X Factor: next stop, ARENAS!
Posted on Monday, 8 September 2014
The return of the X Factor last week saw the show earn it's highest ratings in two years, with auditions from the good, the bad, and the downright weird! The talent this week proved that this years competition is going to be the toughest one yet!
Here's our recap of the second and final week of room auditions!
Saturday:
First up tonight was party girl Ten who
stayed out til the early hours of the morning doing what she does
best, partying! Even though she didn't make a good impression on the
judges with her party girl ways, they saw the potential in her and
hopefully she'll turn up sober and well rested at the arena round.
Next up was an Irish waiter with timing issues, retired man John who
disagreed with Simon's vote, and Queen Christina. Where do we start
with Queen Christina...we have to give her props for auditioning. The
self-proclaimed British version of Lady Gaga and dead ringer for Kate
Bush left us with nothing but bewilderment. The rest of the night was
full of amazing talent with all but one audition getting four yeses.
Maria Ellinas took on Randy
Crawford's "Street Life", or Schtreet life we should say. The bubbly
scouse girl tried her best to work on her pronunciation but just
couldn't quite get there, regardless the judges and us loved her. The
ladies (and lads) were in for a treat tonight with all the eye candy!
(and amazing voices of course). American Charlie Martinez had us
fanning ourselves when he started singing the Spanish version of Hero
by Enrique Iglesias (flash backs to Alejandro Fernandez-Holt's
similar arena audition last year!). Essex boy Charlie Brown and
Londoner Ben Haenow wowed everyone with their sexy raw voices, with
Simon even saying Ben should've had a record deal by now. Cutie Jake Sims brought his equally cute proud little sister along to the
audition and stole our hearts with his lovely personality and
rendition of Stevie Wonder's "Supersition". Identical twin brother act
The Brooks were adorable but we just can't help but think of 'joke
act' when we see them, Jedward anyone? Former bad girl Monica Michael tugged the heart strings tonight with an amazing voice and original
song she wrote for her little sister. One of our favourite audtions goes to 17 year old Jack Walton with his amazing cover of "Waves" by Mr. Probz. Another favourite tonight was 2013
contestant Paul Akister who made it all the way to Louis' judges
houses. He's like a mix of John Newman and Sam Smith and Louis looked
like he was kicking himself for sending him home last year. Twenty year old
fishmonger Lola ended the night with a strong and soulful version of "Make You Feel My Love", we have a feeling we'll be seeing a lot more
of her in the next few weeks!
Sunday:
Sunday saw the last round of auditions before we head off to the arenas next week and first up was 7 piece girl band Pow Pow Girls with their rendition of 1D’s “What Makes You Beautiful” complete with choreographed dance moves that had us having flashbacks to 90s Girl Groups (but not in a good way). They were all over the place like bad karaoke, but somehow they managed to get enough yes' to see them through to the Arena round. However Sunday's contestants did redeem themselves with Kerriane Covell doing a soulful rendition of Adele's "One and Only" and Janet Grogan singing "Can't Make You Love Me" to Simon Cowell...could a love connection be made? There was one contestant who caught Mr Cowell's eye in the form of Lizzy Pattinson, Simon asked if they'd met before to which her reply was "maybe in your dreams" OR maybe he's seeing the family resemblance? (her brother is none other than Robert Pattinson!!!) Emily Middlemas won the judges over with her cute cover of X Factor alumni Cher Lloyd's hit track "Want U Back" along with fitness instructor Kayleigh Manners who did a lovely take of Sam Smith's "Stay With Me." It wasn't long till we met 43 year old Starlite who informed all of us through her own original song"Discipline" that she wants you to cut the crap because she does not like rap! After getting a no from Simon she told him where to shove it by slapping her ass and leaving only to come back to try again (god bless her) before being rejected and telling Simon to suck it. Starlight wasn't the only girl to want a second chance; enter Raign a 31 year old singer/songwriter who has a number 17 single in Russia AND who works 14 hours in the studio perfecting her craft AND who will literally not take no for an answer! After her below par take on Zedd's "Clarity" Louis gave her a yes and Mel B followed suit, which seemed forced just to get this girl to shut up. Then came Simon who thought the performance was awful. After apologizing to Simon, Cheryl was quick to ask why she said sorry...her response was that Simon was the most important person for her to impress. In return Cheryl was quick to give her verdict with an outright no! But it didn't end there with Raign coming back to try and win Simon over one last time with an original song, it somehow worked. We here at LGC HQ have Cheryl's back with this one, if we were Simon we would not have changed our minds (and to be honest her 2nd audition wasn't that much better). Not to be outdone by the girls, 15 year old Stephen Tennet made Cheryl eat her words when she said she felt he was too young before he even performed, chip shop worker Michael Rice surprised the judges when he sung a Whitney song with flawless perfection and Geoff Mull showed off his vocal talents with yet another original song! As always X Factor saved the best for last with 2012 contestant Jake Quickenden who had a bad start when he auditioned with John Legend's "All of Me". After a few words from Mel B he was given another chance and blew everyone away with his haunting rendition of "Say Something." We'll be keeping an eye on Jake in the next round that's for sure!
Check back next week for our recap of the first lot of auditions form the arena round!
One step closer to live shows! We can't wait.
S. & K.
xx
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