‘The X Factor’ UK review: Mike Hough, Will Rush, Garry Greig perform in last audition show
Tonight, the final audition show for “The X Factor” UK is airing on ITV, and the remaining contenders are going to have a chance to (at least try) and prove themselves as worthy of making it through to the next round.
As per usual, we’re going to be taking on this episode LIVE. Be sure to refresh the page for some other updates as the show progresses.
Soheila Clifford – She is young, ambitious, and does seem willing to push herself to become a star. She’s got the stage-presence and the ability to really own a production. The problem here mostly comes down to the fact that she is not a tremendous singer. She’s decent, but this is the sort of act on this show who would be reliant on huge productions and a ton of dancers on the live shows if she was able to make it that far.
4 of Diamonds – Nicole Scherzinger declared them to be the best girl group we’ve seen so far in the auditions, and while we’re not going to say that is high praise (most of them have been fairly awful to date), we still give them some credit. They have a good name, and we do get a sense that they at least understand what they are supposed to be.
Nate Simpson – His “A Change Is Gonna Come” was one of the better versions of it that we’ve heard during the audition phase of the competition. The guy has a very powerful voice, and one of the only things in his way right now is experience. He just has to get a little more accustomed to being on stage.
Christopher Peyton – Further proof that there can be really good singers over 40 who turn out to be really good! He was smooth, soulful, and we just dug his overall vibe. He was one of the cooler people in terms of attitude we’ve seen.
Will Rush – You can probably go ahead and write in Will as one of the people who is a guaranteed lock to go far if he makes it to the live shows. He may already have a small audience out there due to him being an actor, and in general being a good-looking male, young guitarist does mean that you get plenty of attention.
Samantha Atkinson – Returning contestant alert! Apparently she didn’t make it far enough the first time for the series to really get a mention on the show for being on before. Her take on “When We Were Young” was very good, but it’s still to be seen if she can do something splashy enough to be a pop star after the series.
Kirsty Murphy – She seemingly came out of nowhere to perform “If I Ain’t Got You,” and we think the judges probably gave her a little too much credit for what was ultimately a pretty-uneven performance. While she did hit a few notes fairly successfully, there were also a few others in here that were extremely off-key.
Garry Greig – Consider this to be one of the few auditions in a cynical era where we were genuinely shocked by what we saw. This is a guy who first entered the audition with a lower voice, to the point where we could barely understand anything that he was saying. Then, he came out and delivered a soulful “Signed, Sealed, Delivered” that was something special.
Mike Hough – The final singer of the night, and before we get to his voice, hats off to the producers for actually discussing his prior work in the music industry. The world didn’t burn down! There are so few undiscovered talents these days that this is a better show when they are just honest about people and their predisposed singing history.
Vocally, Mike was great, but that is hardly a shock given that they put him at the end of the show. More often than not, the person with this spot turns out to be a person who is incredible at what they do.
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