The X Factor UK review: Dalton Harris, Scarlett Lee fight for finale spot

Tonight marks the final The X Factor performance show before the final, and with that, the stakes were so much higher than ever. The remaining four acts had to fight for their spot in the top three with performances at the start of the show, and in this article, we’re breaking all of those down!

Related The X Factor video! – Be sure to get some more thoughts on the series at the bottom of this article! For more news, be sure to subscribe to CarterMatt on YouTube and also check out our full playlist.

Dalton Harris, “Clown” – Another strong, powerful performance from Dalton. We do think that “Clown” is a slightly overdone song on these singing shows — Dalton’s biggest issue tonight was mostly trying to follow up on last night’s epic rendition of “Feeling Good,” and we probably would have gone with something a little bit more high-energy to open the show. That aside, there’s no questioning that he was pretty fantastic vocally throughout and is still the best singer by a mile at present. Grade: A-.

Acacia & Aaliyah, mashup – Our biggest problem is that we have already heard the two do these songs during the live shows. Our feeling is that if you’ve already done a song once in the live shows, you shouldn’t be allowed to repeat it until the finale. While everything they did here was fairly in line with what they’re good at doing as artists, it just wasn’t anything new or particularly exciting. We don’t think either of these songs merited this early of a reprisal. Grade: C.

Anthony Russell, “Don’t Look Back in Anger” – We actually really like the song choice for Anthony here, since Oasis actually sounds like something that he would be singing outside of the show. Yet, we would probably have sat Anthony down and done something a little bit more intimate rather than having him bounce around the stage in the way that he did. This was close to being his best performance, though we’re not 100% sure that he made it there at the end. Grade: B.

Scarlett Lee, “I Didn’t Know My Own Strength” – It’s a pretty predictable song choice for her, but we can’t argue that she completely NAILED the vocal for this year. She was in total control of basically every note from start to finish here and sold us on a song that isn’t necessarily the best one in 2018. Do we have a competition now between her and Dalton? We’re not sure about that, but she at least stated a case for her to be in serious consideration. Grade: A-.

Related News – Be sure to get some other news when it comes to The X Factor, including more results discussions!

What did you think about the performances on tonight’s The X Factor UK episode? Be sure to share right now in the comments. (Photo: ITV.)