‘The X Factor’ UK review: Sam Bailey, Luke Friend, and Nicholas McDonald perform
On Saturday, you may have spent a whopping two hours watching three artists perform on “The X Factor.” But, we have to say that we really did not hate this nearly as much as we felt like we were going to moving into it. There was quite a bit that happened over the course of the show, from montages to performances to random moments where we were forced to hear about Sam Bailey’s grandmother again.
The following article is based around performances from the show that the public actually used to vote on. We’ve ranked the per round, with the first one being new performances, and the second being duets with a famous person. We’re going to have the results of this show up shortly in a separate article (Update: Here are the results!)
Round One – New Performances
3. Nicholas McDonald, “Candy” – Enter Willy Wonka and the Twisted Factory, everyone! This was all sorts of weird and disturbing, really from the beginning to the end. We liked the vocal for the most part, though, and we found it somewhat funny that Louis Walsh reminded everyone that Gary Barlow wrote this song, almost like he was trolling him for it.
2. Luke Friend, “We Are Young” – Personally, we would have preferred so much more of Luke had he made this into some sort of acoustic jam, and he wasn’t spending the entire time standing on top of some sort of tram separated from the audience. His vocals were all right, but he never really had an opportunity to get comfortable.
1. Sam Bailey, “The Edge of Glory” – This was a great performance, but we don’t know if we can sit here and say that it was a winning one. She’s had better vocals this season, and we’re starting to think that all of the first three performers tonight are suffering from something called “arena jitters.” You are in a different venue, and the pressure of the finale starts to get to you.
Round Two – Duets
3. Luke and Ellie Goulding, “Anything Could Happen” – Did Luke mess up the start of this song? It feels like as soon as Ellie came out and started the duet, this became much better and was actually such an awesome performance to watch. With all this being said, did someone just pull in the same background that Fifth Harmony used on “The X Factor” USA last year?
2. Nicholas and Shane Filan, “Flying Without Wings” – Nicholas has done a lot of ballads, and most of them are not particularly good. But, we rather liked this performance! He hit all of the notes, and Shane’s voice is something special in his own right. If Louis Walsh is going to use this to promote one of the other people he helped to turn into a star, he at least picked a good one here.
1. Sam and Nicole Scherzinger, “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” – In the midst of all of her antics and self-promotion, it’s easy to forget that she is a really great singer. This was like the clash of the titans, two great singers going back and forth and hitting big note after big note. It’s not something we’d want to listen to on the radio, but it’s incredible to see from the standpoint of a knockout TV moment.
Who is your favorite tonight? Vote in our poll below, and be sure to also click here if you’re interested in seeing where we ranked the contestants before tonight.
Photo: ITV