‘The X Factor’ UK spoilers: What Only the Young, Fleur East, Jay James, Stevi Ritchie are singing
It is Big Band Week on “The X Factor” UK Saturday, which hopefully means that contestants are going to get a chance to perform alongside some live music. Also, it means that there will be many standards among the song choices … which is a blessing and a curse.
Sometimes, you can benefit from doing something that is so well-known, but it is also difficult to put your own personal stand on it. You have to work that much harder, and if you are even remotely timid, the backing band will eat you alive.
Now that we’ve gotten most of that out of the way, let’s go ahead and breach the next super-important topic: What the remaining eight singers are going to be performing.
Andrea Faustini, “Summertime” – A great song, and an emotional song. We have zero doubt he can pull this one off, but he needs to be patient with the lyrics.
Lauren Platt, “Smile” – A sweet, tender song that she’ll pull off. Very age-appropriate lyrics, which is nice on this show for a change.
Only the Young, “I Wanna Be Like You” – This is typical Only the Young fashion, at least in that this could either be very cheesy, or really fun. After all, it’s the song from “The Jungle Book”!
Stereo Kicks, ??? – This is bad news, but ITV has not confirmed their song choice, even a day before the performance show. This spells disaster for the eight-piece band.
Fleur East, “Bang Bang” – She’s not even remotely doing a standard, not that we mind. This is the sort of song that could turn her into a favorite to win the competition.
Stevi Ritchie, “Mambo No. 5 / She Bangs” – Clearly, someone wants to just send Stevi packing at this point. We love the guy, but “She Bangs” is the reality TV kiss of death.
Jay James, “Empire State of Mind / New York New York” – It’s an interesting mash-up, and given Jay’s artistic nature, we imagine a unique twist being put on this.
Ben Haenow, “Cry Me a River” – A traditional standard, but one that he can probably really do a great job with. We like the originals on a night like this.
If you missed it recently, head over here to see where we ranked all of the remaining contestants! Also, sign up today to see some more TV news worth singing about via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo via ITV.)