X Factor – Performances and Results 2 – VIDEO
It was Diva Week on the X Factor this weekend. Whitney Houston, hot on the comeback trail after recovering from drugs and a bad marriage, arrived in the UK to mentor the kids. And promote her upcoming album, of course.
Whitney tottered around the stage during her results show performance of “Million Dollar Bill” like she wasn’t quite sure of herself. She was completely thrown when the strap on her dress broke. After, she bumbled and stared at the floor when she answered the host’s questions. Maybe Whitney wasn’t quite ready for a live performance yet.
Guess Whitney can’t travel on her own either, as she dragged along her own mentor, Clive Davis, to her sessions with the kids. Haven’t seen Clive in awhile, and I have to say he looks as creepy as ever.
Oh yeah, judge Cheryl Cole performed too. Yawn.
Diva week was bound to be a challenge for some of the singers. Some fared better than others, but nobody knocked me out.
More Recap and Videos after the JUMP…
I have to say my favorite performance was the quirky Stacey Solomon singing a version of Etta James’ “At Last” that came alive towards the end.
The worst (or the best depending on how you look at it) were the LOL-worthy John and Edward. Simon called their rendition of Britney’s “Oops I Did it Again” the worst live act he’s ever seen. If you want to laugh really hard, do yourself a favor and click on their link.
Young Lloyd Daniels was really terrible, and should have headed home this week instead of Rikki Loney. Rikki has got an interesting quality to his voice and has suffered from Cheryl Cole’s terrible song choices.
Lloyd was given “Bleeding Love” and it was so inappropriate, and his performance so bad, Cheryl burst into tears and apologized for letting him down. Still, I’m not sure Lloyd’s got what it takes. His pretty face is keeping him out of the bottom 2 at this point.
Overrated this week were Joe McElderry who was pleasant enough singing “Where Do Broken Hearts Go”, but nothing special, Danyl Johnson who, sounding tuneless, should have heeded Whitney’s advice to stick to the melody of “I Didn’t Know My Strength”, and Jamie Archer, who had his vocal limitations exposed this week by Christina Aguilera’s “Hurt”.
Rachel Adedeji joined Rikki Loney landed in the bottom 2. Neither acquitted themselves very well when they sang for their lives.
Cheryl stuck by her guy, but Dannii and Simon sent Rikki home. Cheryl lamented that John and Edward lived to see another week while her guy Rikki was sent home. Well, John and Edward are terrible, but they are entertaining. So, there’s that.
I wonder who Louis Walsh–who was absent this week–would have sent home. It was a toss up, really.
Next week is Big Band Week. Westlife will perform their next single, a cover of Daughtry’s “What About Now.” That should be fun to watch.
ETA: I forgot to add that I thought Olly Murs, though not a great singer, was very entertaining. Interesting–If Simon wasn’t mentoring him, Olly would have gotten the “drunk uncle at a wedding critique”
Performances:
- Lucie Jones
- Olly Murs
- Miss Frank
- Rachel Adedeji
- Joe McElderry
- Danyl Johnson
- Lloyd Daniels
- John and Edward
- Rikki Loney
- Jamie Archer
- Stacey Solomon
Results Show:
- Group Number – “Queen of the Night”
- Cheryl Cole – “Fight for this Love”
- Whitney Houston – “Million Dollar Bill”
- Rachel Adedeji sings off
- Rikki Loney sings off
- Rikki Loney is eliminated
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Tags: 39 Responses to “X Factor – Performances and Results 2 – VIDEO”
its not pathetic at all, its like saying someone from utah cant be as good as someone from california.
To butte009:
I just have to ask if you are from Butte, MT?
And, to stay on topic, I’m really liking this show. My favorites are Stacey Solomon who I think has a beautiful voice and I love her personality, and Olly Murs, who thoroughly entertains me.
I think Rachel was terrible and hit some really bum notes.
To me Danyl is way overrated. I was very unimpressed with Whitney’s performance. The background singers sang most of the song.
Simon did a great job of mentoring his peeps. Jamie singing Hurt was an inspired choice, demonstrating some versatility. He’s really tamed Danyl down, teaching him to spaz out less and sing more, and saving the spaz for the mid-to-end. Olly OMG all that dancing and singing combined, he obviously practiced many hours, he was flawless & boy his legs are like Gumby!
I also thought Cheryl was quite good, if not a bit dated. She’s obviously in great shape to pull off that janet-jackson-inspired outfit plus all the cutouts & sheer fabric. And (assuming the singing was live & not pre-recorded?) she can sing so well despite all the dancing.
ETA: While the AI kids are better singers/vocalists, they tend to be mediocre performers, and often have very forgettable tones to their voices (i.e. would you recognize the voice on the radio if you were hearing the song for the first time?). Seems that XF is veering in the other direction – looking for memorable voices/tones, personality, & performance, with actual singing skills being secondary. Ultimately XF seems to be looking for radio-friendly and gossip-worthy pop stars, since auto-tune and overproduction don’t require great singers/vocalists.
Mileage certainly does vary! Reverse the names and you have my opinion.
What really bother me is that Simon seems to have two different standards to judge.
If the contestant fall in one of his stereotype contestant schemes like Joe he give them like a free pass, even with a boring performances like Joe.
All other get the not original comment.
I doubt it was enhanced because that’s the voice you hear on the show –
A House Is Not A Home – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wN4wGxPvpw
On the show you can hear a few bits and piece where she was not pitch-perfect nor sang well, but in a recording studio she can do multiple takes to get the best result.
I won’t say that she did great, but I didn’t think her performances were horrible, more that she didn’t have good songs. The problem with her is the same old story of a singer wanting to be someone with her own artistic vision rather than be just a singing puppet in a hit-making machine. She had conflicts with her label, and insisted on making an album with she wrote herself. That I think was the biggest mistake. Someone like her can only afford to be precious about her artistic vision AFTER she became a star, not before, and she should have handed herself to people who know how to write and make hit songs. It’s what Kelly Clarkson did with her first album (and whether Kelly thinks her first album reflects who she is is irrelevant – she should learn the business, become a somebody first before making demands about having her own artistic vision).
I’m not sure if either is necessarily true. There are some good natural performers from X-Factor, but there are many others who are quite awkward as well.
AI certainly has a larger pool of talent to choose from, but I think any of those people from X-Factor I posted above should be good enough to get into Top 5 of AI and one or two might be good enough to win (whether they would is another matter, Carly Smithson and Michael Johns were certainly good enough to be Top 5 but never got there). However I don’t think any from this year could or should get into Top 5 of AI, and perhaps only 1 or 2 can get into top 12.
It is a pretty weak year overall .. to me there seemed to be some better singers in the auditions that they didn’t put through and for me the right person (Rikki) left.
I really like Jamie Afro .. He’s not the strongest or best technically perfect singer but I just like his voice and his delivery .. I really liked his rendition of Hurt.
I quite like Joe too .. he has a very good, pleasant voice but the song was just too oldfashioned for him.
The only other one’s I’m remotely interested in are Jonathan and Edward .. I think they’re hilarious .. can’t sing for toffee but totally entertaining .. the bit where they stopped in the middle of the song and did some sort of spoken script from “Titanic” about the necklace was histerical ….lol
It’s big band week next week and they’re singing “She Bangs” which should be worth tuning in for .. William Chung (or whatever his name is) eat your heart out ..lol
As for Cheryl Tweedy/Cole .. she can’t sing either .. she’s only where she is because of her looks and who she’s married to …. her performance wasn’t live … no matter what she says … there was far too much vocal jiggerypokery on the sound and no breathing or jumping in her voice when she was dancing for it to be sung totally live. She may have sang the first 20 seconds or so live though as that was as flat as a pancake. .. liked her hat though.
mj, funny about your comment about Olly, because I was thinking the same thing. I thought it was an enjoyable performance, though his voice wasn’t great in parts. But it was SO drunken uncle at a wedding, i.e. Taylor vibe, that he would have, and has, eviserated people on AI for.
The way that Simon seems to have two different standards for AI and XFactor and how he’s like a totally different person on XFactor, is interesting. And honestly kind of frustrating.
I didn’t think Rachel was that bad this week, I love the tone of her voice. The guys besides Danyl all suck. Stacey reminds me of Kellie Pickler, which is a good thing. The John and Edward get even closer to committing twincest this week, I can’t imagine whats going to happen the longer they stay in.
This is a really week season. I cant believe this is the show that produced Leona. Fricking Kristy Lee Cook would wipe the floor with these fools.
They had Louis on the phone live from Dublin on the Xtra Factor (the post live show discussion programme straight after the main show) .. and he said that he would have saved Rachel too ….. he wished Rikki all the best and told Rachel to keep her spirits up … I like Louis .. he seems a really nice guy.
Also on the Xtra Factor … I remember MJ posting the audition of the guy with that rather large lump in his pants (lol) which was a bit distracting … they did a follow up of what he’s up to now .. it was quite funny .. if your sense of humour is of the Benny Hill kind …lol
it’s at the end of this video from about 7:50
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXprzu0ac58
and continues at the start of this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9vGrjsb-vk&feature=related
David Archuleta is better than any male winner they’ve ever had over there.
Whitney Houston could sing circles around Leona and Kelly Clarkson back in her day.
I like to see people triumph over adversity, why on Earth doesn’t everyone else feel the same way? It’s the cosmically correct way to behave.
I think it’s all a matter of personal taste … whilst I think that David can sing he’s not really to my taste .. personally I prefer Will Young and Shayne Ward .. but that’s just me.
We’ve had some pretty ropey male winners .. I never rated Steve Brookstein or Leon Jackson .. in my opinion we lost out on having a really great male winner when Rhydian was runner up to Leon a couple of years ago .. but there again Rhydian has gone on to have the more successful career .. so again it proves that winning isn’t everything .. he’s gone on to have his own TV special in Wales and he also knows how to rock the sequins ..lol
His Get This Party Started is so camply fabulous
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cACWZ-YBUG8&feature=related
No, from MN. But I’ve heard of it.
It was funny.
Oh… one other thing I wanted to mention. I don’t think watching the short clips of just the performances and initial judges reactions give a complete picture of everything going on. I think people might feel differently about some of the performances if they got to see the entire show. Or maybe not… I guess some would argue that they are avoiding producer manipulation by not seeing the other segments.
ETA: Hazehel (and karenw), thanks for all the links to previous season performances. I really enjoyed them. Definitely a talented group. Rhydian’s phantom was especially awesome for me.
THAT
Last year , Simon tried to “clone” Eoghan Quigg to be David archuleta. Failed…