
It was ‘Rock’ night this week, and naturally, the two soft-voiced girls were destined to fail miserably. I mean, Lucie’s practically musical theatre, and Stacey’s Eva Cassidy-lite. Was this the case? Not at all. In fact, these two, alongside Rachel and Joe, totally put the other five to shame last night. Dannii’s gotten to know the girls, and as a result, her song choices were fantastic. And Joe’s just so consistent…I really don’t think he’s ever going to have a bad night, unless they do an urban/hip hop theme or something.
Dannii and Louis swapped seats last night, which was weird at first, but actually worked. You just know the media are going to have a field day as a result though. Speaking of Dannii: did anyone see her on Life Stories? She came across so well. She seems like such a lovely, genuine person.
The performances:
Joe opened the show with karaoke standard (and the most downloaded song of all time), ‘Don’t Stop Believin”, by Journey. It’s not exactly the edgiest song in the world, so Joe didn’t look out of his depth, and it’s a BIG song with a lot of BIG notes, so it allowed Joe to demonstrate yet again that he’s probably the best vocalist in the competition. He’s still totally musical theatre, but who cares, it still worked. Wasn’t sure about the outfit, but that’s not important in Joe’s case. Oh, and he’s finally started to learn to control his vibrato, which sounded nice this week.
Lucie was next, which was weird. They stuck the two ‘reliable’ contestants on first, meaning that they would’ve had nobody to fall back on had the others fallen apart (a la Diva week). Lucie was brilliant. She sang ‘Sweet Child o’ Mine’, but didn’t stick to the Sheryl Crow version. The singing was by in large great (she’s up there with Joe), and she seemed pretty comfortable. Last week she was classy and sultry, and this week she was youthful and exciting. Unlike certain other performers tonight, she managed to make a classic rock song sound contemporary, and everything just worked. Cheryl and Simon think she could be a British Avril Lavigne, and while I’m not convinced, they have a strong argument after this. If I was going to manage Lucie, I’d have her go down a sort of alternative pop route. Think the Dawson’s Creek soundtrack with a bit more edge. Paula Cole/Jewel/etc with a modern spin. I think I’ve finally found a proper favourite in Lucie, and I can’t wait to see what she does next week.
Danyl sang ‘I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing’, which says a lot about the effort Simon puts into his song choices, tbh. He couldn’t hear the backing track at first, and started in the wrong key, sadly. Still, he managed to pick himself up by the start of the first chorus, and while it wasn’t pitch perfect, he still sounded good for the remainder of the song. The belts at the end were strong. Dannii thinks he’s lost his mojo after last week, and Louis wants him to get his confidence back. Cheryl? Well, she just doesn’t like him. I doubt he’s too bothered, Chezza. He looked a bit crestfallen, but I think this was more on account of his mishap in the first verse than his bottom two experience last week. I doubt he’ll fall into that position this week again regardless: he’ll have the backlash vote, the worried fan vote, and sympathy vote (the played on the fact that the media have been horrible to him in his VT). Hope he recovers next week, because I still love him.
Lloyd essentially killed ‘I Kissed a Girl’, and not in a good way. I do really like Lloyd’s voice, but only when he sings mellow, soft songs. This didn’t fit his voice, and was a hideous song choice on Cheryl’s part. This song was successful because it was controversial and edgy in a poppish kind of way. Lloyd should’ve sang about kissing a boy, or he should’ve said ‘boyfriend’ instead of ‘girlfriend’. Instead, they defied the point of the song, and in turn made him look like he enjoys cheating on his girlfriends. Hardly the smartest song choice in the world, Cheryl. ‘Course, he’ll be safe.
Stacey sang Keane’s ‘Somewhere Only We Know’, which IS a rock song, people. It’s piano/alternative rock. It was her best performance yet, which is a relief after the last two weeks. She sounded lovely, and the song complimented her voice. She walked this week…d’you reckon she’ll dance next? God knows how that’ll go. Simon called it one of her best performances yet, but not after being dull and irrelevant for a few minutes.
Jamie sang ‘Rocks’ by Primal Scream, and, as usual, came over as karaoke and unoriginal. Simon’s song choices for Jamie have been horrible, to be honest. He’s shown no relevance throughout the competition, and he’s done nothing to prove that he could potentially be a decent, contemporary rock singer. He’s here purely because he has an afro, and I think he’ll be out soon.
Rachel sang ‘One’ by U2, and did excellently with it. It was touching, soulful and powerful, and was a performance that she needed. There was a big note that seemed iffy at first, but sounds great on second listen. Louis, Cheryl and Dannii all loved it, but Simon claims to have only liked the last ‘third’. Of course, Simon was responsible for Adam Lambert’s mauling of this song earlier this year, so his opinion isn’t worth much. He compared Rachel’s hair to Dannii’s, which led to Dannii making a joke about Simon’s hair. That was pretty funny. I hope she’s not in the bottom two this week, but there’s a good chance she will be, despite how strong her performance was.
John&Edward ’sang’ the 5ive version of ‘We Will Rock You’. It was quite entertaining, and they looked funny, but their acts started to wear thin tbh. For me, anyways…they’ll still be here until top five/four or so. Not much else to say.
Olly closed the show with ‘Come Together’. Carly Smithson tore this song up (in a good way) on Idol last year, fyi. Olly’s vocals were good, but the JT impression doesn’t do it for me. Oh, and don’t flash your chest again, Olly. He was good though, definitely one of the better ones last night.
Ranking:
1) Lucie
2) Rachel
3) Stacey/Joe
5) Olly
6) Danyl
7) John&Edward
Jamie
9) Lloyd
B2 prediction: Jamie and one of the girls…Rachel. Jamie leaves. :O
Latest comments...