‘The X Factor’ UK review: Ben Haenow, Stereo Kicks, Stevi Ritchie, Feur East, and movie songs

This weekend, “The X Factor” UK airing songs from the cinema, which is a pretty lame theme when you think about it. We also don’t like most of the songs that were chosen for the show. Many were done time and time again on other shows, and some just didn’t feel right.

Much like our other reviews for this show, we’re doing this one in live fashion! Therefore, be sure to come back throughout for more impressions as we hear more and more acts perform.

Jake Quickenden, “She’s Like the Wind” – Jake tries really hard, and you almost want to give him credit for that and that alone. However, he just doesn’t have the voice for these high notes and really the competition at this point. Simon Cowell may be mean, but he’s also right in this instance.

Only the Young, “Boom Clap” – We agree once again with Simon here. The verses were very out of tune, the choruses were good, but they had so little time with this song that they really couldn’t make it anything different than an above-average cover of the recent Charlie XCX hit.

Jay James, “Skyfall” – Probably our least-favorite of the three performances that Jay has done, but still very good. He looked like James Bond, and he sounded surprisingly good given that this is an enormous song with a big reputation to live up to.

Andrea Faustini, “Listen” – Sensational. One of the best vocals of the entire season, and we say that even though we hate this song for the most part. One of the only reasons why it worked was because Andrea made a real effort to press forward with the vocals, and not make it just about the notes he can hit.

Lola Saunders, “When You Believe” – We’re torn over the new makeover, mostly because it looked like a wig from some camera angles. Still, she sang this song really well, but we find this “Prince of Egypt” track to be for the most part boring.

Paul Akister, “Try a Little Tenderness” – A very good performance vocally, but we’ll pretend like those dancers didn’t exist. Someone needs to realize that occasionally, less actually is more on this show. It’ll be okay! Just let the man perform!

Lauren Platt, “Let It Go” – We almost wish that this song is retired from shows for a while, especially if everyone continues to just do familiar versions. This was more Demi Lovato and Idina Menzel, but Lauren may have to rely on the “Frozen” vote if she wants to stick around. There wasn’t a whole lot else to this.

Jack Walton, “Eye of the Tiger” – We didn’t love the song choice, but we actually like the vocals on here pretty well. If you were listening rather than watching, you probably would enjoy it. He just looked uncomfortable, and Mel B alluded to there being issues, whether those involved Jack, the producers, or someone else. Should be interesting…

Fleur East, “Lady Marmalade” – You know that Fleur wants this when she does all four parts of this classic collaboration. We don’t think that all of her notes were perfect in here, but given everything that she gave to this from start to finish, can you really blame her?

Stevi Ritchie, “Footloose” – Completely insane. We suppose that the reason we love Stevi beyond his discernible lack of actual singing skill is because unlike other people in this position in the past, he’s well aware of the fact that he is not a good singer. He knows he doesn’t have a chance of winning, and he’s just enjoying the ride. What’s so bad about that?

Stereo Kicks, “Let It Be / Hey Jude” – The first time we understood just what this group can really be, and it’s something so much more than what we’ve seen on the show so far. It may have been a good thing to see Louis giving up on them, because it caused them to work so much harder.

Ben Haenow, “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” – The funny thing here is that five minutes after Simon gave Louis a hard time for really trashing his own act, he was telling Ben that he chose the wrong song here and he should’ve listened more to what he was saying. We actually do agree with Simon (once again shockingly) here; Ben sang it very well, but there is nothing particularly new or revolutionary about this.

Who was your favorite on “The X Factor” UK tonight? Share in the comments, and head over here to see where we ranked the performers going into this hour. Also, you can sign up now to get further news via email courtesy of our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo via ITV.)