‘The X Factor’ UK review: Emily Middlemas, Ryan Lawrie, Matt Terry take on Disco Week

Tonight, the remaining seven contestants on “The X Factor” are putting their best feet forward. Not only that, but they’re showing off some of their dance moves! This is Disco Week, and as a result of that everyone’s doing their part to make sure to have some fun up there.

As per usual, this is a LIVE review! We’re going to have more updates on all of the performances as the night goes on. We’ll also rank these performances at the end of the night. (Let’s just hope that the results tomorrow follow the quality that we’re seeing tonight.)

7. Honey G, “Staying Alive” – Sure, she did for the most part a decent job with the performance on this, but when do we start criticizing Honey G for her degree of difficulty? Her rendition of “Staying Alive” was ultimately just not particularly challenging in any way, and it mostly was her doing the same stuff she always has. She’s on the beat, but her enunciation still leaves something to be desired.

6. Ryan Lawrie, “Play That Funky Music” – Ryan put a lot of effort into this and we’ll give him credit for that, but this just wasn’t what we consider to be his personal strength. This show is hard for a guy who’s probably better served for intimate performances with his guitar than something this weird and bombastic. It felt too much like karaoke with this arrangement.

5. Emily Middlemas, “Wishing on a Star” – This was … sleepy. Emily’s a good singer and we heard it here and there, but the background singers were a little too loud and the song choice was just off. We couldn’t really hear her as much as we’d like to, and a big part of the blame here should go on Simon Cowell for not allowing her an opportunity to do something different.

4. Sam Lavery, “I Will Survive” – Sam’s voice was incredible through most of this (we wouldn’t have scaled things up at the end), but the real strength to us of this was the arrangement and the style of the performance. Yeah, she did also slip, but we agree that this actually did give Sam a little more confidence to loosen up and know that it’s okay if she messes up here and there.

3. 5 After Midnight, “Boogie Wonderland / September” – Shameless admission: “September” is one of our favorite songs. These guys did everything that they could with this and the crowd seemed to love it, but it still feels pretty clear that this is not the sort of music that we really think they’re going to excel singing.

2. Matt Terry, “Best of My Love” – Matt’s just got such a natural charm and demeanor, and it really suited him well to overcome such an odd genre of music for him. Also, he busted out some of that AMAZING falsetto. He’s one of the few solo guys on the show over the past few years who could legitimately be a pop star after this. We’re not sure about those roller-skating dancers, though.

1. Saara Aalto, “Enough Is Enough” – This started off the night, and it was incredible. Maybe there was one slightly-wonky note in here, but she really owned the style of disco and focused on her vocals without getting away from her creativity and her passion. She didn’t change herself for anyone else, but didn’t go overboard with the style and choreography, either.

If you want to get some other news on “The X Factor” right now, head over to the link here right now! (Photo: ITV.)