Wednesday, November 27, 2013

X Factor, Ep. 3.18

Theme: Big Band
Seriously? Yet another horrible and way overdone theme. Why can't American Idol  and X Factor take cues from The Voice? The Voice does songs that are happening and popular NOW. Sure, they throw in a couple old songs here and there, but they don't make a whole night of it, and force every singer to sing from that category. I can tell you right now, I'm going to hate every single song...including Michael Bublé's opening number. It's going to be hard to critique their singing when I don't like the songs.

Rion Paige - Girls (Demi)
She handled the fast pace and up-tempo song very well. We're used to hearing her sing ballads, so this was a nice change. She struggled a little bit with the lower notes, but the rest was good. I thought the moving around and choreography that she isn't used to performing with would make her get out of breath or lose her pitch, but she didn't.

Restless Road - Groups (Simon)
OK, am I a dummy? Since when is "Life is a Highway" a "big band" song? It was an OK performance, but I wasn't blown away. I'm not sure why the coaches were so positive about it. Listening to the performance a second time, I was even less impressed with it. I thought parts of their harmonies were off, and again, the lead singer and the really low singer, just don't sound good on the solo parts! This time, the cute singer on the right got even LESS solo time than usual. He should have ALL the solo parts ALL of the time! Why doesn't Simon or anyone else realize this? Am I the only one who thinks this?

Jeff Gutt - Over 25s (Kelly)
"Feelin' Good" was the absolute perfect song choice for Jeff! This was absolutely amazing! That song has been done so many times, but he killed it and it was epic! The last note was insane! Again, he is on a completely different level from everyone else. There is no comparison. Simon was right, he owned that song.

Josh Levi - Boys (Paulina)
OK, so this really is not "big band" either--Bruno Mars. So, they apparently, could just pick any song they wanted to and perform it with a "big band". This song really should be right up his alley, but I wasn't that impressed. The music overpowered his vocals. He sang it well, and performed it well, but I just wasn't wowed.

Carlito Olivero - Boys (Paulina)
I'm glad Paulina encouraged him to do another Latino song. I think that's why he was in the bottom last week. This Ricky Martin song, "Cup of Life" is a great song for him. He sounds amazing! There were times when I thought he sounded just like Ricky Martin! He gave a great performance. His vocals were right on, and he moved around the stage well. I think this was his best performance. He was even getting the crowd involved. He looked like a real superstar performing in a concert or on an awards show. Great job, Carlito! Simon was right, he was so comfortable on that song.

Alex & Sierra - Groups (Simon)
Oh my goodness! They totally changed this song, and I love it! It took me forever to figure out what song it was. It's Taylor Swift's "I Knew You Were Trouble". The song has never sounded better. They were on fire tonight! They are so clever with their song choices and their arrangements.

Lillie McCloud - Over 25s (Kelly)
Oh boy, I do NOT like this at all! Yuck! I didn't think I could hate this song any more than when Fantasia sang it. Well, she just took it to another level and not in a good way. She was making strides last week, but she went back to her old ways on this song. It's not my style, and I agree with Simon--I think he would do a better job mentoring her.

Ellona Santiago - Girls (Demi)
I think this was a better performance than last week. I think the song allowed her to show off her vocals better. I think there was still too much going on on the stage, and I didn't care for her wardrobe change. A lot of unnecessary things. Just sing, Ellona...you have an incredible voice! I agree with Simon, again...back-up dancers need to go.

Final Face-Off
All 8 acts will be singing together in a battle against each other. This is very interesting, and it's never been done on the show before. How cool is it that Michael Bublé is mentoring them!

Jeff opened it up, and I wish he was singing the whole song! Alex & Sierra's part was also awesome! Everyone else did pretty good. I hated Lillie McCloud's part, and I hate when they have the deep singing guy from Restless Road singing solo.

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