Sunday, December 12, 2010

X Factor UK 7: The Finals

This is it! It's almost the Finale day.. Waaah!! I can't believe I'm much more invested in this season of X Factor than I ever was for last season's American Idol. Haha.

I think this was an interesting Finale. No acts really amazed me but, after watching the performances, I can actually see them all being successful in different ways. Matt, of course, is a no brainer. He has a current sound and I think he's pretty marketable. Rebecca will be great as a recording artist, although she's going to have to work drastically on her stage presence. One Direction, on the other hand, will do really well for a few years with the tweens - in the Bieber market. But longevity? I'm not so sure.

Now, as for the now eliminated, Cher Lloyd? I think, she will have a big future because I can see a lot of potential on her. She can sing, she can rap, she can dance - she has rhythm - and she can engage a crowd. Plus, she's very commercial. One thing she has that others lack is stage presence. You cannot teach someone that sort of thing but you can provide vocal training. Honestly, being a performer isn’t about having perfect vocals anyway but being able to light up on stage and Cher does.

But since, Cher is gone now, I guess I'll be pulling for Matt now. Although I have a funny feeling that One Direction can actually pull an upset - though the thought of them winning wants me to destroy the world. Haha. I don’t have the maturity to take a One Direction win.

Oh, and one last thing, the guest stars pummeled the contestants BIGTIME. Even I can’t quite believe why I actually preferred Rihanna to Matt Cardle on their duet - tone quality, I guess? Cher, to me, was on par to the guest invites though. The rest of the contestants seemed humdrum in comparison, although I will agree that they may be vocally superior - not counting One Direction, of course.

So, here's how I rate the performances after the jump!

Matt Cardle
Here With Me 7/10
Unfaithful (with Rihanna) 9/10

Frankly, I didn't care much about his first performance. Yes, it was a bit emotional but I'm not that crazy with the song choice and the whole performance just didn't go anywhere. It was ok but nothing extraordinary. Now, as for his duet with Rihanna, it was actually pretty impressive. He missed a couple of notes in his verse but it was overall pretty good. Rihanna, I thought, looks gorgeous and sounds pretty good - her vocals have been real rough lately. Oh, and Matt's biting his finger when Rihanna came out was pretty cute. Haha. He's such a fanboy.

Rebecca Ferguson
Just Like A Star 8/10
Beautiful (with Christina Aguilera) 7/10

I still think she can't sustain her notes to save her life. She, to me, didn't exactly improve during all those weeks. True, she has a beautiful tone, but nothing more. I did like her first song but it never became THE moment for me. I think it was also funny that Rebecca cannot move while singing, so they just have some guys come out to rotate the platform. Haha. Epic, I tell you. Now, as for her duet, I thought Christina Aguilera ate her alive! That not entirely fair though, since you have to practically get out a cannon to get past Christina's riffing, but Rebecca was totally unable to keep up. Plus, there was no real - or even feigned - connection there. The should've paired her to someone like Adele, Duffy or Corrine Bailey Rae instead.

One Direction
Your Song 6/10
She's The One (with Robbie Williams) 5/10

Oddly, their homecoming package managed to be more enjoyable than the “singing”. Haha. Their first performance was decent but it was a strange song choice. I mean, what kind of artists will these kids be after the show? I didn't really get that from that song. They don't know how to harmonize AT ALL and all they do is to sing in unison, which is odd for a group. Right? Their second song wasn't any better as well. Their duet with Robbie Williams was a hot mess. They seemed like Robbie's back up vocalists and they were miming at the end. Ugh!

Cher Lloyd
Get Your Freak On/The Clapping Song 7/10
Where Is The Love/I Gotta Feeling (with Will.I.Am) 8/10

As much as people don't like Cher - maybe because she's not the conventional "competition singer", I think I already established that she's the most current and has the most potential. Yes, she sounded flat in her first song but she's obviously not a very strong vocalist. I like the energy but that's about it. Her second song, however, was slightly better although the transition to I Gotta Feeling was weird. Will.I.Am sounded terrible. Clearly, Cher was the only one of the four, to outperform her duet partner - though that might just say more about Will.I.Am though. Haha

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...