‘The X Factor’ UK review: James Arthur, Union J shine on Motown / Abba week

It’s hard to say who made the decision to pair Motown music up with Abba during Saturday night’s episode of “The X Factor” UK; it was a little bit strange, but the performances by and large made up for it. James Arthur came back with a vengeance after being in the bottom two, Union J had their best overall night of the season, and even Rylan Clark was not terrible on one of his two performances.

So are we being set up for another shocker on Sunday night? We hope not, since it is still very clear that the boy band, James, and Jahmene Douglas really do deserve to be the three remaining acts by the time the final round rolls around next month.

Abba Round

Rylan Clark – “Mamma Mia!” was probably as close to a perfect song for Rylan to do, and we have to say that it may have been the best performance from him all season long. This song is limited enough vocally that it masks many of his flaws, and his bizarre chessboard-themed performance here was really just a ton of fun. So long as Rylan is smart like this when it comes to his songs, we really do not loathe him so much.

Union J – Remember last year, where Little Mix started to slowly emerge as a favorite over the course of the entire competition? This is happening all over again with Union J. Early on, we did not think that the foursome had really any shot at all of going all the way in the competition … but this has slowly and surely changed with every performance. The boys just seem to have a great time on stage now, and Louis Walsh has really done a great job of getting them to slowly and surely come out of their shell.

Jahmene Douglas – We know that Nicole Scherzinger really loved this performance by Jahmene, but really we are much more even keeled about it. Why? There just wasn’t anything about it that stood out in any way compared to his others. Our worry is that like with Ella, he could be in danger doing the same sort of thing every week.

James Arthur – The words “James Arthur” and “Abba” do not see to line up in any way, and this seemed to be a pretty bizarre theme to give a guy who was just in the bottom two. Strangely, he somehow still found a way to make the best of it by giving a performance that was both fun and ridden with angst. Who ever thought we would be seeing such sadness from Abba?

Christopher Maloney – Why is the “X Factor” choreography team so obsessed with ruining Christopher’s performances? This had to be the strangest take on “Fernando” ever, and at least a good chunk of it was not even the guy’s fault. It was quite frankly cringe-worthy to watch at times, as the strong (but at times dull) vocals were overshadowed by shirtless men strutting around the stage.

Motown round

Union J – Just the fact that these four guys were brave enough to sing “I’ll Be There” by the Jackson 5 is an enormous compliment, since this is a next-to-impossible song to take on. We actually don’t think this was a safe song for them at all since you run the risk of having so many vocal flaws getting exposed on the public stage; but luckily for them, the boys pulled it off without a hitch.

Rylan Clark – The best part of this performance was when Nicole Scherzinger introduced him as James Arthur while looking into the wrong camera. This lacked the fun, the creativity, or the vocals of “Mamma Mia,” and it was yet another reminder that Ella Henderson went home before this guy. What kind of bizarre, musical world are we living in?

James Arthur – Never in a million years did we imagine that James Arthur would ever tackle “Let’s Get It On,” and never in a million years did we believe that it would actually be amazing if he did. James made a point with this song to prove that he is an amazing singer; and dare we say it, but the mission was beyond accomplished.

Jahmene Douglas – “Tracks of My Tears” was, like James singing Marvin Gaye, a surprising song choice that totally worked. This is what we were talking about earlier when it came to Jahmene needing to mix it up a little bit. This is the sort of song that we could see him having on his record down the line, and we wish that we actually would hear more of this from him. As for Nicole’s claim that Smokey Robinson could have written the song for him … we’re not going to touch that.

Christopher Maloney – The first thing we have to say is to all of the conspiracy theorists: if producers were “fixing” the competition, they wouldn’t be fixing it for Christopher. The guy’s just not that amazing of a performer; he is a good singer who moves around on stage like that uncle that you are embarrassed to invite to your birthday party.

Do you think that Christopher and Rylan are done for Sunday night, and who was your favorite performer on this “X Factor” UK show?