Semi-Final: Christmas/Something Else

[aradia22]

I'm not quite sure what the theme is this week.

[aradia22]

Christmas Round first

 

Fleur East: Why would you give Fleur a Mariah Carey in her prime song? Fleur is a little breathy and a little raspy but she can occasionally pull out pretty high notes. You do NOT give a song that's all about rounded vowels and clarity. This is clean pop singing. That is not Fleur. It wasn't terrible but it was clearly less good than the original meaning something I really didn't need to hear. It's not like it was a different version of this song. It was just a less good version of the same thing. I feel like they only picked the song for the high notes which was a stupid reason to pick this song. But whatever. I'm still hoping Fleur doesn't win and escapes the curse of most X Factor winners.

Lauren Platt: Slightly off. I think it was flat? It's hard to tell what was wrong but I had a clear "I don't think she's hitting the right notes" feeling. What the hell does this have to do with Christmas? It wasn't awful but I didn't enjoy it either. I think they did a nice job with the staging though so props, X Factor set designer.

Ben Haenow: Freaking Ben. Did you rehearse this? Why did he look caught off guard when he had to start singing like he was waiting for a cue? Once again Ben completely fails to act a song (and compensates with stupid faces which is a new trick) and gives a lazy half-hearted vocal.

Andrea Faustini: In the real world, there are people who do what Andrea does much better than he does it. For the purposes of X Factor, whatever. He's fine. At least it's a bit more restrained. For me this was one of his better vocals. I live in America so if he wins, I likely won't have to hear it.

 

Round 1 Rankings: 1. Andrea 2. Ben 3. Fleur 4. Lauren

[Nedsdag]

No round 2?

 

I'll help you out here: FLEUR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Kaoteek]

Christmas :

- Fleur did okay. Vocals were shaky at times... but still better than the recent Mariah Carey performance. So that's always a plus.

- Not a fan of Lauren's song & performance. The low register parts were pretty awkward, and she was drowned by the chorus here and there.

- Ben's song was... boring and unmemorable.

- For the first time, Andrea's r'n'b vocal mannerisms really annoyed me, on that one. Aside from that, he was good.

 

Other :

- One Direction for Lauren... pass.

- Fleur kicked ass on Uptown Funk.

- I didn't even bother with Andrea's Miley song since I can't stand that song.

- Ben's Halleluyah felt... eh. Somehow this song has been overdone, and it doesn't even register on my radar anymore when sung in talent competitions. Also, he was too shouty for my tastes on that one.

 

Fleur FTW. Goodbye Lauren.

Edited December 6, 2014 by Kaoteek

[aradia22]

Round Two

 

Lauren Platt: Story of My Life. Is this a hint she will be eliminated in third place just like 1D? Incredibly mediocre. Slightly flat? She really needs to brighten and not lift her head like that. I guess this is one of the better Lauren performances give her recent clunkers. That's depressing.

Fleur East: Uptown Funk. Mark Ronson is still making music? This wasn't a "singing" performance. Of all the times X Factor has tried to sell us on a pop diva who doesn't have to be the best singer, Fleur is their best attempt. I actually think she's proven she can sing throughout the competition but tonight, neither performance really showed that she should win a singing competition. It was a good performance. I can't even critique it as a vocal performance.

Andrea Faustini: Wrecking Ball. This is the kind of song Lauren would sing while I wondered through the entire first verse if she was flat or not. I think the key with Andrea is a little restraint and picking songs that I have no attachment to. He's much more tolerable this way.

Ben Haenow: Hallelujah. So Ben is really committing to being genuine meaning he's gone into his catatonic state where his face is wiped of expression. I don't think his voice suits this song. His rasp with the closed vowels is weird and unpleasant. It didn't really kick in until that last Hallelujah before he cut loose. Just sing rock songs, Ben. Ben can't start below a 5. His voice only works from 5 to 10. He doesn't have that control when he tries to sing quietly and when he isn't forced to open those vowels it's just unpleasant to listen to.

 

Round 2 Rankings: 1. Ben 2. Fleur 3. Andrea 4. Lauren

[Kromm]

Fleur East: Why would you give Fleur a Mariah Carey in her prime song? Fleur is a little breathy and a little raspy but she can occasionally pull out pretty high notes. You do NOT give a song that's all about rounded vowels and clarity. This is clean pop singing. That is not Fleur. It wasn't terrible but it was clearly less good than the original meaning something I really didn't need to hear. It's not like it was a different version of this song. It was just a less good version of the same thing.

Yeah, it was almost as disturbing as trying to watch current Mariah do justice to the song (which these days consists of Miss Thing badly lipsyncing to her own older vocals).

Simon: "Nobody can sing that song like Mariah".

Me (to the TV): "Including Mariah these days!"

[Kromm]

Fleur East: Uptown Funk. Mark Ronson is still making music? This wasn't a "singing" performance. Of all the times X Factor has tried to sell us on a pop diva who doesn't have to be the best singer, Fleur is their best attempt. I actually think she's proven she can sing throughout the competition but tonight, neither performance really showed that she should win a singing competition. It was a good performance. I can't even critique it as a vocal performance.

The thing is I don't really see this show as a singing competition.  It's alternately entertainment selling the Judges and their shenanigans, with occasional forays into making stars (vs. singers). 

 

Fleur fits that second mode surprisingly well.  And at 26, while she's technically in their silly "overs" category, she's still young enough for a launch into standard Pop stardom.  

 

There's a reason the media rumour mill in the UK is filled with accusations flying about the show producers and judges "favoring" her.  I have no idea if there's any real basis for those accusations, but they seem inevitable simply because she fits the formula for a potential breakout star so well.  Young enough, very good looking, with good camera manners and unfeigned appearing enthusiasm, easy to put into big productions, and while it could be argued we've seen cracks in her voice, when she's not on a reality show and can focus only on the songs her voice and style are actually appropriate for, it's going to be easy to build a really slick show and music videos around her.

 

Heck, even the mini-me sister kind of fits.  She's like Fleur's non-singing body double (only a few inches shorter).

Compare her to if Andrea somehow wins. He'll be a novelty act.  Maybe if he's magically lucky he could have a Susan Boyle type career, which is no small thing, but more likely he'd move on to guesting on stupid UK panel shows within a few months, have an album a year later than nobody buys, and then fade away.

 

BTW: interesting bit with Lily Allen apperently tweeting that Fleur's song was the result of "music industry corruption".  That's a matter of opinion, I suppose, but apparently the REASON they were jawing about nobody knowing the song was because it's unreleased.  And the real hook is not Mark Ronson, but Bruno Mars (who's a guest performer on the actual song--listen to it back and if you think about it you can tell it's Bruno Mars style, actually).

Edited December 7, 2014 by Kromm

[aradia22]

 

BTW: interesting bit with Lily Allen apperently tweeting that Fleur's song was the result of "music industry corruption".  That's a matter of opinion, I suppose, but apparently the REASON they were jawing about nobody knowing the song was because it's unreleased.

I like Lily Allen's music but she needs to sit down. I don't really care if they snuck Fleur in to be their winner. I know she used to be in Addictiv Ladies. It's not like they were forcing us to listen to Luke Friend every week. I vaguely remember that this may have happened once or twice back in the days when I still watched Idol. I think Haley Reinhart performed You and I from Lady Gaga before it had been released. Besides, I'm not that interested in what she has to say outside of her music since she said she wasn't a feminist.

[aradia22]

Lauren and Andrea

were in the sing off.

Lauren

went home. The judges made the call.

Fleur

could actually win this thing.