‘The X Factor’ UK live review: Emily Middlemas, Saara Aalto, Matt Terry take on Movie Week
Tonight, “The X Factor” is airing a show that doesn’t exactly have us that excited on paper, largely because of the fact that it’s Movie Week. It’s a theme that we’ve never quite cared for, even if at the same time we do think that there are some people on here with the potential to come out and completely own the stage with the songs that they’ve chosen.
This is a live review, and with that, we’re going to be adding our take on these performances as time goes by. Be sure to refresh the page early and often! At the end of the night, we’ll include in here our personal rankings for the performances and also a poll for you to share your favorite on the night. It’s time … to face … well, you know.
6. Honey G, rap medley – Honey G is decent at what she does, but as we’ve said in the past, her degree of difficulty just isn’t on the same level as everyone else still in the competition! It’s a little bit harder to take her seriously as a performer as a result of this. Also, there’s an odd disconnect here with her, given that she claimed before the performance that she wanted to do less ad-libbing to show she is a credible rapper. Ad-libbing is what so many excellent rappers do!
5. Ryan Lawrie, “Jailhouse Rock” – If we’re looking at this as a performance, it was very good — it may actually be the most complete of Ryan’s performances on the show to date. The only issue that we can think of is that we’re not sure where this performance gets him in the long-term, given that it didn’t tell us anything about the artist he wants to be. The arrangement was almost identical to the original from Elvis Presley.
4. Emily Middlemas, “It Must Have Been Love” – We understand the “Emily must go uptempo” sentiment, given that we’ve been an advocate for this, as well! Yet, at the same time if you’ve got a chance to have her perform a song that you know is perfect for her, why balk at that? It’s almost like she was destined to perform this song on the show. Still, she did need to project a bit more at times in the first half of the song.
3. Saara Aalto, “My Heart Will Go On” – Outstanding. This was a perfect time for her to change things up and do a ballad after doing so many upbeat songs in a row, and she brought a lot to it. The only criticism we’d offer is that we probably would’ve went a tad more aggressive after the key change just to bring a little more fire to it, but we’re being really nitpicky with that.
2. Matt Terry, “Writing on the Wall” – Matt was the fourth person to perform on the night, and at this point we were starting to feel like Movie Week may be one of the biggest surprises of the season! Granted, we hadn’t gotten to Honey G just yet at the time writing this. Matt’s voice was soulful and super-charismatic, and he milked every bit of emotion possible out of this song.
1. 5 After Midnight, “Try a Little Tenderness” – We won’t pretend that the vocals were perfect here, but our feeling is that if you bring this much performance and creativity to a number on this show, it doesn’t matter. This was by far the group’s best performance since starting off this season, and it could very well be enough to cement them as favorites to win.
Want to see where we ranked everyone before tonight’s episode? Then be sure to head over to the link here! We’ll be back tomorrow with the results. (Photo: ITV.)