Jasmine Sahu is well suited with this new American drama exclusive to Dave.
Lois Cameron explains why this series is much more than your average cosy period drama.
Catherine Bennett resumes the weekly look at the performing arts world, with the sad end of Jerusalem, the luck of a cabbie, and French revolt. Do you hear the people sing?
This week’s result may have ended up winning the predictability award, since the British public have never warmed to girl groups on ‘The X Factor’. Kandy Rain’s “shady stripper past” (I’ve set up my tent in the “So what?” camp with Simon) probably didn’t do them many favours, but the issue was more that they kept reminding people of it in their interviews. For an image they claimed to be trying to shake off, I’d have liked to see the ‘trying’ part.
Alas, I don’t think it was the Strip-O-Rama media frenzy that put the final nail in their coffin. Their version of the iconic and energetic ‘Addicted to Love’ consisted of them being carried by the backing singers for most of the song. That doesn’t exactly mobilise the voting masses. Their aptly titled second-chance song ‘Fighter’ just highlighted their weak vocals.
Rachel Adedeji’s bottom-two appearance may have been surprising after positive judges comments, but there are a couple of things to consider. Firstly, she was the opening act, a.k.a. The Death Slot. By the end of the show, people are likely to have forgotten about you. Secondly, she may have had a stylish Grace Jones 80s throwback thing working for her, but she picked a terrible song for this show. It did nothing to showcase her usually strong voice (which admittedly was a little nervously shaky in the results showdown). Instead, she/Dannii chose to fall back on flashy lighting, KISS-lookalike back-up dancers and a song which is famous for being yelled by a crowd of pub-goers rather than wannabe divas. BUT listen back to the first, pleasantly surprising, 20 seconds of that song – it showed promise.
What about the successes? Jamie Archer/Afro (delete as preferred) delivered an exciting rendition of T-Rex’s ‘Get It On’, and proved he believed in himself. Danyl’s performance may have been more talked about because of Dannii’s cringe-inducing comment on his sexuality, but he finally managed to deliver a vocally-restrained and emotionally-drenched song which gave me chills. The three other judges must have been quaking in their boots for their own acts when they slammed him with a vague ‘arrogance’ critique, because he gave his best performance to date.
But the act that deserves the most credit has to be Stacey Solomon, who stripped back ‘The Scientist’ and gave it a warm acoustic touch. It was the bravest move taken all night and portrayed her as a true artist.
Disappointment, thy name is Lucie Jones. You’ve already proven to us that you have a whopping voice, but bland Leona Lewis? Really? Where’s the original artist stamp which Stacey provided? Also, Miss Frank’s ‘Who’s Lovin’ You’ could’ve been phenomenal, but was a letdown when it became apparent they weren’t taking it anywhere new. Not saying that Graziella needs to rap in Italian in every song (though that was AWESOME), but shaking it up to make it sound a teeny bit more contemporary wouldn’t have hurt.
I’ll refrain from commenting on any of Cheryl’s set of ‘blah’ boys this week because I’m still angry at her (how could anyone reject Ethan?!... I should get over this). Olly stands as a middle-of-the-roader for me at the moment, whereas They Who Must Not Be Named... well, I think they have enough attention as it is.
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