This is it! One more episode of the six chair challenge and we will have our top 24! I’m super excited to be done with this round – as we saw last weekend, nobody is at their best for these performances. But we have to see the rest of the boys and the groups to see before we start Judges Houses tomorrow, so let’s make the best of it. Join me in the comments starting at 8:35 PM London Time / 3:35 PM Eastern time (god these start times are getting annoying) as we face the music together.
We pick up where we left off last week. Brendan Murray has a safe seat and he takes it from seat number 4 – bye guy in that seat who I don’t know the name of.
Thomas Pound is next, and he’s in drag again as Lady Freida Wilde. I love having a drag act on the show again. He sings This is Me – another song from The Greatest Showman. He takes off the wig and jacket as he goes. He’s not the greatest singer on earth but he was by far the most confident so far in his category. He knows what he can do and what he can’t do with his voice, which I like. Simon likes him because he’s unique, has guts, puts on a show, says he’d tune in to see him any day of the week. Thomas obviously gets a seat, and he takes it from Ollie.
J-Sol comes out to the stage. We see the judges crying at his audition. He sings I Feel Good, and I like that he decided to show a different side of himself. His voice is wonderful – great tone. And he showed personality. And he does the splits at the end. Robbie says he’s felling him. Ayda thinks it’s amazing that she was crying the first time and smiling ear to ear the next time. Louis gives him a seat. After a commercial break, he takes seat number 2.
Dalton Harris is the last boy up. He had one of my favorite auditions of the entire season. This time, he sings Purple Rain. He’s got the best voice in his category as far as I’m concerned. That was another strong vocal. I liked his audition better but this was still great. Simon says it was in a different league for him. Robbie gives him five words – “seat seat seat seat seat.” Louis obviously gives him a seat.He gives him seat number 1, but Thomas Pound says he’s not leaving without a fight. He sings off with J-Sol. J-Sol’s first performance was better but he still deserves a seat. Thomas sings Simply The Best again, and he also totally deserves a seat in my view. He does the splits and splits his pants – LOL. Both of them get seats, Tommy Ludford in seat 3 loses his seat. It’s over, and the final six boys are:
Brendan Murray (GOLDEN X)Dalton Harris
JSOL
Thomas Pound
Armstrong Martins
Anthony Russell
After the break, the groups are up!
The LMA Choir are up first. The lead singer was a bit pitchy on that but overall they’re good. I still don’t think choirs belong on X Factor. They get a seat.
The Squirrels are a joke act as far as I’m concerned. Two guys in drag and one of them squeals at one point. Simon says they have a seat ready in the taxi ride home, but Robbie gives them a real seat for now.ATTY are up next, and they don’t seem like they got the timing right. I didn’t like this one, and Simon didn’t either. But they got a seat anyway.
Tre Amici are up next. They sing opera and in their audition, they stuck together even as Simon told one of them to go solo. They got a seat.
Harry and Danny sing Slow Hands by Niall. And they aren’t good enough, but hey, neither was Niall. Robbie didn’t like the song choice but gives them a seat for now.
Backstage, Misunderstood point out the repetition of “for now.”Lost Tiger sing Are You Gonna Be My Girl and I was bored. Simon looked bored too but we don’t hear him talk.
Sweet Sense are up next. They auditioned as soloists but were put together on deliberation day. They sing Uptown Funk. They are good, I guess, but we have Little Mix and these girls are mostly just shouting in unison at this point. Simon and Robbie stand for them. They get a seat and after the break, we see that it’s seat number 2 – so long to the joke act.
The Hewitts are up next. They sing Feeling Good. I’m mad we didn’t see them before, they’re really great. I think he’s better than her though. They get a seat, and it’s number 5. Harry and Danny are gone.
Acacia and Aaliyah are up next – they’ve only been friends less than a week since they were put together. They gave themselves the name A-Star. They have a ton of confidence. This is a lot better than their audition. Robbie asks them to do Bang Bang again, says that that was an eight. I think this is worse than the first performance they did today, but it’s still good. They’ve got star quality. All four judges stand for them. Simon says he would sign them on the spot. Louis sees so much potential. Robbie invites their parents up to have them press the Golden X. Love the way he did that, don’t love the act really. Robbie swaps them with Tre Amici because he wouldn’t know what to do with them.
Misunderstood are up next. They sing an original song called Ghetto Style. I’m pretty sure they are my favorite act this year. They can dance, they can really sing, they write catchy songs. Simon says they come on and lift the roof. Robbie is so happy they are in his group. They got a seat, and they take The Hewitts’s spot. Ok then, they were screwed because we hadn’t seen them before.
Vibe 5 are next, and they were also put together. They’ve only been together two days. They sing Can’t Stop The Feeling. They aren’t good enough in my view, but they are better than Lost Tiger at least. Louis says he felt a sprinkle of magic from it, but he wasn’t sure it was enough. Ayda says there is a lot of work to be done but agrees that there was a sprinkle of magic. Robbie says it was a mess but, he adds, so were Take That after just two days. He gives them a seat. He sends home seat number six – bye Lost Tiger.
Panda & Burgandy are up last. I still love their personalities. They sing Proud Mary and they obviously kill it. Burgundy has an astonishingly good voice and they blend well together. I want them in the finals. All four judges stand for them, as does the rest of the crowd. Robbie gives them the chair that they deserve. They take it from ATTY.
We have our final six groups and they are:
A-Star (GOLDEN X)
VibeFive
Misunderstood
Sweet Sense
LMA Choir
Burgandy Williams & Panda Ross
With that, the top 24 are official! Judges Houses starts tomorrow and we see that Adam Lambert, Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul are all guest judges! Yay!
