled himself either but it was Shelley who had received the least votes since.

In the sing-off Kingsland Road did Pink's Try. That was an amazingly good performance - as if they had been rehearsing all night and all day too. Not a note out of place and the main singers were on top form. Whatever Shelley was going to do was simply never likely to be enough. Even she congratulated them as she went on to sing something that I can't now recall.



The judges duly voted her off. They really did not have any choice, unlike the Baloney days that I feared might me upon us.

The Xtra Factor is getting better and better and Sunday night was particularly memorable for Matt Johnson's compliment about Tamera's bottom, only then to be told that she was just 16... Lucky this is UK and not USA. He was dead right though.

So all's well that ends well and Sam B remains to fight the Overs' Corner.

Tonight's 80s Night Song Choices

Here are the song choices for this week. Something to do with 80s Night. They are not in performance order.

Abi Alton – Livin’ On A Prayer

Presumably one of her delightful slow versions with just a guitar backing. That should work well and, looking at the others, could stand out.

Sam Bailey – Power of Love

There are some 'oh not again!' tracks in this lot and this is one of them. You can hear it already and know exactly how she'll present it. She'll survive anyway.

Hannah Barrett – What’s Love Got To Do With It

I think Hannah's on 'voice rest' so maybe she gets a free pass which would be one very lucky break for her as I don't think she's going to be very popular and this would just be some belted out angry shout. probably in tune but not something you want to watch while you're having dinner.

Sam Callahan – Summer of ‘69

A great choice but a huge risk as this is almost one of the Defining Pop Songs of all time. He ought to be able to pull this off with the right arrangement and he's too popular to go anyway.

Tamera Foster – Ain’t Nobody

Tough song to get across effectively and in a way that'll get people voting. She should be OK and perhaps will put her own slant on this and do better than the old belters out there.

Luke Friend – Every Breath You Take

Nice choice should give him the chance to do both styles - appealing and a bit gentle and the heavy stuff thrown in too. Talented guy. I don't think he'll be around for many weeks but unless he cocks this up big time he'll be safe to fight again next week.

Kingsland Road – I’m Your Man

Well this will either go down a storm or leave them flailing around with Shelley in the Bottom Two. I have no idea which.

Nicholas McDonald – True

One odd-looking kid doing Spandau Ballet. That's a brave move and at least it's not 'Gold'! I can see him performing really well, all the notes in the right place and sounding pretty good but not exactly causing a stir. he should get through, though, for another week.

Miss Dynamix – Jump

The groups are great this year and these three should rock the house with this number. Lively and not too tricky to get right, they could have a good time, smile and look attractive and not quite as frightening as some of their publicity shots show. Quite looking forward to that one.

Rough Copy – In The Air Tonight

Phil Collins gets an 80s recognition with this track which has a tendency to go on and on and on. Luckily, they'll have just two minutes max so that's all right then. I can actually see them doing a superb job with this, tweaking it around a bit and possibly improving on the dreary Collins number. If the newspapers haven't affected the people who would be their voters in normal circumstances they'll be ones to watch.

Lorna Simpson – So Emotional

Nice lady with a big voice and quite a good stage presence, the best of Sharon's odd bunch in my view. This is a difficult number to excel with. She might. She should survive anyway and, possibly, could be the second best performance if she gets everything right. Second worse if she gets everything wrong.

Shelley Smith – Alone

Oh dear. Oh dear. You can just see her now, doing all the cliché moves, if you can have cliché  moves, the crouching, the hip sway, the large thighs thudding up and down, the huge oval of a mouth doing the 'lone' bit as several syllables. Most words will have an extra 'wa' on the end. She may be a nice lady but I'd rather she were back in the van. This year's Maloney but marginally better. God, I hope that doesn't mean she'll be 3rd.

X Factor UK Photoshoot Review

So now we can see the Live Show performers in their, er, glamour shots. As always, some seem to come off rather better in these than others.

Abi just about survives the flash of the camera but I much prefer her original, unposed, shots. -

I thought this was Hannah at first glance. No, Lorna had some nice-looking images before. This is awful. The hair, the pretend African style design and brown ---

Hannah. -

What is it with these faux patterns this year? Cheerful but the blue hair band is naff. -

Well OTT on hair products and shiny make-up. Stupid smiles don't help any of some otherwise quite attractive girls. --

Nicholas might just as well keep on walking past. No worse though. =

The only one where a real difference has been made. Generally for the best but I can't see her getting any extra votes but well done. First success of sorts ++

Another success although this Sam has modelled before so should be easy to work with +

Shelley should make the most of all this before she goes in Week 1. +

Tamera is one of the few acts to look cool this year and vaguely like a potential pop star ++

Rough Copy benefit iensely from the make-up and dress team's efforts +++

Kingsland could, I'm afraid be virtually any boy band. This looks 80s. Maybe not necessarily a bad thing, I suppose.  Wasn't there a shot without the cheesy smile centre? ++-+-