‘The X Factor’ UK: Why did Emily Middlemas get eliminated over Matt Terry?
We’ve now reached the pivotal part of “The X Factor” this season where the final three artists are named, and all of them now have a chance to prepare for what should be a tremendously exciting final moving into this weekend.
But how did we get there? We have to figure out precisely what happened to cause Emily Middlemas, someone who we at one point thought was final two material, to be sent home on Sunday night. She was in a sing-off against Matt Terry, but all of the judges other than her own Simon Cowell opted to keep Matt in the competition. This is one that didn’t even end up going to deadlock, which is somewhat of a surprise at this point in the competition.
A rise in other threats – This is the biggest reason to us as to what’s going on with both Matt and Emily: The level of the competition is far superior now than it was earlier in the competition. 5 After Midnight had a very nice recovery one week after being in the bottom two, and Saara Aalto has really discovered herself as a performer on the show over the past month or so. For those wondering, we don’t think the Finnish vote controversy has anything to do with the elimination this time around — if there are any people out there who have figured this out, we’re talking about just a tiny percentage of the overall base. Things typically look crazier than they really are via the internet.
Similar songs – Here’s the thing with Emily: Other than maybe one or two over the course of the live shows, none of her performances were bad. As a matter of fact, we probably enjoyed a greater percentage of them than anyone else in the top 4. Her biggest issue was just that there was a relative lack of variance in there from start to finish. So many of the songs were reasonably similar in style, and it was therefore harder for her to have “moments” and ones that really stuck with viewers.
In general, this is a more challenging problem for Emily than some other singers because she’s more of a singer-songwriter type. It’s not going to be right for her to come out and do some huge ballad or a goofy uptempo song. Those don’t work with who she is.
The limitations of the competition – This, to us, is the biggest problem Emily faced this season: This is not really the right competition for her to win in the end. She’s probably best with a guitar, performing songs that she wrote and has some sort of connection to. Beyond a couple of times over the years, “The X Factor” is not a show that often embraces original music. It doesn’t altogether suit a singer like her with the sort of production that surrounds the contestants and the limits to how long a song can go.
Provided that she can put out great music and stick to what she does best, we feel more than confident that Emily’s going to be just fine when the dust settles.
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