‘The X Factor’ UK review: Reggie ‘n Bollie, Louisa Johnson, Lauren Murray fight to make final
This weekend, “The X Factor” UK is presenting the last live performance show before the final! With that, you better be prepared for a ton of ballads and pleas for contestants to leap into the top 3. There’ll probably be highs and lows, but remember that it is the latter song that will be the one people really remember to vote for.
Reggie ‘n Bollie, “Locked Away” by R City Ft. Adam Levine – We have to give the guys some credit for doing something that is about as close to a ballad as you’re going to get from them. The problem is that they’re not great singers, and anytime you slow things down you’re going to expose some of that. We think for them, slower songs are something that they’ll have to tackle more on a future album. Not a great sign that the guys had to perform first.
Lauren Murray, “Take Me Home” by Jess Glynne – Great performance, but we think it’s a little bit easy for a contestant to come back and perform something that they’ve done at an earlier stage in the competition. We would’ve rather seen her take to the stage and do something completely new … though we’re glad she didn’t do “Best of My Love.”
Che Chesterman, “Would I Lie to You?” by Charles & Eddie – Really odd song choice, but a surprisingly great performance! He managed to tap perfectly into the sense of nostalgia with everyone in the audience and hit almost every note perfectly. Out of the remaining people, it’s hard to argue against anyone who claims Che is the best singer.
Louisa Johnson, “The Power of Love” by Frankie Goes to Hollywood – We disagree somewhat with Cheryl here, mostly in that we weren’t drawn in that much by the song. The vocal was amazing, but the show aggressively hyping her up makes it harder to get behind her as an underdog. Still, she’d probably say that she was #2 of the first round behind only Che.
Che, “Love is a Losing Game” – So often on this show, we have a tendency to see performances that suffer from being too much about the big notes. This was beautiful because of its simplicity, and because of the emotional connection. We didn’t near up like Nick Grimshaw, but it was far and away the performance of the night at the time it aired.
Louisa, “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World” – It trails Che yet again here only because we’ve heard this song so many times that we’ve become a little bit numb to it. Once again, though, Louisa has stellar vocals, and that is one of the reasons why she has made it so far in the contest.
Lauren, “Runnin’ (Lose It All)” – This was once again better than the first performance. Very current, very energetic, and also extremely strong vocally. We couldn’t ask for much more from Lauren, who puts herself in a good position to win.
Reggie ‘n Bollie, “I Gotta Feeling / I Like to Move It” – This is where these guys shine! What a way to close the show. The energy was there, the performance was there, and it was so fantastic. We’re not sure that they are going to make the final, but they bring something so different to the series than we’ve ever had before.
You can see where we ranked these contestants going into the show over here. Also, sign up here to get some other updates on all we cover, sent right to you via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: ITV.)